THE NEW JERUSALEM MONASTERY

«Воскресенский Ново-Иерусалимский монастырь» на Яндекс.Фотках

The New Jerusalem Monastery, designed as an exact replica of the Holy Sepulcher Church in Jerusalem proper, was founded on the Istra River not far from Moscow 350 years ago.

The idea of building the Monastery belonged to Patriarch Nikon, who wanted a Russian Jerusalem near Moscow, which would become a center of Orthodoxy, would boost the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian State and would assert the Moscow-Third Rome concept.

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.


«Фрагмент внутреннего убранства Ново Иерусалимского монастыря» на Яндекс.Фотках

Though ordering an exact replica of the church, Patriarch Nikon put no restrictions on the artistic imagination of the architects. Indeed, the resulting church repeated the design and size of the original but was different inside incorporating the Russian perception of heavenly kingdom through a diversity of architectural form, rich ceramic ornaments and stone carving.

Originally the monastery was known as Resurrection Monastery on the Istra. It became the New Jerusalem Monastery after Tsar Alexei called it so in one of his letters to Patriarch Nikon. On Patriarch's orders all surrounding sites were re-named after the Palestinian names linked to the Saviour: the Istra River became the River Jordan and the hill the monastery stood on was now known as Zion.


«Воскресенский Ново-Иерусалимский монастырь» на Яндекс.Фотках

The building of the monastery came a crucial event ahead of a church reform initiated by Patriarch Nikon. The Patriarch stood at the helm of drastic changes and replaced Tsar Alexei as a ruler during his military campaigns.

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. 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. The white-stone tomb of Patriarch Nikon in the New Jerusalem Monastery has survived to this day.

Above the grave hang the fetters which the Patriarch had worn for twenty-five years. Designed as a sublime example of the grandiose church and government program, the Monastery was now one of many similar ones near Moscow.

Even though it underwent reconstruction in the 18th and 19th centuries, the New Jerusalem stayed largely unchanged. In Soviet days it was shut down to serve an arts and local history museum. During the Second World War it was plundered and partially blown up by the Nazis and it took long to rebuild it. Monks returned to it in 1995 after a 75-year absence. And today, besides being a monastery the New Jerusalem is also a museum.

Source:The Voice of Russia