The New Jerusalem Restoration Initiative was launched in 2000. The initiative is managed by Holy Archangels Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Washington, D.C.

New Jerusalem, just over an hour’s drive from Moscow, is both a stunning architectural ensemble and a daringly conceived cultural landscape, an “image and likeness” of its original in the Holy Land. Construction was begun in 1658 and completed in 1685. The grand design of New Jerusalem is the work of Patriarch Nikon, a visionary reformer who eventually clashed with his friend Tsar Alexei, the second Romanov, and died in exile. After Nikon’s death his body was brought to New Jerusalem for burial.

Steven Kelly (standing, right) at a workshop in Moscow with Russian experts

The artists and craftsmen who built New Jerusalem came from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Greeks, Poles, Jews, and Germans made important contributions. In Nikon’s time ideas and techniques were flooding into Russia from the West, and many innovations made their first appearance here.

The new Soviet government closed New Jerusalem in 1919. In 1941 the retreating Nazi forces, who had used the site as an ammunition dump, detonated a bomb inside the main cathedral, gutting it. Recovery work moved at a slow pace after the war. The magnificent roof over the rotunda, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the mid-eighteenth century, was finally rebuilt in 1993. Nevertheless, most of the site remains in great danger from weather damage, flooding, and general disrepair. Much of the interior, once richly ornamented in ceramic tiles, is little more than a hollow shell.

Layla Hagen (center) with Russian architects in New Jerusalem

An independent panel of experts selected New Jerusalem for inclusion on the World Monuments Fund Watch list of most endangered sites in 2002. The site nominator was Ms. Layla Hagen, Project Director of the New Jerusalem Restoration Initiative. In 2003, Holy Archangels Foundation used grants from World Monuments Fund, the Samuel E. Kress Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding (New York) to hold an international conference of architects, art historians, and preservationists at New Jerusalem.

Further grants from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Kress Foundation, and a grant of $25,000 from the Getty organization, have made possible a continuing series of international workshops. In 2005, the New Jerusalem Restoration Initiative received a grant of $100,000 from the Robert Wilson Challenge. At present we are seeking matching funds for this grant, to be used for completing a master plan for the site and conducting emergency repairs.

J. Kelley is an architect and structural engineer with the Chicago-based firm of Wiss, Janney, Elstner and Associates, Inc. He specializes in the investigation and restoration of historic buildings and monuments and has extensive experience in the areas of skyscrapers; churches; façade restoration and cleaning; stone, brick, and terra cotta masonry; and windows. Projects of note include the Nebraska, Kentucky, and Illinois State Capitols; the Reliance Building, Tribune Tower, and Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago; Holy Family Church in Chicago; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois; St Cecelia’s Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska; and the Basilica of St Adalbert in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has expertise in the analysis and conservation of historic building materials and systems including wood-log buildings, plasters, and stained glass.

Mr. Kelley is an internationally recognized preservationist and has consulted on projects in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Asia for UNESCO and the World Monuments Fund. Mr. Kelley has served on the boards of directors of the US Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS), and of the Association for Preservation Technology. He is also active in the American Society for Testing and Materials. He has lectured extensively, in the US, Europe, and Asia on aspects of technical preservation and has written numerous articles in journals and edited books on the topic. He is the US representative to the International Scientific Committee on the Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage.