The Orthodox church of Mary Magdalene is one of the most emblematic buildings in Praga. Built in the second half of the 19th century, it is inspired by Byzantine architecture. Previously, St. Andrew\'s Church stood in this place, but in the late 18th century, as a symbol of Russian domination, the Catholic church was destroyed and the Orthodox church went up. Its purpose was to serve the large Russian colony which lived in the vicinity of today\'s Jagiellońska Street, and for the numerous travellers arriving from Russia. It is one of the two (the second is the Orthodox church in the Orthodox cemetery in Wola) surviving Orthodox churches in Warsaw after the demolition of Orthodox churches in Poland, once the country reclaimed its independence in the 1920s.
During World War II the Orthodox church survived, thanks to which the interior retains its original design, including the gilded altars, the main iconostasis (the element that separates the sacred space of the altar from the nave of the faithful). It is richly decorated over three-storeys, with the so-called \'tsar door\' placed in its center, as tradition demands; icons appearing on the door were probably painted by Bazyl Wasiliew. In the basement, mosaic fragments preserved from the defunct Warsaw council of Aleksander Newski are kept, which between 1912-1924 stood in the middle of today\'s Piłsudski Square. This is currently the Cathedral of the Orthodox Church, and the building next to it the seat of the Metropolitan of Warsaw and Poland, where the head of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church is located.