AFTER THE END OF THE Cold War, the coastal resort towns north of Alicante became popular with Orthodox Christians visiting and often staying from Russia and Central Europe. But until 2007, many of the Christians in the region didn’t have a suitable place to worship.

A Russian entrepreneur decided to change that, funding the construction of Spain’s first purpose-built Russian Orthodox Church. The country had a few other Russian Orthodox Churches, but they had all been opened in converted buildings.

The magnificent structure at Altea near Alicante is built largely from Siberian imported wood and was designed to be a copy of a 17th-century church in Russia. Its materials were imported from the Ural Mountains and assembled by a number of specialized Russian craftsmen.

The Church interior is adorned with the most beautiful iconography you’d expect to find within a Russian Church. Its exterior boasts some great artwork in addition to the golden, onion-shaped domes common within Orthodox architecture.

The church is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. It is about halfway between the towns of Altea and Calpe within a luxury development called Altea Hills where many Russians live, just off the N332 coast road.