More Churches, including wood ones! - (Russia Part 4)

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NORTHWEST RUSSIA - (September 2007)

- (Monday 3rd to Friday 7th September) -


Mon 3rd - Tues 4th Sept- (Novgorod)
While I was in Russia I wanted to see more of the country than just the two big cities of Moscow and St Petersburg. However, at the same time due to time constraints, I didn’t want to travel too far within the vast country, and certainly not anywhere which would take days to travel to and from.

During my time in Moscow I had visited a couple of the historical Russian towns located close to Moscow which had been former capital cities/ towns of the early Russian State. While I was in St Petersburg, I also wanted to venture out of the city and see something else of the area. When I was in Moscow people had recommended that I visit a place called Novgorod, which was apparently easy to get to from St Petersburg.
Novgorod is described in the Lonely Planet as ‘one of Russia’s gems, a beautiful town full of solid old churches, peaceful tree lined streets and a magnificent Kremlin full of historic treasures’.

At the hostel in St Petersburg they told me that catching a bus was the easiest way to visit the town. On their advice, I therefore decided to take the morning bus and stay the night before making my way back to St Petersburg the following morning. I can’t remember anything about catching the bus or the journey there other than it took around 3 to 4 hours, so I can only assume that the journey was straight forward enough.

I arrived in Novgorod in the early afternoon and the bus dropped me off at the modern bus station which was located on the edge of the small town centre. It didn’t take long to walk into the town centre where I tried to find a hotel. However, it did take some time to find a reasonably priced one. The best hotel that I’d picked out of the LP had gone up market since the book had been written so it was a bit over priced for what I wanted. However, the receptionist was kind enough to suggest another hotel, the Hotel Intourist, which was also mentioned in the LP and which was located just around the corner.

The hotel appeared to be a university halls of residence which was used during non-term time as a hotel for tourists. At the time I was there, the place appeared to be mostly empty except for a few African and Chinese looking students. However, the staff were exceptionally friendly and the hotel, whilst being very basic, was clean and comfortable enough. Once I’d checked in and dumped my small bag in my room (I’d left my main bag back at the hostel in St Petersburg), I set off to explore the town.

As described in the tourist literature, the town was indeed full of churches/ cathedrals and I didn’t have far to walk to come across my first one - and they did indeed seem to be located on every corner of the town. Novgorod apparently means ‘new town’ even though the town was founded in the 9th century when it was the first settlement of the Varangian Norsemen who established the first initial Russian State. For 600 years after its founding, Novgorod was apparently Russia’s most pioneering artistic and political centre.

Novgorod is therefore a very historical town and was at one time one of the first and most important towns in Russia, something which is emphasised by the fact that its old Kremlin was one of the Soviet government’s first reconstruction projects after WW2. As with many towns and cities in this part of Russia, the town was apparently methodically trashed by the Nazis.

Novgorod’s Kremlin is one of Russia’s oldest Kremlins with its fortifications dating back to the 9th century although what stands today was apparently rebuilt with brick in the 14th century. Located within the Kremlin is the byzantine style Cathedral of St Sophia which was completed in 1052 and which is one of the oldest buildings in Russia. The Russian style onion domes of the cathedral which were added during the 14th century are said to be the first examples of this kind of architecture to be built in Russia.

During Soviet times the church was turned into a museum of religion and atheism. Unfortunately the church was under restoration when I was there and I could only get a very restricted glimpse of the inside of the church through the building’s construction hoardings.

The town is just littered with churches, some of which have fading frescos dating from the 13th century. Most are not open, or at least they weren’t when I was there, but I was happy to just have a wander around the town and admire the churches and architecture from the outside. The town was very quiet during my visit and I was able to just to wander around the magnificent buildings and soak up the ambience of the town largely by myself. Although I’d seen lots of churches during my time in Russia, I still really enjoyed my visit to Novgorod. The architecture and the general ambience of the place was just…… ‘nice’!

The town had plenty of nice modern restaurants and plenty of beer stalls located within parks with plenty of outdoor seating, which if the weather had been a bit warmer, would have made for very pleasant place to stop at and have a drink outside. However, unfortunately on this occasion, the weather was against me.
After having a very good look around Novgorod during the afternoon, the following morning I wandered back to the bus station to catch a bus back to St Petersburg. Fortunately the buses were quite frequent and it didn’t take me too long to catch one and I arrived back in St Petersburg sometime during the afternoon.

Thurs 6th - Fri 7th Sept 2007 - (Petrozavodsk/ Kizhi)
After a couple of days back in St Petersburg I was off again. I wanted to go further north and see a bit more of the Russian countryside and the lake areas to the north of St Petersburg. Everywhere I’d been in Russia I’d seen pictures of wooden buildings and in particular a picture of a fantastic looking church that was completely made from wood - including all of its domes.

I found out that the particular church was located on an island called Kizhi which is located on Lake Onega. To get to the island you had to go first to a town/ city called Petrozavodsk from where you could then catch a ferry over to the island. Petrozavodsk is 420km north of St Petersburg and is easily accessible from St Petersburg via an 8 hour train journey. The island of Kizhi itself was said to be easily accessible from the town Petrozavodsk, at least that is until the winter months when the lake freezes over.

