Russian Orthodox Church of St Mary Magdalene shines domes on the slope of Mount Olivet, of Gethsemane Park. This is the main church of a female monastery of Gethsemane Bethany Community of the Resurrection.

Patroness of the temple - said Marina Gospel of St. Mary Magdalene. Dedicated follower of Christ, a witness of His agonizing death, one of the wives-bearers, who came to the tomb of the resurrected Savior. But the name of the church and even perpetuates the memory of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Emperor Alexander II.

The way of the future Empress began as a romantic tale: in 1838 the son of Nicholas I, Alexander, traveling through Europe in search of a bride, accidentally drove into Darmstadt, saw a fourteen princess fell in love with her. In 1841 the magnificent wedding took place. When Alexander came to the throne, became Orthodox Hessian Princess became Russian empress. During the coronation with the crown of her head dropped - it was regarded as a bad sign. And indeed: the marriage did not become happy. Alexander II is not characterized by faithfulness, his mistress Princess Catherine Dolgoruky emperor bore four children. During the life of Maria Alexandrovna, the king settled his second family in the Winter Palace.

Cheating husband, frequent childbirth (the couple had eight children), the death of the eldest son of Crown Prince Nicholas undermined the health of the Empress. She died in 1880. A year later her sons, grand dukes Sergey and Pavel, went pilgrims to the Holy Land. Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Antonin brothers gave the idea to build a temple in memory of the deceased mother. In 1885, in the Gethsemane church laid on the project of the outstanding Russian architect David Ivanovich Grimm.

Sanctify the church in 1888, at a ceremony attended by Grand Duke Paul and Sergey Duke Sergei and wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. The fate of the three was tragic. Sergei Alexandrovich terrorist bomb killed Ivan Kaliayev (Elizaveta Fyodorovna visited the murderer in prison and forgave him). Pavel Alexandrovich in 1919, was shot in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Elizabeth Feodorovna same after the death of her husband has sent all of his fortune to charity (she founded in Moscow Martha and Mary Convent), in 1918 the KGB arrested. She was taken to Alapaevsk and other members of the imperial family thrown alive into the mine. Farmers told us that a few days out of the mine could be heard chanting prayers.

In 1921, delivered from Russia through China Martyr's body was buried in the church of St. Mary Magdalene.

Seven-headed temple built in the neo-Russian style of the white and gray local stone. Inside the church is just as great: colored marble floors covered with patterned walls and columns. On the chancel arch - fresco brush Sergei Ivanov "Mary Magdalene before the Roman emperor Tiberius." The church kept the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk "Hodegetria" and an icon of St Mary Magdalene with a piece of her relics.