Russia's first private Museum of the Cross began to operate on the ancient Izborsk landtranslated

Since August 2026, Russia’s first private Museum of the Cross began operating in the village of Izborsk in the Pskov region.

Photo: Museum of the Cross team

The Museum of the Cross is not just a collection of various crosses, but an educational space created in order to talk in an accessible language about the cross as one of the most ancient symbols of humanity and a sign of salvation in Christianity, the creators of the museum told Thomas magazine.

Photo: Museum of the Cross team

“We want to show the history of the Cross: from ancient symbols, through the Roman instrument of execution, to its understanding as a sign of victory over death. And the main thing is to tell in simple and accessible language how the Cross became a symbol of Salvation for Christians,” said the creators of the exhibition.

Photo: Museum of the Cross team

The museum exhibition includes four thematic halls, each of which is a separate station on the journey through the meaning of the Cross:

The cross before Christianity. The story that Christianity does not abolish the ancient image of the cross, but fills it with new meaning

From the Old to the New Testament. A story about Old Testament prophecies, the history of righteous Lot and the Tree of the Cross of the Lord, as well as the events of Golgotha, the era of iconoclasm and...