New Jerusalem museum and convention centre

A high-tech museum with an incredible wealth of exhibits

One of the biggest and oldest museums in suburban Moscow, New Jerusalem has changed names several times since its opening in 1920. From the start, the central mission of the museum was to serve as the sole custodian and propagator of the historical and architectural legacy of the New Jerusalem Monastery. But its exhibits came from other sources, too: nationalized manors, closed or destroyed churches, archaeological and ethnographic expeditions.

The museum’s new high-tech building, designed by Valery Lukomsky, opened in 2014. In keeping with the precepts of “green architecture,” this huge three-story structure gently blends into the surrounding space, being almost perfectly concealed amid the monastery walls. The museum’s collection numbers upwards of 183,000 exhibit units.

There is an outdoor wooden architecture museum in the park near the main building. A permanent exhibition of peasant household objects is on display on the grounds of the early 19th-century Kokorin family estate. There is also a wooden chapel, reconstructed from the photos and measurements of the 18th century original. A little way off, on the bank of the River Istra, stands a 19th-century windmill, where the milling operation continued up until the 1950s. Film crews are frequent visitors on the property. Scenes for many feature films and TV series were filmed here.  

Hours: 10 am to 6 pm Tuesday through Thursday, 10 am to 7 pm Friday through Sunday and holidays, closed Mondays  

Ticket price: 50-250 rub. Single ticket for all sites and exhibitions: 450 rub.

Contact info: Novo-Ierusalimskaya Naberezhnaya 1, Istra, +7 (498) 317-2910. http://www.museum-newjerusalem.ru/

The Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

This is one of the largest active monasteries in Russia, as well as a museum

The Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is not just a museum. It is one of the largest active monasteries in Russia. Bear this in mind when you prepare for your trip: shorts and short skirts are not welcome here.

The monastery complex numbers more than 50 buildings. The pride of place at the Lavra belongs to the 15th-century Holy Trinity Cathedral, where the murals were painted by the great icon painters Andrei Rublev and Daniil Chorny. The cathedral replaced an earlier wooden church. The silver reliquary with the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh is inside the cathedral.

In the Assumption Cathedral, richly decorated with murals, rest the relics of St. Innocent of Alaska and St. Maximos the Greek. In the sacristy, where you have to buy a ticket to enter, you can admire masterful Russian embroideries, precious chalices, and the golden frame of Andrei Rublev’s icon The Trinity. Do not miss the Duck Tower with its tall steeple, capped by a stone duck. Reserve at least one whole day for your Lavra excursion as the place is packed with both mundane and divine things to see.

Do not forget to climb the Lavra belfry. Not only is it one of the tallest belfries in Russia. It is home to the nation’s biggest bell, which weighs 72 tons.

Hours: 5 am to 8 pm Monday through Sunday

Contact info: Krasnogorskaya Ploshchad, Sergiev Posad, +7 (496) 540-5334. http://www.stsl.ru/

Sergiev Posad National Museum and Preserve of History and Art

Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna’s night-cap and thousands of other curious items

This “Russian Culture’s Hermitage,” in the words of Academy of Sciences Fellow Likhachev, was established in 1920, drawing on the art treasure-trove that is the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. Later on, the collection was supplemented with exhibits from the local nature and history museum and the Museum of Folk Arts and Crafts in Moscow. The museum’s collection currently numbers over 180,000 exhibits. Some of them are on display in four buildings in the centre of town. Donation books, monastery’s ledgers, gifts from the Tsars, princes and boyars, gold tableware… all this in overwhelming quantities. This museum is not focused exclusively on the history of the Lavra. There are rooms devoted to the history of the Matryoshka stacking doll, the Russian village world, and 18th through 21st-century folk arts and crafts. Personal belongings of Boris Godunov’s family are on display as reminders of the Time of Troubles: Princess Xenia’s leather shoe, Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna’s lace night-cap, and Prince Fyodor’s silk shirt. Prepare to spend the whole day at this museum. We are not just talking a lot of exhibits, but an awful lot of exhibits.

