Moscow, December 23, 2010
A Museum and park complex that includes the Russian Cultural Center in Jericho, will be built by next January.
Russian officials will attend an opening ceremony that is expected to take place in January, deputy head of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society Nikolay Lisovoy told Interfax-Religion.
As Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia earlier said this museum complex "will become the first major project in the Holy Land in the third millennium that was actively taken by the Russian state."
The Pilgrimage Center is constructed on Russia's land lot in Jordan. It will welcome Russian pilgrims who visit the country's shrines, especially the place where according to the Christian tradition Jesus Christ was baptised .
"Great work has been done, retaining walls have already been constructed, as there is very complicated soil structure there, the building is almost ready, but the finishing work is yet to be done; there is much work left to be done,"the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Administration for Foreign Institutions Archbishop Mark of Yegoryevsk told the agency.
The building of the Russian Cultural Center in Bethlehem, according to him, is at the stage of project design, but it was earlier reported that work should be completed by 2012, when the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society celebrates its 130 anniversary.