Travel Guide Istra ())

The town of Istra was founded around the Novoierousalimski Monastery (New Jerusalem). During the Second World War, it was virtually destroyed. It was also in Istra that Anton Chekhov was a young doctor in 1883-1884 and that he had the idea of his play Les Trois Sisters. The monastery is located 2 km from the city centre.The museum is open every day from 9 am to 20 pm and winter from 10 am to 16 pm. It was founded in 1656 by the Nikon Patriarch (1605-1680) who decided to reform the Orthodox Church, thus triggering the schism with the Old Believers. The place was so steep that he decided to create Russian Jerusalem to emphasize the Importance of the Orthodox Church as 3rd Rome.The hill on which the monastery was built was called Zion, the Istra River renamed Jordan and the grove was named Guéthsimanie. The cathedral is a copy of the Holy Sepulchre which includes the plan, including the location of its 29 chapels, including that of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, where Nikon was buried.Thirty-three steps lead to the crypt. The building consists of three parts: Souterraine-Constantin-et-Hélène underground church, the cathedral itself, with a cross surmounted by a single golden dome and the grand rotunda, a circular church like that of Jerusalem. The decoration, for its part, is very rich with its 50 000 tiled tiles and very worked interiors. In 1723, the architect Blank was rebuilt in 1756 and was rebuilt in by architect Blank. It was then that Rastrelli gave the interiors their rich decorations.The whole monastery also includes the Nativity Dining Church, which was built in 1686-1698. It is complemented by the church of the Three Saints-Saints, the palace of the archimandrite, the apartments of the tsarina Tatiana Mikhaïlovna, a hospital, monacales cells and service buildings. In 1690-1697, the wooden walls were replaced by a stone wall 10 m high and a kilometre of circumference. The eight towers bear biblical names.