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Day 13
Jack went out to photography before breakfast and I relaxed with Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. Breakfast consisted of a plate with bread, ham cheese and vegetables, a bowl of rice porridge, a large square of something that looked like noodle kugel, two fried eggs with sausages and a bit of fruit. It was almost comical to see all the dishes laid out on the table.
It turns out that Suzdal is the best preserved of all the Golden Ring cities near Moscow. It was once extremely prosperous, but in the middle of the 1800’s the business people did not want to contribute to the construction of a rail line. The rail line bypassed Suzdal and that was the end of its economic boom. Buildings didn’t change and there was only very limited new construction. Also, being east of Moscow it was not invaded by the Nazis and no one bothered to bomb it because it didn’t matter.
We started with the open Air Wooden Architecture Market. It consists about a dozen buildings from neighboring villages that were disassembled and then reassembled at this site. We learned that there were usually two churches-built side-by-side with a
shared bell tower. The larger, more elaborate church was for the summer and the smaller church for the winter. They needed small rooms because there was no way to heat a wooden building without the risk of starting a fire. Believers, this is how Russians refer to people who participate in the Russian Orthodox Church, would come to 1-hour services throughout which they would stand. The large number of people would warm the room, something that happens in wooden, but not stone churches.
We then visited what had been homes of middle and upper income peasants. As the guide explained there was no example of a poor peasant’s home because there would be nothing to see. In the books I’ve been reading they talk about sleeping on top of the stove. Once you see how the stoves were built it makes perfect sense. It was also fun to see what their sleighs looked like. There is a great scene in War and Peace when a group is “flying” over the ice and once you see the sleighs it makes the scene come to life.
Suzdal is a small town with 20 churches. When the people of Suzdal had
money, a church was built on every street and people would attend the church on their street and no other even though the services in all the churches were identical. There are also 3 monasteries and a convent. Most churches were closed under Lenin & Stalin, but fortunately these churches were not destroyed. The Cathedral of the Nativity was from the 13
th century, but most of the building was reconstructed or added in the 17
th century using funding from Peter the Great. The main room has one of the largest unsupported vaulted ceilings in Russia.
We also visited the Convent of the Intercession which is where Peter the Great imprisoned his first wife after she supported a coup being planned by Peter’s son, Alexi. Alexi wanted to roll-back Peter’s reforms and was supported by conservative aristocrats, boyars, and the church. Spending the rest of one’s life in a convent was preferable to what happened to Alexi. After Peter asked him to recant and identify his supporters, Alexi was tortured which was what happened to anyone who opposed the Tsar and died during the interrogation.
At the Monastery of Saint Euthymius, we had a 10-minute concert by two monks
that was beautiful, but unfortunately, we couldn’t video tape it. There was also a bell ringing concert that could be recorded since it was outdoor.
We went to Vladimir for lunch. It is a city of about 350,000. After riding around for a few minutes while the guide pointed out buildings that I promptly forgot we toured Dormition Cathedral that preserves the world-famous frescoes of Andrei Rublev and the architectural complex of the Cathedral of St. Dimitri. Last we visited the Museum of Crystal, Lacquer
Miniatures and Embroidery where I couldn’t resist buying a vase despite the challenge of getting it home.
The ride back was 4-1/2 hours. I listened to Secondhand Time and napped.
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