I therefore decided that it would be worth the effort of making the trip. There was an overnight train that left St Petersburg and arrived in Petrozavodsk at 7 in the morning. Somehow, and from past experiences with Russian train stations unbelievably, I managed to get a train ticket myself and caught the train from St Petersburg on the Wednesday night.

I can’t remember much about the journey except that the train arrived on time and that I found the hostel (Jigowatt Hostel) where I had pre-booked a room on hostelworld.com easily enough. The hostel was located towards the centre of town around a 20 minute walk away from the train station. The hostel was new and had apparently only been open for a few weeks. Unfortunately for the owners though, it was virtually empty. Even though it was still early in the morning, I was able to check in and dump my bag. Apparently a lot of tourists that stay at the hostel arrive on the same train as I had done, so the owners were used to people arriving at the hostel early and wanting to check in.

After I’d had a shower and some food, I set off to explore the town and to find out how, and when, I could get to Kizhi Island. Although the lake’s shore was around 30 minute’s walk from the hostel, I found it easily enough.

As it had been for most of the time since leaving Moscow, the weather was cold and grey and down at the lake’s shore line it was even colder with an ice cold wind blowing off the lake. This all made the town feel very much like an ‘out of season tourist town’ which had already started getting ready for the approaching winter.

After I’d spent a bit of time wandering around the port terminal looking for a boat that would take me to Kizhi Island and trying to ask a few people who seemed to be working on the boats that were anchored there, I was pointed in the direction of a ferry booth that hadn’t at first appeared to be open. However, it was, and the lady inside told me (or at least pointed at a timetable that told me) that the ferries were now running to the winter schedule. This all meant that I would have to wait a couple of hours until later that morning until I could get a ferry over to the island.

I therefore had a look around Petrozavodsk. The city was apparently founded by Peter the Great in 1703 although looking around it now, there didn’t appear to be many historic buildings left within the centre and the city looked like any other small Russian city/ town.

Lonely Planet describes Petrozavodsk as being one of ‘Russia’s loveliest cities, set on the shores of Lake Onega with countless green parks and pretty squares flanking its broad tree lined avenues’. As usual with LP’s descriptions, I wouldn’t go as far as the book does although the town was pleasant enough if you compensated for the ‘closing down for winter’ feel that the weather and deserted ferry terminal induced.

I had a walk around the town for a couple of hours but there’s not much to say about the town really. As the LP description said, it is quite a green town although there is not a lot to see, or at least I didn’t find much to see when I was there. There are apparently a few museums around the town but I didn’t bother visiting them as I was really only here to visit the nearby Kizhi Island and after spending time in St Petersburg, I’d had my fill of museums.

The journey over to the island was undertaken in a modern hydrofoil and took around 1 ¼ hours. The hydrofoil was relatively busy considering that the ferry terminal had been virtually deserted when I had arrived there earlier in the morning.

Kizhi Island itself is an old pagan ritual site and is one of at least 1600 islands located on Lake Onega. The island was colonised by the Russians in the 12th century after which they started building wooden churches on the island. None of the early churches remain but there are still a few churches remaining that were built in 18th century that according to the tourist literature, make Kizhi Island 'a not to be missed pilgrimage site for anyone touched by the magic of old Russian architecture’.

Apparently since the 1950’s, other wooden buildings have been relocated to the island from around Lake Onega turning the 6km long island into a ‘museum reserve’. Once we arrived on the island, virtually everyone on the ferry headed for the main attraction on the island, the Transfiguration Church, which I had seen on pictures all over Russia.

The church was built in 1714 and apparently constructed without a single nail - (although I find that hard to believe!). The church has 23 domes and is regarded as being the gem of ‘Russian wooden architecture’. Next to the Transfiguration Church is the nine domed Church of the Intercession (1764) which has a collection of 16th to 18th century icons inside. Between the two churches stands a wooden bell tower which was built in 1862. These three buildings make up the ‘World Heritage Kizhi enclosure’. Also on the island is a little church of the ‘Resurrection of Lazarus’ which was constructed in the 14th century and is said to be perhaps the oldest wooden building in Russia still standing.

As the tourist literature says, the churches were indeed incredible, especially if they were built without the use of any nails. Their setting on a virtually empty, windswept, treeless, small green island in the middle of a lake made the setting very dramatic.

Besides the church buildings mentioned above, there are also quite a few other wooden structured buildings dotted around the island that are well worth a look around and the island itself was a good place to walk around for a few hours. However, there’s not that much to see on the island and after a few hours I was ready to catch the hydrofoil back to the mainland. I’d enjoyed my visit to the island and it was well worth the effort of getting there, if only to satisfy my curiosity of seeing some traditional Russian wooden architecture.

The train back to St Petersburg left the following afternoon so I had a morning to kill wandering around Petrozavodsk taking photographs and having brunch in one of the town’s many nice cafes. Catching the train was easy enough and I was back in St Petersburg by early evening for my last few days in Russia before heading on to Finland and eventually back to the UK!

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Photos

Millennium of Russia Monument
The statue depicts 127 Russian historical figures

Millennium of Russia Monument
Unveiled in 1962 on the 1000 anniversary of Varangian Prince Rurik's arrival

Statue of Yury Andropov
Yury Andropov - the second last Communist leader and former head of the KGB