More Than 40 Thousand Pilgrims from Russia Visits Jordan

Interfax-Tourism / According to the press service of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, 42 thousand of pilgrims from Russia visited the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan last year.

The representative of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission said that 32 thousand of pilgrims had come to Jordan via neighboring countries, mainly, via Israel, and only 10 thousand of the Russian pilgrims had arrived in Jordan by air.

The Russian Pilgrim Residence was constructed in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 2012.  It is satiated just in a few meters’ distance from the sacred place of the Baptism of Christ on the river Jordan.

The Russian Pilgrim Residence consists of a chapel, a comfortable hotel for 86 guests, a refectory and a house for guests of honor. There is also an own path to the river Jordan.

The Russian Pilgrim Residence can receive monthly up to 2 thousand of pilgrims.

The decision to give a plot of land next to the Baptism Site of Christ on the Jordan River for the construction of the Russian Pilgrim Residence was made on July 4, 2006 by King of Jordan Abdullah II.

The plot of land with the area of more than 9 thousand square meters near the river Jordan was transferred in unlimited use and without compensation by the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the Russian Federation in February 2007 during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Jordan.

The plot of land is located in the evangelical Bethabara next to the historic Baptism Site. Bethabara is one of the names for a site on the Jordan River where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. Starting from the V century and up to the beginning of the XII century five built in commemoration of the Baptism Site Christian temples replaced one another on this site. In 2012 Jordan transferred the ownership of the plot of land to Russia.

On June 26, 2012 the Russian Pilgrim Residence and the Chapel on its territory were consecrated by the Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem. Vladimir Putin visited the Russian Pilgrim Residence in the evening of this day. In November 2012, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill visited the Russian Pilgrim Residence.

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