Epiphany in New Jerusalem

[Olga]

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

On the Orthodox feast of Epiphany on Saturday (January 19), all water becomes holy - in taps, springs and bath tubs - in honour of Christ's baptism in the river Jordan. So this week's walk visits the holiest water of all in Moscow's very own river Jordan (aka the Istra) where it flows past Patriarch Nikkon's New Jerusalem Monastery, sixty kilometers west of the city and easily accessible by train from Rizhsky Vokzal. The trains leave about every thirty minutes, take an hour to get there and a return costs just over 100 Rubles.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

[Olga]

After the wooden villages and snowy woods you espy through the train window the tower blocks of Istra, an initially disappointing site as you set off diagonally right through the bus station in Voskresenskaya Ploschad 1. and then straight ahead along Ulitsa Lenina, a road marred by heavy traffic and modern development. You can get a bus or a taxi (80 rubles) straight to the Monastery, but you will miss some interesting sights along the way.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

The view to the left affords occasional glimpses of the silver cone on top of the cathedral and the gold dome of the adjoining church. Eventually the road reaches Ploschad Revolutsii, beyond which on the left is the House of Culture and a bust of Chekhov, who lived nearby and worked in a local hospital. Imme­diately after this, you can cut through the municipal park, walking at first parallel to the road and then bearing left through the trees (whose leaflessness allows further views of the monastery), keeping to the right of the wooded ravine and heading towards the war memorial shaped like a "Shturmovik" (fighter plane) taking off, with a map showing Soviet troop movements on the side.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

[Olga]

When you reach the memorial 2., turn right past overgrown playground equipment and through a gap in the wall to reach the back of an L-shaped Soviet-era block. This unpromising building houses one of the area's rare cafés, the "Surojsky Stan," where from noon on you can get a coffee or a bowl of lemony home-made Stolyanka in incongruous sparkly blue nightclub-style décor, before venturing into the refreshment-less wilds beyond. The main gateway to New Jerusalem is only a few hundred metres further downhill, across the pedestrian crossing. Entrance to the grounds and churches is free, but there is a booking office on the left where you can buy inexpensive tickets for walking round the walls and visiting the refectory museums, as well as for separate exhibitions of "Christmas presents" (until March 1) and local paintings. The first two are highly recommended.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

[Olga]

Going into the Monastery, the most striking building is the huge Cathedral ahead decorated with multicolored tiles, including the beautiful "peacock's eye" frieze. A small door across a bridge on the near left hand side leads down into the baroque underground church of Saints Constantine and Elena, with further stairs in the far right corner to a subterranean chapel where holy water is available in pewter tankards. The next door in the cathedral wall (surrounded by intricate carvings and usually kept locked), leads to the tomb of Patriarch Nikkon himself in an ornate chapel with a colorful glazed iconostasis. Opposite this doorway, is a path leading left, past the embossed seventeenth century "three saints" bell to the stairway up onto the walls: the walkway along the southern part of the fortified walls gives you a great overview of the whole complex, as well as an excellent vantage point for admiring the decorative elements on the cathedral walls, still partly encased in restorative scaffolding. It is also possible to go inside the cathedral through a doorway on the far side 3.: you can look up into the awe-inspiring dome where patches of colored paint hint at the original splendor.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

[Olga]

On the far side of the grounds from the main entrance is a wonderful museum, including the usual assortment of reliquaries and icons, as well as a collection of weapons, porcelain and artworks that once formed the core of the regional museum based here in Soviet times. The highlight, however, is a two-room gallery of Russian paintings ranging from 18th century portraits through to 1930's masterpieces, all tucked away upstairs and through the hall on the right.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

Behind the Refectory building, where the museum is located, is the gateway into the park. Going down the steps and right across a bridge, past a tree knotted with votive strips of cloth, you reach the "Skeet," or hermitage of Patriarch Nikkon and, beyond it a cross and flight of steps marking the favored spot for baptismal and ritual immersion in the dark ice-fringed waters of the river, here renamed "Jordan" by the Patriarch.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

[Olga]

Walking a little way along the river, a path strikes off to the left 4. across open ground towards the woods. Following this track brings you to a huge 19th century windmill, part of a museum of wooden architecture. You can't go into the buildings at this time of year, but they are picturesque additions to the snowy landscape. Turning sharp left at the mill, another track leads back along the other side of the trees past an Izba and a wooden chapel towards the mo­nastery walls again and then bends right to reach the "Vistavochny Komplex" (exhibition complex), of modern art galleries 5. Don't get too excited about the publicised "Tea room" - it seems to be shut quite often.

Epiphany in New Jerusalem

Heading from the Exhibition Hall towards the Volokamskoe Shosse ahead, a path leads off to the right, parallel with the road towards a blue suspension bridge across the Istra. On the other side of the bridge, the path continues uphill and tuns into a roadside footway through an avenue of lime trees leading straight to the New Jerusalem Station 6., accessible through a pedestrian tunnel.

Family friendly features

This trip is a surprise hit with kids: the train journey, wooden buildings, cave-like chapel and grandiose cathedral make a pleasantly varied day out. Highlights include walking round the walls (although for parents of very small kids this might be quite terrifying due to the toddler-sized gaps in the balustrade) and visiting the old-fashioned doughnut-making machine in the tea stall at the New Jerusalem station.

By Phoebe Taiplin

Moscow News