This museum seems ideal for all kinds of quest games. And, indeed, there is no dearth of quests on offer for all ages. You can go on a quest to save the Empress, try to find the treasure in an old manor, restore an “ancient document,” or collect keys from different epochs for the Custodian of Time. There is also a great choice of master classes on the time-table, from belt weaving to rag doll making.  

Hours: 10 am to 5:45 pm Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 4:45 pm Friday

Ticket price: 100 to 600 rubles, depending on how many museum buildings you wish to visit

Contact info: Prospekt Krasnoi Armii 144, Sergiev Posad, +7 (496) 540-5356, http://museum-sp.ru/

Gzhel

Porcelain production dates back to the early 19th century in Gzhel, when the peasant family of Kulichkov (also mentioned as Kulikov in church records) once found white faience clay near the village of Volodino. The Kulikovs’ glazed pottery know-how spread around in the nearby villages with local potters starting small production shops of their own.  

Gzhel porcelain art had its heyday in the second quarter of the 19th century, before the entire production was consolidated in the hands of the Kuznetsov family, the local porcelain tycoons.

Gzhel ceramics were multicoloured before 1917. The now-familiar blue ornaments on white background came around after the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, when the artist Natalia Bessarabova perfected her under-glaze cobalt painting technique.   

These artefacts of many hues of blue never look monochrome. A good painter can come up with over 20 shades when using paint of the same colour. The production process has hardly changed over the decades, but you cannot really learn it unless you try it hands-on – by signing up for a tour and master class at one of the five major Gzhel porcelain factories, four in the town of Gzhel and one in the neighbouring Novo-Kharitonovo.

The prices of factory tours start at 300 rubles per person. The master class prices vary. It will probably cost at least 500 rubles to paint a cup or a plate and then have it baked in a kiln. The prices of finished products on offer range from 50 rubles up.

Ticket price: 350-1700 rub. Master classes: 350-500 rub.

How to get there from Moscow: Take a commuter train from Kazansky Vokzal to Gzhel station. If driving, take Yegoryevskoye Shosse.

Contact info: Obyedineniye Gzhel Administrative Building, Village of Turygino, Town of Novo-Kharitonovo, Ramenskoye District, +7 (906) 055-2357. http://www.gzhel.ru/

Yegoryevsk History and Art Museum

The oldest and, probably, the most interesting museum in Moscow’s suburbia, the Yegoryevsk Museum was nominated for the European Museum Forum’s Museum of the Year Award in 2010, short-listed among the 30 finalists.  

The masterpieces of glass, china, bronze, copper, wood and carved bone are interlaced with cool interactive features, curios, decoys and amusements. This is the place to check out an unrivalled collection of Russian Primitivist art, enjoy the interplay of light and glass generated by the Light Extravaganza display, contact the inhabitants of an old mirror, hear the prophesies of Koreisha the Prophet, leaf through a singing book, undertake an exciting journey to Glassland and, last but not least, have tea from the samovar in the Fireplace Room.

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday

Ticket prices: Museum entry ticket: 40-120 rub. Excursion with a group of ten or more: 70 rub. preschoolers, 130 rub. schoolchildren and students, 270 rub. adults. Audio guides are 150 rub. to rent, but visitors are required to leave a deposit of 1000 rub.

Contact info: Ulitsa Sovetskaya 73/20, Yegoryevsk, Moscow Region 140301, +7 (496) 402-4185, http://egmuseum.ru

Volokolamsk Kremlin

The town of Volokolamsk boasts what is probably the best-preserved Kremlin in Moscow’s suburbs. Standing atop an earthen rampart in the middle of town, the Volokolamsk Kremlin can be observed from a long way off. As you make your way uphill towards the Kremlin from the direction of City Hall, veer to the right as you cannot enter the Kremlin through the Church of the Nativity. There is a stairway behind the church, leading into the Kremlin through a rampart gate. A great view on the town and the Kremlin opens up from the deck at the top of the stairway. 

