Sergiev Posad and the Laura

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There is another short story about another short trip of mine, to a town called Sergiev Posad located in the vicinity of Moscow. The town is part of the famous Russian Gold Ring route and, due to its closeness to Moscow, I decided that I should visit it on November 10 to fill the time slot between my arrival from my hometown and the departure of my flight to a remote country.


The idea was to leave the luggage in the luggage room, take the commuter train to Sergiev Posad, visit the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius, and there would still remain much time to spend at the airport.


In October, I looked through an encyclopedia entitled Russian Cities, and made a mental note of Sergiev Posad among the preferable towns to visit in the nearest future.


The Laura is the centre of Russian orthodoxy. We will not go into religious or historic details, because there are numerous other sources of information on the matter.


It takes about an hour or so to get to Sergiev Posad by commuter train. From the railway station it takes about 15 minutes to reach the Laura. The Krasnogorskaya Square has two monuments - one to Lenin, the other to Sergius Radonezhsky.


When I entered the Laura gates I saw a message saying that one should buy a permit for photography. I arrived rather early, and had to wait some 50 minutes before the ticket booth would open. I wasted no time and had a walk in the vicinity of the Laura, saw a couple of churches, and had a bite. A beggar-looking man came to me to ask if I would be so kind as to let him have a drink of my water, and I gave him the water and also some remaining cookies.


I was rather angry when 30 minutes after the beginning of the working time the ticket booth was still closed. I promised myself that I would not take photos without the permission, and so waited impatiently. However, I had no desire to wait more than 30 minutes, so I went and took all the photos without any permission.


The territory of the Laura is not very large. The most conspicuous buildings are the Cathedral of the Repose of the Ever-Virgin Mary (1559-1585; please forgive me if I render the Russian titles incorrectly), the Bell tower (1740-1770), the Trinity cathedral (1422). The Laura also has many towers.


If you are interested in Russia’s religious sites, the Laura would be perhaps the first place to visit. The Laura buildings are also fine examples of old Russian architecture.


I spent only about an hour walking in the Laura. I did not walk in the town, but went straight back to Moscow and to the airport. There were 5 hours to wait before the flight.

Not too emotional, right. Now I’m having a bad flu and life seems so miserable.

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