he Novy Jerusalim History, Architecture and Art Museum is one of the largest museums founded in Moscow Region after the October Revolution. In March 1920, within the walls of the Novy Jerusalim Resurrection Monastery, closed in 1919, History and Art Museum was organized on the basis of the art collections preserved in the Monastery churches and sacristy. In November 1921 one more museum - the Museum of Local History - appeared on the territory of the Monastery. In April 1922, both Museums were combined into the State History, Art and Local History Museum in Voskresensk (named Istra in 1930).

The Refectory and Vicegerent Chamber.

At the early period the Museum was engaged in collecting. Archaeology excavations were carried out in the north-western part of Moscow Region, ethnography expeditions were organized. The former estates were investigated. As the result, the Museum acquired artistic treasures. By 1925 the Museum display had been arranged and guide-book published.

Fragment of History Display.

In late 1920s the Museum became rather famous and authoritative. At the turn of the 1930s several estates as "Nikolskoye - Uryupino", "Dubrovitsy", "Tsaritsyno" were closed and their collections were passed to the Museum in Voskresensk. At the same time the Museum received works of art from the closed churches and monasteries of Moscow Region.

Hall of Old Russian Art.

Despite the significant art collections, in the early 1930s the Museum profile was determined as local history. The Museum became the State Experimental Museum of Local History in Istra. At the end of 1935 the RSFSR Government decided to turn the Museum into the Experimental Museum of Local History in Moscow Region. After that the Moscow Region Local History Museum was closed in Moscow and its collections, as well as its functions of methods center for local history museums in Moscow Region passed to the Museum in Istra. By 1941 the local history exhibition had been arranged in the Refectory Chambers of the Resurrection Cathedral.

Ceramic Studio.

By the time Istra was invaded by German fascists in November 1941, a part of the Museum collection - items of precious metals and stones, church vestments and some art collections - had been evacuated. But quite a considerable part of the collection remained in Istra. The fascists practically destroyed the ensemble of the Novy Jerusalim Resurrection Monastery. All buildings on the Monastery territory were to some extend destroyed or damaged. The Museum collections were robbed or destroyed. The vandal destruction of the Novy Jerusalim was mentioned during the Nuremberg process.

Ruins of the Resurrection Cathedral.

Since 1943 the Museum temporary stayed in Moscow. In 1944 the saved collections returned from the evacuation. In the late 1950s, after the first restoration on the territory of the Monastery, the Museum returned to Istra. In 1961 there was opened an exhibition dedicated to history and architecture of the Novy Jerusalim Monastery.

The Resurrection Cathedral before destruction.

The destruction of the collections during the Great Patriotic War did not permit a good local history exhibition. In the 1960s- 1980s the Museum workers tried hard to form funds in all spheres of the Museum activity, to investigate and catalogue the art collections and the surviving part of the archive. The local history materials were displayed at the numerous exhibitions. The art collections were supplemented, the materials on the investigation and restoration of the architectural ensemble of the Novy Jerusalim Monastery and architectural monuments of Moscow Region were collected. In 1972, according to the decision of the Moscow Region Administration the Open-Air Museum was founded at the Monastery wall. In 1977, the Exhibition Hall was opened outside the Monastery wall. By the 1980s there had been founded 13 branches of the Museum in Moscow Region.
In 1992, the Moscow Region Local History Museum was reorganized. Its branches became municipal district museums, and the Museum in Istra became the History, Architecture and Art Museum, which it actually was.

The Resurrection Cathedral. View from the south.

In 1994, in the reconstructed Church of SS Constantine and Helena church services were resumed. In January 1995, by the Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation the buildings of the Novy Jerusalim Resurrection Monastery were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) under condition of the Museum gradual evacuation. In the same year the Museum partially returned the Monastery buildings to the Novy Jerusalim Resurrection Monastery.