The Volokolamsk Kremlin complex consists of the 19th-century St. Nicholas Cathedral, which is red-brick with white parts, a five-tier 18th-century bell-tower, 15th-century Cathedral of the Resurrection, and an elegant late 19th-early 20th-century fence with neo-Russian turrets at the corners. All the buildings are wonderfully intact, and very impressive in their monumentality.

Following the 1917 Revolution, the churches of the Kremlin housed a warehouse, a technical school, and a Nazi POW camp. The St. Nicholas Church has been the home of the Volokolamsk Museum of History and Architecture since the 1960s. There is a pond on the other side of the Kremlin. Beyond the pond is the local jailhouse – also a historical building.

Ticket price: 200 rub.

Hours: 9 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on weekends

Contact info: Gorval 1, Volokolamsk, Volokolamsk District http://волоколамскийкремль.рф. +7 (496) 362-3352, +7 (977) 161-9590.

Dmitrov Kremlin Museum and Preserve

The Dmitrov Museum and Preserve encompasses 12 buildings. Half of them are in the historical main square, Istoricheskaya Ploshchad, and on the grounds of the Dmitrov Kremlin. The local Kremlin is unique in its own way. In the olden times, it was customary to build fortifications on relatively high mounds, which provided a better observation range on the surroundings and a defensive advantage. But the Dmitrov Kremlin seems to have been an exception to that rule, built in a swampy lowland, surrounded by manmade earthen ramparts. The Kremlin’s main building, the Cathedral of the Assumption, is somewhat reminiscent of the Cathedral of the Archangels inside the Moscow Kremlin. The icons on the gorgeous 17th-century iconostasis, which has reached us intact, are more than 500 years old. Another architectural gem of the Dmitrov Kremlin is the 1898 St. Elizabeth Church. The early 19th-century building of the former girls’ grammar school is also worth a look, and so are the historical public buildings.

Travel tips: You cannot miss the Kremlin when you are in Dmitrov. From the railway station, walk straight down Ulitsa Moskovskaya, which becomes Ulitsa Sovetskaya right before the square. The ramparts can be seen from way off. There stands a monument in honour of the town’s founder, Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy, in front of the ramparts. It looks nothing like the Dolgorukiy monument on Tverskaya Ulitsa in Moscow. The sculptor, Vadim Tserkovnikov, sculpted the prince without a horse. The locals are not big fans of this monument, claiming that the prince is leaning sideways a little. There is one more reminder of Prince Dolgorukiy inside the Kremlin: the so-called wishing stone with a broken horseshoe pressed into it. Legend has it that Dolgorukiy’s horse left this horseshoe here when it tripped on a boulder.   

Contact info: Ulitsa Zagorskaya 17, Dmitrov, Moscow Region, +7 (495) 993-7413. http://www.dmmuseum.ru/

Pastila Museum Factory in Kolomna

The Pastila Museum Factory is housed in the former mansion of the Kolomna merchant family of Chuprikov on Polyanskaya Ulitsa. Although there exists some historical evidence that pastila, or pastilles, were produced in Kolomna since the time of Peter the Great, the official founding date of the factory is believed to be 1852. The Chuprikovs were a family of renown. The founder of the pastila factory, Karp Chuprikov, bequeathed it nearly thirty years later to his son, Pyotr Chuprikov, who would run it for 33 years until his death in 1917. Pyotr Chuprikov lived in a standalone house on factory grounds.

The last mention of the Kolomna pastila factory in the archives is dated 1918. The Pastila Museum Factory, opened on the former factory grounds in 2011, came as a successor to the tradition, and custodian of the unique factory complex, which is, in a sense, an oasis of pre-1917 Kolomna - largely a merchant town.

In addition to Kolomna’s signature apple pastila, the factory produced honey pastila, pastila rolls, gingerbreads, jams and many other sweets.

