Archives: Exhibition about Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich launched in Moscow

On December 22 2010 at the exhibition hall of the Federal Archives in Moscow kicked off a historical and documentary exhibition “Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich and Russian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 150 years since foundation of the Russian Palestine”.

The exhibition has been organized by the Federal Archival Agency and the State Archive of the Russian Federation.

The exposition sheds the light on little-studied activities of the second son of the Emperor Nikolai I, the Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich, one of the ideologists of reforms of the Emperor Alexander II, on revival of Russian political and spiritual presence in the Orthodox East in 1856–1864, after the end of the Crimean War.

On his instructions and with his participation in the Marine Ministry of Russia was worked out a “Jerusalem project” which was approved by the Emperor and gave Russian Orthodox pilgrimage to the Holy Land a status of Russia’s foreign influence in the Middle East.

Foundation of the Russian consulate in Jerusalem (1858) and construction of an ensemble of Russian buildings near the Jaffa Gate of the Old City (1860–1864) marked the beginning of the visible presence of Russia in the Holy Land.

The exhibition features materials of participants of the “Jerusalem project” – B.P. Mansurov, A.V. Golovnin and others, portraits of Emperors and Grand Princes, icons, letters, photographs, drawings, prints, private belongings of the Grand Prince.

A special place occupies the correspondence of the Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich and B.P. Mansurov – one of the key figures of the Palestinian committee, as well as pilgrimage relics related to the Romanov dynasty.

The exhibition puts on display around 120 documents and 50 exhibits from archives and museums.