In November 1868, Antonin made his first acquisition, that of the Oak of Mamre, that according to the Scriptures was where the Old Testament Patriarch Abraham provided hospitality to three angels.

Archimandrite Antonin, with Igumen Parthenius,[3] acquired land at the summit of the Mount of Olives on which, in 1870, they built the Church of the Ascension [ru] with a 200-foot bell tower.

On this land, Antonin directed that pilgrims who wished to settle in Jerusalem had to build houses and plant the gardens around them at their own expense.

This consecration led to the addition of this feast to the Orthodox Liturgical calendar with the composition of the service added to the Menaion by Archimandrite Antonin.

In 1882, Archimandrite Antonin, with Conrad Schick, a German archaeologist and architect, supervised the excavations of the plot of land acquired by the Russian government in 1859 next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

In 1886, Archimandrite Antonin purchased land in Jaffa, in southern Tel-Aviv, on which the tomb of the righteous Tavi (Acts: 9, 36) is located.