New Jerusalem Monastery

The New Jerusalem Monastery (Russian Новоиерусалимский монастырь ) is a Russian Orthodox monastery in the Russian city of Istra ( Moscow Oblast ).

The monastery was founded as patriarch residence outside Moscow 1656 by Patriarch Nikon and named after the New Jerusalem. The architectural ensemble of the monastery includes the Resurrection Cathedral (1656-1685), Patriarch Nikon's home, stone wall with towers (1690-1694), Church of the Holy Trinity (1686-1698) and other buildings, all of which are edited with majolica and stucco. Among the architects who have worked at various times on the construction of the monastery, belonged Buchwostow Yakov, Matvei Kazakov, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli and others. In the 17th century the monastery New Jerusalem got a large library of Nikon compiled manuscripts from other monasteries. At the time of secularization in 1764 the monastery had around 13,000 serfs.

In 1918 the monastery was closed. 1920 here a history and art museum was opened. 1935 was added and the Regional Museum of Moscow Oblast. 1941, the New Jerusalem Monastery was plundered during the battle of Moscow of an SS Division available. During their retreat, the Germans blew up the large bell tower into the air and destroyed the wall towers. The vault of the cathedral collapsed and buried the famous iconostasis and other historic valuables among themselves. In 1959, the museum was reopened for visitors, although the bell tower was never rebuilt and the interior of the cathedral is still empty. In the 1990s, New Jerusalem began to serve as a monastery.