Jerusalem--Church of Mary Magdalene--Exterior
Jerusalem--Church of Mary Magdalene--Exterior Jerusalem. The Mary Magdalene Church was built on the slopes of the Mount of Olives in the years 1885–1888 by the Russian Czar Alexander III in memory of his mother Maria Alexandrovna, whose patron saint was Mary Magdalene. In the crypt of the church, which is built in the classic 16th-17th century Russian style, the Czar’s sister, Princess Elizabeth Fedorovna, is buried. She was killed in the 1917 revolution and her body was smuggled via China.