Yaroslavl

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Geo: 57.636, 39.8928

We had a long tour of Yaroslavl this morning. An industrial city of some 600,000 people.

The Russian Federation has 13 cities with a population of more than 1M, in its total of 146M. Women outnumber men by a large margin: 78M to 68M. What was the USSR became 15 countries in 1991.

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Photos

Typical riverbank village
An opportunistic picture taken though our cabin window.

Governor's house
Our local guides presented themselves as the Governor's children who were showing us through the 18th century mansion (now a house museum) while their father was away. It was kind of cute and we walked onto the ballroom with a band playing and had a couple of demonstration dances.

Religious icon
This was a more recent icon, because the figure looks more like a real person instead of a stylistic representation. This piece is interesting because it shows very clearly how the painting is covered by a decorated silver or gold "mask", which is shaped to allow the face and hands of the icon figure underneath to be visible.

Icon "mask"
I was impressed with the tiny filigree detail on this piece.

Rebuilt Cathedral
The 13th century church was rebuilt a few times over the centuries when it was destroyed by fire. After the 1917 revolution, and particularly in Stalin's time (1924-1953), religion was suppressed and this church was demolished with explosives in 1934. The town celebrated its millennium seven years ago and a rich businessmen donated €70 million to rebuild the church, virtually from the ground up. Now they use titanium nitrate for the golden domes as it's cheaper and more durable than gold leaf. The city's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in the foreground. In good weather schoolchildren vie for the honour of "guarding" the tomb for 30 minutes at a time. Many more girls than boys, apparently.
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Millennium Park
Yaroslavl is situated where a tributary joins the Volga.

Comments

[Karla]

I do love an Eastern Orthodox Icon of a saint!

[robselclark]

Apparently icon making is controlled by many rules. These were brought from Greece, a thousand years ago.