This past weekend I went on a bit of an adventure with a fellow Cambridge student studying at Moscow State Uni. The Golden
Ring is the name of a collection of historic towns not far from
Moscow, which form a circle. The towns were very important in the foundation of
the Orthodox church around the 12th century, and thus are jam-packed
with monasteries, cathedrals and other ‘holy’ places. 8 towns make up what is
traditionally called the Golden Ring: Suzdal, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Kostromal,
Yaroslavl, Rostov, Pereslavl-zalesskii and Sergiev Posad.
Our journey began early and with only a few hours’ sleep,
mostly our fault for still doing last-minute planning at 1am that morning.
Still, with a certain pride we left the university campus, excited about the
journey ahead. After about 5 minutes walking I was greeted with a pat on the
head from a bird. The only comfort was that I hadn’t bothered to wash my hair
that morning…
Arriving at the train station at Moscow, we realised we had
no idea where to buy tickets and frantically ran around asking people until we
were pointed in the right direction. Consequently we made it on the “elektrichka”
(local train) about 10 minutes to spare, meaning there were no seats left for
the impending 3 hour train journey. Still, we had made it onto the 8.45 train,
which we were rather proud of.
Vladimir (and Bogoliubovo)
After our rather uncomfortable 3 hour journey, we arrived at Vladimir train station. With a very basic Google map and nothing else we just followed people up the hill and into the centre of town. One very useful aspect of sightseeing in a place with lots of churches is that you can just find an onion dome and follow the road until you get to the church! The first thing that struck us was how different Vladimir felt to Moscow. There was no evidence of the rather manic hustle and bustle of the capital. Usually people just stay a few hours in Vladimir, before going on to Suzdal, but we had already booked a place at a hostel on Saturday night, so just decided to take the views in at a slower pace. On our wanders we came across a children’s book festival, and a bunch of kids dressed in fantastic animal costumes. Having established that most of the places to visit were on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Ulitsa, we started from the furthest end and made our way back. The first stop was the ‘Golden Gates’, first built in 1164 when the town was surrounded by thick walls. We popped into the museum inside, which focussed on the Mongol invasion in 1237, in which the gates, unlike the rest of the town, escaped destruction.
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| Interesting place for a wedding snap |
The next major stop was the Assumption (also known as Dormition) Cathedral (Uspenskii
Sobor), built in the 12th century. The cathedral also survived the
Mongol invasion in 1237.
We somehow missed one of the main cathedrals, the St.
Demetrius cathedral, but found numerous others whilst on our wanderings.
A major highlight of the day was the trip we made to Bogoliubovo,
a settlement just outside of Moscow. One challenge we faced on our travels was
that there are no announcements when the bus is stopping, meaning we had to constantly
ask people to tell us when to get off. After a 20 minute bus ride, we found the
Holy Bogoliubovo Monastery. We were not let inside as I was wearing trousers,
which were deemed not appropriate. This was the first church to have required
skirts and dresses, and it made me rather sad that we weren’t welcome.
Our goal, however, was a different church, which was another 15 minute walk away, across a train track and through some beautiful fields. We eventually found the right path to the Church of the Intercession, situated on an isolated spot on the river Nerl. Both the building and the location were beautiful, and well worth the effort it took to get there.
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| Appropriately attired |
After a long day, we found a trolley-bus to take us to our
hostel, which was situated within the grounds of an evangelical church. We
chatted briefly to an American girl in our room, who said she was off the
Yaroslavl (another Golden Ring town) the next day. This rather inspired my
travelling companion, who looked up whether it was feasible to extend our trip.
Deciding that Yaroslavl was a bit too far, we settled on Sergeiv Posad, a town
which we could see on our way back to Moscow.
Suzdal
After booking another night at the hostel in Vladimir, we
set off for Suzdal, rather later than planned, due to my remarkable ability at
sleeping through alarms. The bus took around an hour to get to Suzdal, and we
felt rather smug at having got tickets with specific seats, particularly as
those standing got increasingly squished.
My summary of Suzdal: quaint and beautiful. It is really a
very small town, with the highest concentration of monasteries, cathedrals and
chapels than I have seen anywhere in the world. We had less time than we had
planned, but even the 5 or so hours we spent there gave us a good flavour of
the place, its stunning views, and its provincial atmosphere.
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| Need to improve on my selfie-taking skills |
One interesting fact is that the ‘Kremlin’ (Russian=Kreml’)
is not just the name of the famous collection of buildings in central Moscow,
but rather the Russian word for ‘fort’ or ‘citadel’. We started off in the Suzdal
Kremlin, which houses various museums and buildings, including the
Cathedral of
the Nativity.
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| Monastery walls |
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| The Cathedral of the Nativity |
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| Inexplicable posing |
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| Transfiguration Cathedral |
Various churches we came across in Suzdal, the names of which I don’t
know!
Blatantly overcharged for a 2 minute taxi ride to the bus
station, we set off for our return journey to Vladimir, where we planned to get
dinner before heading back to the hostel. A very “Russian” restaurant had been
recommended to us by a friend, but, alas, after 25 minutes wandering we couldn’t
seem to find it. Blisters and hunger prompted us to eat at a hotel near the
Golden Gates. We were pretty embarrassed when we discovered that the restaurant
was 3 minutes walk from the hotel, and we could have made it if it we had just
made one more turn… But, alas, so is life!
After dinner, we asked around to see if there was a bus near
the Golden Gates that would take us straight back to our hostel. We sat down at
a bus-stop next to a babushka who asked my firend where she was from and what
she was doing in Russia. Her advice to us was that it would have been better to
stay at home and listen to the advice of our parents, who always know what is
best for us. I suppose I am inadvertently taking her advice, as I head back to
the UK in just over a week!
Sergiev Posad
We checked out of the hostel at around 7.50 and made our way to Vladimir bus station. Our first stop was Alexandrov, a 3 hour journey from Vladimir, from where we would take a train to Sergiev Posad. The bus was sweltering, and I was delighted to change it for the train. We arrived at Sergiev Posad somewhat frazzled and sweaty, but pleased to have made it. Sergiev Posad, according to my friend’s travel guide, is one of the “holiest” places in Russia, due to its popularity as a pilgrimage site. The main tourist point is the Trinity Sergius Lavra (another word for monastery). The atmosphere here was rather different to that in Suzdal. The monastery is in the middle of a rather busy town, and there was a lot of construction and repainting going on. We were also clearly not the only tourists there. I quite enjoyed the slightly mad atmosphere, in comparison to some of the monasteries we had been to. What is particularly interesting was that it is still very much an active monastery, housing a seminary for trainee Orthodox priests. I plucked up the courage and had a brief chat with two young men from the seminary, who told me 300 people (including women) study at the seminary, from all around Russia and the world.
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| Assumption Cathedral |
Sergiev Posad is also notable as the birthplace of the
Russian matrioshka doll, which first originated in Japan. The matrioshka museum
was closed, but instead we went around an exhibition of the Romanov dynasty,
the name of the imperial line that ruled over Russia from 1613 until 1917. By
this time we were pretty exhausted and in pain from blisters, so after a bit of
sushi, we wandered back to the train station to catch a train back to Moscow, stopping to look at the view from
the marvellously named “Pancake Hill” on our way.
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| According to my friend's guide book- this is a popular make-out spot for "youth" of the town... |
All in all, a fantastic few days!
