Jerusalem appears in the account of Gogol’s later religious crisis as the destination of a pilgrimage undertaken to worship at the Holy Sepulchre. Its significance here is tied to that journey and the spiritual turn accompanying it, rather than to a description of the city itself.

The Pilgrimage

After suffering a nervous illness that intensified his hypochondria, Gogol became excessively religious, came under the influence of pietists and a fanatical priest, and sank further into mysticism. In this state he traveled to Jerusalem to worship at the Holy Sepulchre. The account presents the pilgrimage as one part of a broader change in his religious outlook.

Place in Gogol’s Later Life

The journey forms part of the context for Gogol’s increasingly severe judgment of literature: he came to regard all literature, including his own, as pernicious and sinful. Jerusalem is therefore associated with a spiritual crisis that shaped his view of his writing, though the account gives no further details about his time in the city.