Church of Mary Magdalene, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem The church is built in 1885-1888 by the Russian Czar Alexander III in memory of his mother Maria Alexandrova. The first stone was laid in January 21, 1885 by the Greek patriarch Micodemos, and the church was consecrated on 29, Sept.1888. The church is dedicated to Mary Magdalena, name-saint of the Czar’s mother. The church was designed in the 17th century Russian style with 7 golden onion-shaped cupolas. The interior of the church is rather plain, but it houses paintings by Vereshaguine and Alexander Ivanoff, famous Russian painters of the 19th century. Vereshaguine painted the iconostasis and the picture, which is behind the altar in the Russian Church. Ivanoff painted "Valley of Jehoshaphat". In the crypt of the church is buried Princess Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of the Czar Alexander III. She, together with her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, was the founder of the Imperial Orthodox Society of Palestine which carried out the building of the church. The Princess met a violent death during the Russian Revolution of 1917. In April 1918, she was arrested and taken to Alapaevsk. On July 18, she assumed a death of a martyr — she was thrown alive into an abandoned mine shaft. The bodies of the passion-bearers were kept in a crypt in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Alapaevsk. These are the only remains of a member of the Royal Family whose authenticity is not under question. On March 10, 1920, the coffin holding her body was sent to Peking, then to Shanghai, then to Egypt and from there to Jerusalem. The crypt below the lower vault of the Russian church of St. Mary Magdalene was adapted as a sepulcher for the grand duchess. In 1981 in New York, Elizabeth Feodorovna was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia as a martyr. The convent is preserved and houses an icon restoration studio. A statue to Elizabeth has been erected in the church garden and in there are the remains of an ancient flight of steps that led down from the Mount of Olives to the Kidron Valley, described in 9th century Latin documents. Today, Gethsemane Convent is comprised of some 40 nuns, headed by Abbess Elizabeth (Smelic).