Moscow, Novodeviche Smolensk Cathedral
Icons
and Churches of Russia
Link
to a Google-Earth kmz-file of all Places
This requires that you have GE on your hard disc
Moscow,
Novodeviche Smolensk Cathedral
This
picture-album is about the splendor of Russia's icons and churches.
Their golden cupolas and towers surrounded by high fortifications dot
the landscape like fairy castles from another world. I am fortunate
to have spent many months between 1969 and 1989 as physicist in
Moscow. This collection of photos is a tribute to the friends who
spared no effort to drive me to the towns in its vicinity. This was
during Soviet rule, and I was not able to visit places further
afield. I, therfore, augment my own photos with new pictures from the
internet to show the full Beauty of the Old Rus'. The “Old Rus'
“ came to an end at the time of Peter the Great.
Zagorsk,
Pilgrims, 1977
Even in 1977 crowds of pilgrims congrated every weekend in Zagorsk, as the Sergiev Posad was called then. They came on foot, by train, and in buses often from great distances to sing and pray at the holy shrines. An unforgettable experience even for my Russian colleagues.
The
iconostasis of the Smolensk Cathedral in Novodeviche, Moscow.
Photos
RWFG 1977-1980
The
objects of veneration in the churches are the icons that decorate the
wall separating the Holy of the Holiest from the ordinary world, the
iconostasis. In most Russian churches, like this one the iconostases
are encrusted with precious gold and silver bemas,
repoussé shrouds applied during Baroque times. The "local"
icon of this church, the Smolensk Mother of God, is seen on the right
side of the Golden Door.
Both the icons and the churches are
mirrors of the mysterious Russian soul, a subject which is described
in
a the Introduction