Armenian Chapel of the rue Jean Goujon, Paris , engraving
after Albert Gilbert, architect, 1906, 31 x 17 cm. al. Sarkis Boghossian, Paris. In 1902, a correspondent of the Armenian newspaper of
Constantinople “Manzou-Meiosis Effniar” wrote: “When will we have our Holy
Church in Paris?” This issue did not remain unanswered. A wealthy Armenian
(oil) businessman from Baku, named Alexander Mantachiants, discovered that the
small Armenian community in Paris did not have its own church. Finding these
circumstances unacceptable Mantachiants along with the poet Siamanto, singer
Arménag Shah-Mouradian and musicologist Komitas, decided they could not remain
deaf to this call. Religious and deeply
patriotic, Mantachiants was touched by the request of the priest of Paris, he
vowed to fund the construction of an Armenian Apostolic Church in Paris.
