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      All day: New Jerusalem in Istra

      ⏱ 10 h🚶 5 km + 🚆🚕🍽 2📍 7 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      A monastery modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a large museum on the far bank of the Istra, a Georgian lunch and a Balkan dinner by the station.

      🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art🚆 Out of town
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)
      Getting there
      🏛 Rizhskaya MCD-2 Platform
      Рижская пл., у метро «Рижская»
      Start at Rizhskaya metro: MCD-2 trains to Istra leave from here (October 2026 timetable)
      🚆 by suburban train to Gate Church of the Entry into Jerusalem
      MCD-2 from Rizhskaya platform at 08:35 (arrives at Novoierusalimskaya at 09:55), REKS at 08:47 (arrives 10:03) or 09:11; from there about 25 min on foot or by taxi
      1. 1
        🏛 Gate Church of the Entry into Jerusalem
        Истра, Ново-Иерусалимский монастырь
        A late-17th-century church above the monastery's main gate, with ornate brick and tile decoration.
        Enter the monastery through the gate church
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Gate Church of the Entry into Jerusalem
        © Mikhail Deynekin · CC BY-SA 3.0
        Gate Church of the Entry into Jerusalem
        © Sergey A. Demidov · CC BY 4.0
        • The Holy Gates with the gate church were built in 1694–1697.
        • The design is attributed to Yakov Bukhvostov, who also built the monastery's stone wall.
        • In 2011 a reconstructed 4-meter cross, modeled on the original, was placed above the gate church.
        • The new dome was assembled from copper sheets right on site and gilded.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 New Jerusalem Monastery and Resurrection Cathedral
        Истра, ул. Советская, 2
        Patriarch Nikon's 17th-century monastery behind white walls with towers, on a hill above the Istra River.
        The Resurrection Cathedral reproduces the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: the Edicule, Golgotha and the underground Church of Constantine and Helena
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        New Jerusalem Monastery and Resurrection Cathedral
        © Sergey A. Demidov · CC BY 4.0
        New Jerusalem Monastery and Resurrection Cathedral
        © Елена Нечипоренко · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The monastery was founded in 1656 by Patriarch Nikon to recreate the holy places of Palestine near Moscow.
        • The name "New Jerusalem" was first spoken by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich at the consecration of the wooden church in 1657.
        • The Istra was renamed the Jordan, and the surrounding hills became Zion, Olivet and Tabor.
        • The Resurrection Cathedral, founded in 1658, replicates the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the builders used its plan.
        • The 17th-century tiles of the monastery workshop, worked on by Pyotr Zaborsky and Stepan Polubes, have no equal in Russian architecture.
        • On 10 December 1941 German sappers blew up the cathedral and bell tower; the bell tower was rebuilt by 2014.
        • The stone walls of 1690–1697, designed by Yakov Bukhvostov, are about a kilometer long and 9 meters high.
        • Nikon is buried in the side chapel of St John the Baptist, where in the Jerusalem church Melchizedek is said to be buried.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 Refectory Chambers and Church of the Nativity of Christ
        Истра, Ново-Иерусалимский монастырь
        Late-17th-century refectory chambers with the adjoining Church of the Nativity of Christ (1686–1692) inside the monastery walls.
        The 17th-century refectory with tiles — look in if it's open
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Refectory Chambers and Church of the Nativity of Christ
        © Butsenin · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Refectory Chambers and Church of the Nativity of Christ
        © Sergey A. Demidov / Sergey A. Demidov · CC BY 4.0
        • The heated church with a refectory at the back wall of the Resurrection Cathedral was ordered by Tsarevna Sophia, who came to its consecration in 1685.
        • The Church of the Nativity of Christ at the Refectory Chambers was built from 1686 to 1692 in the Moscow Baroque style.
        • The church's four lower side chapels were consecrated almost a century later, in 1782–1789.
        • By the wall of the Massacre of the Innocents side chapel, monks made a Bethlehem cave display, a vertep.
        • In 1874 Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) opened the Patriarch Nikon museum in the refectory chambers, one of Russia's first church museums.
        • In December 1941, during the retreat, German sappers blew up the monastery, and the Refectory Chambers burned.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🍽 Khinkalye Restaurant
        Истра, ул. 15 лет Комсомола, 2, 2-й этаж
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Lunch: khinkali and suluguni with tomatoes; opens at 12:00
        🍴 A Georgian restaurant in the center of Istra. What to order: khinkali (Georgian dumplings), suluguni with tomatoes, chicken liver on a ketsi (clay pan).
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🖼 New Jerusalem Museum
        Истра, Ново-Иерусалимская наб., 1
        🎟 ticket
        A large modern museum building at the foot of the monastery with collections of icons, paintings, porcelain and weapons.
        Icons, Russian art of the 16th-20th centuries and temporary exhibitions. One combined ticket; closed on Mondays and the last Friday of the month
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        New Jerusalem Museum
        © Книжная пыль · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The museum dates back to 1920, when a History and Art Museum was created in the closed monastery to save its treasures.
        • The collection has more than 180,000 items, making it the largest museum in the Moscow region.
        • In 2014 the museum moved from the monastery to a new three-story building on the other bank of the Istra.
        • The building was designed by the architect Valery Lukomsky in the spirit of "green architecture", so as not to compete with the monastery's silhouette.
        • In the 1920s the collection was enriched with items from nationalized estates, including Ilyinskoye, Petrovskoye, Yaropolets and others.
        • In 1941 the most valuable items were taken out to Moscow, and from there to Alma-Ata.
        • The permanent exhibition on the monastery and Patriarch Nikon opened in December 2017 on 1,500 m².
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🌳 Gethsemane Garden and Wooden Architecture Museum
        Истра, у Ново-Иерусалимского монастыря
        A small open-air museum: wooden izbas, a windmill and chapels brought from villages.
        Kokorin's izba (log house) and a chapel from Sokolniki in the open air, with a view of the monastery across the river
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Gethsemane Garden and Wooden Architecture Museum
        © Sergey Sebelev · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Gethsemane Garden and Wooden Architecture Museum
        © Sergey Sebelev · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Gethsemane Garden and Wooden Architecture Museum
        © SergeyZima (Sergey Malorodov) · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The Wooden Architecture Museum was created in the park by the monastery in the 1970s.
        • The chapel was brought from the village of Sokolniki in the Chekhov district, and the peasant homestead of the 1830s–1840s from the village of Vykhino, now a district of Moscow.
        • The windmill is from the village of Kochemlevo in the Tver region; in August 2020 its sails collapsed.
        • The museum's wooden church burned down in 2000.
        • One of the towers of the monastery wall is also called Gethsemane: the towers got Palestinian names, probably in the 18th century.
      12. 🚕 taxi, about 7 min
      13. 7
        🍽 Vinski Podrum Restaurant
        Истра, Воскресенская пл., 2А
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Dinner: pljeskavica and shopska salad, with a glass from the wine list
        🍴 A Balkan restaurant in a basement by Istra station, with a wine list and live music. What to order: pljeskavica, cevapcici, Karadjordje's schnitzel, shopska salad.

      ↩️ Getting back: Taxi, about 10 min to Istra station, then MCD-2 to Rizhskaya at 19:14, 19:38, 20:02, 20:38 and 21:26 (about 1 h 20 min) (October 2026 timetable)

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