Church of Mary Magdalene, Eastern Orthodox church on Mount of Olives, Jerusalem
The Church of Mary Magdalene is a Russian Orthodox church on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, built of white-grey Jerusalem stone in the Moscow style. Its tiered facade of semicircular arches and decorative bands rises to five gilded onion domes, a tall central one flanked by four smaller ones, each crowned with a gold Orthodox cross. A slender grey tent-roofed bell tower with a small gold dome stands beside it.
Tsar Alexander III commissioned the church in 1888 following designs by architect David Grimm to honor his mother Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and Sister Barbara, executed in 1918, were later laid to rest here and canonized as martyrs.
The name honors Mary Magdalene, recognized in the Gospels as the first witness of the Resurrection and a central figure in Christian tradition. The iconostasis made of marble and bronze separates the altar from the nave, following the traditional layout of Russian Orthodox worship spaces.
Access is granted through the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission only on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM. Visitors should dress modestly and plan enough time for the visit, as opening hours are limited.
The icons on the white marble iconostasis were painted by Sergei Ivanov and Vasily Vereshchagin, with further work by Alexei Korzukhin, Alexander Sokolov and Evgraf Sorokin. On the altar arch hangs Sergei Ivanov's painting "Mary Magdalene before the Roman Emperor Tiberius".
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