Visitors get introduced to a Chuprikov family member (played by an actor) and watch scenes from the life of that epoch. The factory tour is a great show in its own right. The offering of tea and pastila is plentiful. Visitors learn to operate a strange prehistoric machine to wash apples, punch out the apple core, grind the apples into pulp in a mortar, and fill wooden moulds with that pulp before placing them in the stove.

Price: 400-600 rub. for an hour-long programme

Hours: 10 am to 8 pm Monday through Sunday. Please make sure you call before you visit.

Contact info: Ulitsa Polyanskaya 4, Kolomna, Moscow Region, +7 (985) 767-0220, +7 (910) 494-3636. https://kolomnapastila.com/

Abramtsevo Museum and Preserve

Owned at different times by Sergei Aksakov and Savva Mamontov, Abramtsevo invariably remained a cultural magnet whose pull was nationwide, reaching far beyond the region of Moscow. It was here that Aksakov wrote his best works and played host to Gogol and Turgenev. Later on, a succession of artists visited the place, including such greats as Nesterov, Repin, Vrubel and Serov. It was here, on the scenic banks of the River Vorya, that Russian Art Nouveau was conceived. Visitors are advised to take a tour of the manor house and visit the Church of the Image of Our Saviour Not-Made-By-Hand, designed by the artists Polenov and Vasnetsov. It is a small yet wonderfully harmonious temple. Some other must-sees in Abramtsevo are Vasnetsov’s “Witch’s Hut on Hen’s Feet” and the pottery shop where Vrubel created his “ceramic suites.” One of the rooms in the manor house is the very dining room depicted by Serov in his painting Girl with Peaches. But you need not visit the museums to appreciate the spellbinding peacefulness of this place. You can simply take a stroll in the old park, stopping by the pond, observing the nature.

Ticket price: 60-400 rub.

Hours: 10 am to 6 pm Wednesday through Sunday

Contact info: Ulitsa Muzeinaya 1, Abramtsevo, Khotkovo, Municipal District of Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region

+7 (496) 543-2470, +7 (916) 278-4542. http://www.abramtsevo.net/

Borodino Field Museum and Preserve

The oldest martial museum in the world that is the actual battlefield, the Borodino Museum was established in 1839, spanning over 200 museum exhibits across an area of 109 square kilometres. The central exhibit is the Borodino Field itself, where the Russian Army commanded by Mikhail Kutuzov and the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte fought their pivotal battle on August 24 through 26, 1812. It is practically impossible to take in all the memorials, monuments, obelisks, soldiers’ mass graves, officers’ graves, redoubts and fortifications in one day. All the stages of that great battle have long since been studied and described in meticulous detail, but there is no way of really getting into the spirit of the Battle of Borodino unless you walk the distance from the Shevardino Redoubt to the Bagration flèches, cross the Semyonovsky ravine – the site of a fierce cavalry carnage – and climb up to the “death redoubt” – Kurgannaya Hill. The museum has five permanent expositions, including the museum building, the Convent of Our Saviour of Borodino, the palace and park complex in the village of Borodino, and the Memorial Home of Maria, the Mother Superior. Borodino once again made history during the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941, soldiers of the Soviet 5th Army made a stand here, stopping the Nazis’ thrust towards the Soviet capital, and altogether turning the tide of the Battle of Moscow.  

Ticket prices: An unguided tour of the museum’s main exposition costs between 100 and 200 rubles. A single ticket for all museum properties is 200 to 400 rub. A guided walking tour entitled “The Battlefield of Valour,” taking in the main museum exposition, “Glory Eternal to You, Borodino!” and the Raevsky Redoubt costs between 150 and 350 rubles.  

Hours: 9 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday

Contact info: Borodino, Mozhaisk District, Moscow Region, +7 (496) 386-3223, +7 (496) 385-1546, http://www.borodino.ru/

For more information on tourist destinations near Moscow, please refer to the Moscow Region Travel Guide at: https://welcome.mosreg.ru