Istra: The Image of the Holy Places of Jerusalem on the Russian Land

Istra, a town located 40 kilometers from Moscow, has changed its name several times. It owes its last name to Istra River which flows through the town. In the XVII century, Patriarch Nikon chose a hill over this river to recreate here a complex of holy places of Palestine. So one of the main shrines of the Orthodox Church in Russia, the New Jerusalem Monastery appeared. The town is worth a visit to see a unique monastery, walk through the picturesque surroundings and, perhaps, have a lunch in the monastery refectory.

Modern Istra «grew up» from the village of Safatovo, the first mention of which dates back to 1636. Later, several neighboring villages were integrated and the town was called Voskresensk in 1781, as the main church there was built in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1930, the town was renamed Istra.

The New Jerusalem Monastery, founded in 1656, really glorified the town. The emerging of the monastery was dictated by the desire of Patriarch Nikon to transfer the image of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher from Jerusalem to the Russian land. This idea was supported by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the father of the future Emperor Peter the Great. In 1657 he attended the consecration of the first Church of the Resurrection in the territory of the monastery and called the monastery the New Jerusalem. In the XIX century the monastery was a real center of Russian pilgrimage. In 1919 it was closed. Monks returned here only in 1994.

Today people go to Istra to spend the whole day in nature’s lap. In addition to the New Jerusalem Monastery, there is a Museum of Wooden Architecture and a magnificent «New Jerusalem» museum and exhibition complex in the town. Nearby there is the Babkino estate where creative people gathered at the end of the XIX century. In particular, the writer Anton Chekhov and the painter Isaac Levitan have visited it repeatedly.

It is known that in 1867 the English writer Lewis Carroll came to see the monastery and even stayed here overnight. History has not preserved memories of where he stayed and what he ate. But modern tourists can find restaurants in the town for any taste and budget. The most authentic place here is, of course, a pilgrim refectory in the New Jerusalem Monastery, where even in the Lenten period you can order fish or meat dishes, which include native dishes of Russian cuisine — borsch or cabbage soup, fish and meat cutlets.

By the way, small Istra has international relations and is twinned with six towns: the German Bad Orb, the Czech Rakovnik, the Belarusian Pinsk, the Bulgarian Petrich, the Italian Loreto and the Polish Lobez. Istra also has a Russian twin town Dyurtyuli in Bashkortostan. But the most curious thing is that according to one of the unconfirmed legends, the grandmother of the great Leonardo da Vinci was native of the distant Russian Voskresensk! There is even a monument to Leonardo da Vinci by the sculptor Sergei Kazantsev in Istra on Lenin Street, near the children’s art school, erected to maintain this beautiful legend.

Get Directions

The fastest way to get to Istra is by train from Moscow Rizhskaya or Kurskaya railway station. There are two stations within the town, and to get to the monastery, you better come to the Novoierusalimskaya station. The trains reach Istra within an hour, and the high-speed train «Sputnik» goes about 40 minutes. There are also buses and fixed-route taxis going to Istra. They leave from the «Tushinskaya» metro station.