An Indian summer in the end of September a year ago gave us a chance to make a Sunday trip to New Jerusalem, a monastery near Istra outside Moscow. It was a gordgeous day though in the end of our tour we were stuck at the parking. But the latter is typical here.
New Jerusalem is also known as the Voskresensky (Resurrection) monastery. The town of Istra was also called Voskresensk before 1930. Apparently the splendid monastery is the greatest local asset.
Unlike other Moscow monasteries, this one had no military use. It was modelled in plan pretty accurately on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in (old) Jerusalem by Nikon, the patriarch whose reforms drove the Old Believers from the Orthodox Church. The original design of the monastery was part of Nikon's deliberate intention to make Russia the third Rome and the centre of global Christian belief, leading to religious reforms, the ensuing schism and the formation of a group known as “old believers”. Tsar Alexei (father of Peter the Great) later used this rift as an excuse to exile the Patriarch, who was getting too powerful.
Patriarch Nikon selected an elevated place by the Istra River near Moscow which he saw as similar to where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located in Palestine. Scholastic monk-priest Arseni Sukhanov was dispatched to the Holy Land to collect drawings and plans of the Holy Sepulcher Church. Along with the draughts he brought back a cypress model presented by Patriarch Paisy of Jerusalem. The construction of the monastery began in 1656.
Inside the gates, the incredible Resurrection Cathedral rises from a cluster of smaller chapels. Like its prototype, it’s really several churches under one roof, including the detached Assumption Church (Uspensky tserkov) in the northern part of the cathedral. Here, pilgrims come to kiss the relics of the holy martyr Tatyana, the monastery’s patron saint. The unusual underground Church of SS Konstantin & Yelena (Konstantino-Yeleninskaya tserkov) has only its belfry peeping up above the ground. Patriarch Nikon was buried in the cathedral, beneath the Church of John the Baptist (Tserkov Ioanna Predtechi).
There is an entrance to the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher on the far southern side of the cathedral. The main cathedral is still not fully restored, but it is possible to see fragments of the rich interior decoration. Some three-tenths of the sacred space of the interior is occupied by junctions with the surrounding churches and side chapels at very different heights from cellar to cupola. The latter was replaced by a tent roof during the buildings construction. Nikon's dislike of this roof was not withstanding.
New Jerusalem was the apogee of the Byzantine movement in seventeenth-century Russian culture. That's why the main church has the core of the cross-in-square late Byzantine plan. The basic design of the Jerusalem Resurrection is striking in its bipolarity. The altar, located by tradition in the eastern part of the church and representative of heaven, is placed in tension with the Holy Sepulcher in the western part, representative of Hell.
Externally these foci of the east-west axis are surmounted by domes.
In a chapel to the south of this axis we find Golgotha, the site of Crusifixion.
An adjacent belfry marked Golgotha externally. But it was destroyed by the German army on their retreat from Moscow in the Second World War. Then the vaults of the cathedral collapsed and buried its famous iconostasis, among other valuables.
Inside, the Holy tomb is covered by a large shrine, surmounted itself by a baldacchin, symbolic of the Crusifixion and burial at Golgotha. A rotunda surrounds the Holy Sepulchre. And its most striking feature is the huge conical roof with tiers of 50 windows to let in light.
The impact made by the complex structure both exterior and interior, is one of monumental grandeur. The effect is enchanced by extensive use of brilliant multicoloured ceramic tiles, executed by craftsmen from eastern Belorussia (Pyotr Zaborsky, Stepan Polubes and others).
The great dome of the tower of the cathedral at the New Jerusalem is the only definite trace of famous architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in Moscow. He worked there In the XVIII century when many old structures were often preserved with new Baroque exteriors built on, and sometimes new Baroque interiors, as in the case of the New Jerusalem cathedral.
In 1658 the Tsar and the Patriarch fell out and the outraged Patriarch quit the patriarchy and retreated to New Jerusalem, where he lived for eight years. The monastery was under intensive construction. The patriarch built this decorated “skit” or hermitage in 1658 and lived there in the little hut on the top floor) during a self-imposed period of exile when he was angry about Tsar Alexei.
After the Church Council of 1666-1667 condemned and deposed the Patriarch, Nikon was exiled into Ferapontov Monastery, where he spent fifteen years. But on God's will the Patriarch on his death was to be buried in the New Jerusalem Monastery he had founded.
New Jerusalem is also known as the Voskresensky (Resurrection) monastery. The town of Istra was also called Voskresensk before 1930. Apparently the splendid monastery is the greatest local asset.
Patriarch Nikon selected an elevated place by the Istra River near Moscow which he saw as similar to where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located in Palestine. Scholastic monk-priest Arseni Sukhanov was dispatched to the Holy Land to collect drawings and plans of the Holy Sepulcher Church. Along with the draughts he brought back a cypress model presented by Patriarch Paisy of Jerusalem. The construction of the monastery began in 1656.
Inside the gates, the incredible Resurrection Cathedral rises from a cluster of smaller chapels. Like its prototype, it’s really several churches under one roof, including the detached Assumption Church (Uspensky tserkov) in the northern part of the cathedral. Here, pilgrims come to kiss the relics of the holy martyr Tatyana, the monastery’s patron saint. The unusual underground Church of SS Konstantin & Yelena (Konstantino-Yeleninskaya tserkov) has only its belfry peeping up above the ground. Patriarch Nikon was buried in the cathedral, beneath the Church of John the Baptist (Tserkov Ioanna Predtechi).
There is an entrance to the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher on the far southern side of the cathedral. The main cathedral is still not fully restored, but it is possible to see fragments of the rich interior decoration. Some three-tenths of the sacred space of the interior is occupied by junctions with the surrounding churches and side chapels at very different heights from cellar to cupola. The latter was replaced by a tent roof during the buildings construction. Nikon's dislike of this roof was not withstanding.
New Jerusalem was the apogee of the Byzantine movement in seventeenth-century Russian culture. That's why the main church has the core of the cross-in-square late Byzantine plan. The basic design of the Jerusalem Resurrection is striking in its bipolarity. The altar, located by tradition in the eastern part of the church and representative of heaven, is placed in tension with the Holy Sepulcher in the western part, representative of Hell.
Externally these foci of the east-west axis are surmounted by domes.
In a chapel to the south of this axis we find Golgotha, the site of Crusifixion.
An adjacent belfry marked Golgotha externally. But it was destroyed by the German army on their retreat from Moscow in the Second World War. Then the vaults of the cathedral collapsed and buried its famous iconostasis, among other valuables.
Inside, the Holy tomb is covered by a large shrine, surmounted itself by a baldacchin, symbolic of the Crusifixion and burial at Golgotha. A rotunda surrounds the Holy Sepulchre. And its most striking feature is the huge conical roof with tiers of 50 windows to let in light.
The impact made by the complex structure both exterior and interior, is one of monumental grandeur. The effect is enchanced by extensive use of brilliant multicoloured ceramic tiles, executed by craftsmen from eastern Belorussia (Pyotr Zaborsky, Stepan Polubes and others).
The great dome of the tower of the cathedral at the New Jerusalem is the only definite trace of famous architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in Moscow. He worked there In the XVIII century when many old structures were often preserved with new Baroque exteriors built on, and sometimes new Baroque interiors, as in the case of the New Jerusalem cathedral.
After the Church Council of 1666-1667 condemned and deposed the Patriarch, Nikon was exiled into Ferapontov Monastery, where he spent fifteen years. But on God's will the Patriarch on his death was to be buried in the New Jerusalem Monastery he had founded.
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