3 Roubles The Monastery of the Nativity Birth-Giver-of-God Hermitage

The Nativity of the Mother of God Hermitage, located near the village of Malo-Iremskoye in the Chelyabinsk region, was founded in the late nineteenth century and suppressed — like virtually every Russian Orthodox monastic community — following the Bolshevik consolidation of power. The 1997 coin falls within the Bank of Russia's extensive commemorative series documenting monasteries and architectural monuments that survived, or were being actively restored after, seven decades of Soviet neglect and deliberate destruction.

By the mid-1990s, the hermitage had been returned to the Orthodox Church and restoration was underway — the timing of this issue almost certainly reflects that process directly.