Travel Tips

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<font size=2 color=navy><b>This place has many names: the town is located at River Istra and therefore is called Istra, but its former name (before the revolution) is Voskresenk. However, the area is better known as New Jerusalem, a monastery founded by famous Patriarch Nikon in the 16the century.<p>Now the neighborhood of the monastery is a popular picnick area. There are several museums inside and around, worth while seeing. If the wheather is good and you think of an off-the-beaten, go there: you won't be disappointed!

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Old farm

<font size=2 color=green><b>On the way to the wind mill (you can use a horse carriage to get there, by the way! - 2 minutes by horse, 5 on foot), you will pass by an example of an old peasant's house. Similar to what I saw in Kizhi (see my <a href='http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/.111571/1373/?DM=1&s=X'>Petrozavodsk page)</a>. Very solid farm!

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Tickets etc

<font size=2 color=brown><b>Train tickets are available at the stations. Make sure you keep you ticket back to Moscow: you will need to get out of the station, otherwise you will be fined as a free-rider.<p>Tickets to the museums, farm and windmill are sold at the main entrance of the monastery. They are not very expensive: we bought all possible tickets for about 30 rubles per person ($1). <p>And one more important thing: take some sandwiches with you. I am not sure if there is a public diner their. Maybe there is one, but I am unaware of it, and it is better to take extra food than starve!

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<font size=2 color=green><b>New Jerusalem is sutiated 40 kilometers north east of Moscow. Once Patriarch Nikon decided to build an exact copy of the Jerusalem Holy Sepulchre Church. And after a few years of work it finally appeared! The size and layout of the church, including the Holy Sepulchre, Golfotha, and other spots was copied exatly as it was in Jerusalem. However, it looks slightly different in style from outside - you see it in the picture.

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Transportation

<font size=2 color=green><b>Take a train from the Moscow Rizhsky railway station. Trains leave practically every 30 minutes. You need a train calling at Novoierusalimskaya. From the station Novoierusalimskaya you will get a taxi or a bus. The monastery is 5 minutes away by car, so do not let the drivers cheat you! In the photo you see the neighborhhood of the monastery. It is morning in late September.

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Architecture

<font size=2 color=purple><b>The main church inside the monastery, which is the biggest tent-roofed church in the world, exploded in 1943 (was deliberately destroyed by the Hitler troops who kept explosived in it) and stayed in ruins till mid-90s. Now it is under restoration, and the tent has been rebuilt. The whole complex of buildings can be seen in the second picture in this travelogue: from outside it looks ok, but inside it is 70% ruins. The volume of works is huge. I think they will need another 10 years for it, taking into account lack of financing.

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Museum

<font size=2 color=orange><b>There is a museum in the Monastery, containing old icons, books, clothes, dishes, church utensils.

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Around the monastery

<font size=2 color=brown><b>The nature is beautiful around the monastery. The river Istra is within 50 meters of its walls. The birchwood is nice. There are many artists practicing in the surroundings.

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Hermitage of Patriarch Nikon

<font size=2 color=navy><b>This small but charming pink building was the house where Patriarch Nikon lived before his deposition. I think that it was restored from scratch: do not remember seeing it twenty years ago. It is outside the monastery walls. Ask for the road to the river, or follow other tourists and you will get there.

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Wind Mill

<font size=2 color=green><b>Another interesting site is a wind mill. It is an example of what locals used many years ago for getting flour. They say it is still in working order!

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Tea break

<font size=2 color=brown><b>The wind mill has a fenced yard around it. You can have tea there from a Russian samovar! They will bring you teapot, a bowl full of cracknels, and sugar. Very tasty and relaxing! 10 Rubles per person only (33 cents)!! And very stylish: to have tea sitting on a carriage! Havind the monastery in the background for pictures...