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The Trinity Lavra (important monastery) was founded in 1340 by Saint Sergius (patron saint of Russia) whose moral ascendancy united the country against the pagan Mongol Tatar rule. Closed by the Bolsheviks, it was reopened as the Zagorsk Historical Museum and residence of the Patriarch after WW II. It was off-limits for individual travellers in 1965 but I managed to come, disguised in a Russian overcoat and keeping my mouth shut, thanks to a Russian friend who accompanied me for the 75 km train ride from Moscow. This time, Sasha and I came quite openly by bus.
Below left, the Assumption Cathedral with its star spangled domes built by Ivan the Terrible to atone for killing his son. On the right, the 15th century Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit where the first Bishop of Alaska is buried.
Here is another view of the Assumption Cathedral and the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Below on the left, the Trinity Cathedral built in 1420 which is the heart of the Trinity Monastery and on the right, the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Having decided to go on a two week river and canal cruise to St Petersburg Sacha and I boarded the "Chicherin" at this Stalinist styled river boat terminal on the Moscow canal connecting the Moscow and Volga Rivers.
The Chicherin, a modern air conditioned 300 passenger river boat built in Germany to cater to the aparatnik class in Soviet times, had been privatised and made available to the tourist trade along with other river boats like the older one behind us.
The other passengers were all German except for a dozen senior anglophone Canadians who, having purchased their tickets in Canada, had paid twice as much as we had. On the boat we met the Russian teacher and hostess Tamara, with whom we got along particularly well, we stuck together and the three of us had a ball.
Below, scenes of the nightly cultural shows put on for our education and entertainment.
Locks on the Moscow-Volga, the Volga-Onega and the Volga-Don canals allow the transport of industrial goods from the northern Baltic sea all the way to the Caspian and Black seas in the south.
River traffic has always been important in Russia since the Viking penetration by longboats in the 9th century. By that time the great Slav expansion out of their home lands north of the Carpathians had taken place and the eastern Slavs occupied the land when the Viking Rurik founded Novgorod in 862 and his successor Oleg, Kiev in 882. The Rurikid dynasty that ruled the Slavs until the 16th century gave them the name "Rus" that became "Russian".
Trade and military campaigns had made Kiev dominant when the Varangian (Viking) prince Volodymir founded the Russian Orthodox Church in 988 by inviting the Byzantine monks Methodius and Cyril who crafted the Cyrillic alphabet and brought with them the Byzantine culture, values and laws that have so strongly marked the Russian people.
When the crusades restored the Mediterranean trade routes in the 11th century trade shifted north as the merchants of Novgorod declared themselves independent of Kiev and joined the Baltic centred Hanseatic League. The 6th Rurikid ruler, Volodymir Monomakh founded Vladimir on the Volga, his son Yury founded Moscow and his grandson Andrey sacked Kiev and moved the court to Vladimir in 1169.
Uglich was founded on the Volga in 1148, a year after Moscow on the Moskva. When the Mongol hordes annihilated all the Russian principalities around 1236 Batu Khan chose Alexander Nievsky prince of Novgorod to put on the throne as Grand Prince of Vladimir to serve as intermediary and tax collector for the Golden Horde based at Saray near today's Volvograd on the lower Volga. Uglich stagnated while Moscow emerged as the horde's chief northern tribute collector. In 1320 the Metropolitan Pyotr moved from Vladimir to Moscow whose Prince Ivan I gained the title of Grand Prince of Rus in 1328 thus deciding Moscow's future as Capital. Uglich's role in history came much later when Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible by his 7th wife Maria Nagaya, was murdered in her garden in 1591.
Above is the 15th century five domed Transfiguration Cathedral. Below left, the Bell Tower and on the right, the red Church of Saint Dmitry on the Blood built in 1690 on the spot where Dmitry was killed.
Founded in 1150, Kostroma was one of the most important cultural and cultural centers of the "Golden Ring" of cities north east of Moscow. Like other monasteries, the Ipatiev Monastery built like a fortress guarded the point where the Kostroma river flows into the Volga. All these fortifications, intended to defend each principality from the other Rus principalities were easily overrun by the Mongol hordes in 1236.
Below on the left,The Trinity Cathedral built in 1590 to replace an wooden one built by the Godunov family in the 13th century. On the right, the Pokrova Church near the shopping arcades in the town center.
The National Museum of Wooden Architecture next to the Ipatiev Monastery shows many examples of ancient wooden churches and houses.
Notice how this replica of an ancient house has very small windows to minimise heat loss in winter.
Founded in 1010 as a trading outpost by the Kievan Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who flattered his ego by giving the town his name, Yaroslav has now grown to be an important Volga Port with a population of more than 700 000. When it grew rich in the 16th and 17th centuries on trade between the Middle East and Europe, the proud Yaroslav merchants competed to build bigger and better churches than those of the capital, Moscow.
Below on the left, the Bell Tower of the 12th century Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour that became one of Russia's richest and best fortified monasteries by the 1500s. On the right, the attractive 17th century brick Church of the Epiphany just across Moscovsky Prospect from the Monastery.
The picnic outing in Irma was a welcome change after three days visiting churches and monasteries in Uglich, Kostroma and Yaroslav. As usual, we had exercise with Vladimir and Russian lessons with Tamara in the morning but we were free to roam over the countryside all afternoon after an excellent shaslyk lunch accompanied with Russian folk music provided by the ship's band.
All this was new, informative and interesting for me but I could see that it was almost a holy pilgrimage for Sacha to let her mind roam back in time to the roots of her Russian identity.
