Russian Bishop's House

Novo Arkhangelsk was the Imperial Russian colonial capital of Alaska and a busy trade center known as the "Paris of the Pacific." The Bishop's House is the most visible actual remnant of New Archangel. It was built in 1841-42 by the Russian American Company as part of an agreement with Czar Alexander I granting a monopoly on American trade. The building provided the quarters, private chapel, and office for bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1842 until 1969. Restored by the National Park Service to its 1853 appearance, the Russian Bishop's House highlights the lifestyle, economics, and politics of Czarist Russia in Alaska. It also suggests the great changes that affected Sitka's Tlingit people.

Sitka, Alaska · United States