My People and Places Portfolio and Blog
Starting to the North East of Moscow there is a group of historic towns and cities that form a ring, the most well known being Vladimir, Suzdal, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Rostov Velikiy, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy, and Sergiev Posad. They were all officially founded around the same time, in the 12th Century as part of the Kievan/Rus State by Prince Vladimir Monomakh, Vladmir has it’s official date of founding as 1108 (although this has recently been disputed).
Prince Vladimir’s Grandson, Andrey Bogolyubsky broke with tradition of basing himself in Kiev when he decided to move north to Vladimir making it his capital, then in 1169 Andrey invaded Kiev, and took the Grand Prince of title north. The area continued to prosper until around 1237 when the Mongol Golden Horde invaded Russia and eventually a year later took Vladimir. Russia was ruled by the Mongols for the next 250 years and this marked the decline in Vladmir’s influence, and the ascension of the importance of Moscow in the region. The independent state of Moscow began to act as the intermediary between the Mongols and the Russian princes, and by the middle of the 15th century the capital was officially moved to Moscow, (which eventually became the true capital of Russia when Ivan the great defeated the Grand Khan in 1480).
In the 20th Century the city of Vladimir saw the inital Bolshevik reprisals against the Orthodox church hit the city hard, the Nativity Monastery was completely destroyed, and the other famous churches in the hostoric centre looted by officals. This all stopped after the Great Patriotic War (World War II), and lobbying of the government by a local organisation gained the support of government to have the area protected as an area of hiatorical and artistic importance.
Our visit started at Kurskiy Train Station, we already had e-tickets so we figured we would be ok, when we got to the station the information desk directed us downstairs, and when we couldn’t find the right place we were then directed back upstairs on the other side of the station. From there we couldn’t find the right platform again, after being taken to one of the station managers by one of the ladies working in the station she helpfully let us know we missed the train, which we knew already, after explainign we had been directed the wrong way twice she told us we would have to buy new tickets. We bought they new tickets, but instead of the express train we were booked on, we had landed in 3rd class I think, hard benches with a tiny bit of padding, but still we were on our way. On the journey we found out that on this train it was a) ok to bring crated of baby chicks on board, and b) not ok to drink beer. Although as soon as the guard left the carriage with heard a chorus of cans of beer opening from people around the carriage, so I guess it pays to be discrete. The journey on the train was interesting, we saw some very different rustic looking villages on the way through the countryside, and luckily as it turned out I didn’t need the toilet, there was only one on this old train, at the back, and it opened to the tracks when you flushed.
We arrived to Vladimir, walked up the hill to our hotel, the Hotel Vladimir which was perfectly reasonable, comfortable enough, but we were only there overnight and compared to Moscow prices it was a bargain price! We wondered down Bolshaya Moskovskaya for a few minutes and reached the reconstructed Nativity Monastery, the evening light made the buildings looks beautiful. walking down the road you reach the Cathedral of St Dimitriy and close to this the Cathedral of the Assumption, if you walk to the the back of either of these cathedrals you get an amazing view of the surround green valley and admittedly factories and power stations! In front of the Cathedral of the Assumption is Sobornaya Ploschad, this has a big monument celebrating the 900th anniversary of the founding of the city.
After sitting out in the sun for a while we carried on walking along Bolshaya Moskovskaya but decided to take a wonder down one of the backroads and stumbled upon the former Church of St George which now houses the Theatre of Choral Music. We had noticed as well that in the city there were a lot of Weather vanes on the buildings, possibly due to the city being sited on top of a large hill, maybe there is a lot of wind when the weather gets bad. Opposite the Theatre of Choral Music there was one such Weather vane on top of this house, it had th ebody of a bird, and the neck and head of a woman, it looked very bizarre, if you are ever there you should check it out. Walking down this back road we noticed a lot of the old buidlings with these amazing views over the valley below were dilapidated and begging for someone with some money, or the state to renovate them as the loaction they were in was amazing. At the end of this road you can find the city firestation with an old fire engine on display, and beyond this what used to be a huge water tower, but now houses the Old Valdimir Museum. From here we walked back to the main road and up to the Golden Gates, then on to the old Church of the Trinity, made from red brick and housing the Crystal museum, and down the side of it, a crystal shop where we picked up some bargains the following day.
After dinner and a couple of drinks it was pretty late and we crashed out for the night, but the next day we had a better look at the same places and explored some more of the back streets in the historic centre, it’s also worth mentioning that a the park to the rear of the Cathedral of the Assumption is a great open space for a picnic as this is exactly what we did for lunch.
Click photos to see large versions.
Related posts:
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Digg
Flickr
YouTube
There are so many white buildings, it should be called Belimir not Vladimir
[...] of the ‘Golden Ring’ cities near to Moscow, of the Golden Ring we have already visited Vladimir and Suzdal. We hadn’t been to the Golden Ring in winter, Sergiev Posad is the closest to [...]