Russia - Novgorod (or my best attempt)

Falling asleep on a long drive helps get you to your destination faster. This we all know. Sleeping through the potential treachery of the Russian highways isn't just a faster route somewhere but a necessary habit to adopt if you're going to keep your shorts from being soiled. Our driver today thought he was Mario Andretti in an old Mercedes van with absolutely no breaks, I could hear the rotors grinding hard every single time he laid into the breaks, which wasn't often enough. Michael and Ann, a couple from San Juan Puerto Rico said "This guy would do great in San Juan."

So now onto Novgorod. The city was founded in the mid 9th century and has recently been given back its original name of Viliky Novgorod (Great New City.)

****

Trying to write this post isn't easy... I'm exhausted, only slept two hours last night as I was dropping night watch and a large group went from the Golden Brick when it closed to For Ross... I left my notebook at home where I had scribbled down dates and so forth... but let me see what I can recount from my foggy memory.

****

The city sits on a lake that meets a river. We started the day by going to the monastery of St. Gregory built in the 11th century. Although the walls have been repainted, as was the habit of new patriarchs or princes who took it over, the windows still bear bits of the frescos that originally adorned the entire church. The iconostasis was stolen during the second world war by the occupying German forces. The monastery was damaged but has been rebuilt quite nicely along with the central church that in its time was the largest in Russia. The domes on this church are not gilded. Originally they were all covered in lead. Gilding came around in the 15th century if I remember correctly. The shape is not quite the Onion dome of Spilt Blood or St. Basil's in Moscow, its more of a helmet shape which was the original shape of Russian domes. The onion was a later inspiration.

I haven't had a moment or afternoon as peaceful as that morning walking by the lake and taking pictures. The weather was perfect (I'm going to start rambling, more than usual here.)

I've been enjoying St. Pete's quite a bit but its a big city and the pace is fast. Well my pace isn't that fast as its usually burdened by several liters of beer, but the point is that things move here, they move at a rapid pace and the sea of people is a never ending torrent of bodies in motion with big city concerns and manners.

I slept through most of the trip out to Novgorod, but when I woke, about 30 minutes from the outskirts of the city, I saw vast expanses of land which I saw again on my back to St. Pete's. The countryside is vast. The outer rim of St. Pete's and Novgorod feature these shoebox apartments that are ghastly and dreary to look at. According to my sister in law the street names are the same even and they are built exactly alike from city to city. But the actual highway road to the city was dotted with log cabins, small one family houses, gardens, cows eating grass and men clearing tall green grass with scythes. Great green expanses of land with the raised horizon of forest comprise this area. Since it rains during the summer months, there is always a reservoir of water for the flora to feed on and it stays lush all year round, except for the snows I guess, whereas we get about a month or so of lush green rolling hills that turn brown when deprived of water for a long enough period of time.

The monastery is amazing. Its simplicity and peace seem at once the product of its location on the banks of this gorgeous lake that is about 35km wide by 45km long, and the mouth of this river that feeds into the lake. I'm not sure with atmosphere I was enjoying, the air is sweet and fresh and you can feel the solemnity of the few monks that remain. It has been an effort ever since the demise of communism to revive the monastic orders that flourished prior to the revolution. Novgorod was and is the city of churches. Every street in olden times was ordered to build its own church and one had 5 churches on it, all of which still remain. Driving to the monastery we passed a wall left over from the 14th century, its an earthen wall that was flanked by towers, long stretch of earth that acted as a fortification against invaders. The Vikings were in Novgorod and were probably the original settlers of the city and one is attributed to have been the original founder of the Russian state. They were looking for trading routes through the Slavic countries when they stumbled across the river on which Novgorod sits. Of the 14 towers only 1 remains completely intact and has walls 1 meter thick with rock insides and brick exterior.

Novgorod fought many wars with Sweden, they were mortal enemies. The monument, which I'll get to, features a defeated Swedish soldier. The only ones, in ancient times, to capture Novgorod, were the Swedes. At one time, during the 10 or 11 century, Novgorod had a greater population than that of London, 40,000. It was a center for arts and crafts and was known all over the ancient world.

St. gregory's has 3 domes, which was the original configuration, the father, the son and the holy ghost, one for each. The five dome configuration was adopted later, and there's a second church in the monastery with a very stylized five dome design that was developed I believe in the 16th century.

From St. Gregory's we went to the Russian museum of wood working. Now this sounds kinda kitschy, wood working, but let me explain. Novgorod was known for its artisans. They built log houses without using any nails. None of the buildings were built using nails and they made shingles that looked like brick. The buildings that remain of this ancient city have been uprooted and moved to a preserve that is more natural in its wilderness setting than the city where they are being quickly eroded. Traffic is minimal here and they can be attended to by craftsmen that practice a lost art. The people of Novgorod made everything from birch and leather (beroza e kozha and called it brekhoza (I might be wrong on this... very tired)).

The buildings are used as museums and the people dress in traditional garb. I find this to be incredibly boring and cheezy, I mean the traditional dress. There's something so put on and they seem so unhappy in it, why bother? I'm good with them not even being there... I'm there to see the woodwork, not the people in ham dresses. The houses were incredibly function. The stove was not only a stove, made of ceramic, but also the bed that kept you warm in the winter. Often times 11 people would live in the family home and the grandparents were given the stove to sleep on. The parents would have a bed, the children slept in a loft and the teens would sleep on benches, that sometimes parents would occupy as well if they didn't have a bed. The lower levels of the house were home to the livestock which helped heat the entire domicile. There were haystacks that filled a barn space in the back and above the livestock pens. We spent a good hour or two there and then moved from there to the Kremlin of Novgorod.

Kremlin or Krepayst is nothing more than a fortress. The Kremlin in Moscow is the old fortress of the old city that happens to be the government buildings. Well Novgorod had a very impressive one that housed a number of old churches, the most impressive of which is St. Sofia. We were dropped off in the park on the other side of the river where we walked by and through small churches of varied ages and sizes. Their domes glistened in the bright blue sky, cloudless and perfect. A cold wind greeted us when we crossed the river over a footbridge. The Kremlin rolled out with its huge red brick walls on the other side. The domes of St. Sofia were visible above the walls. To the far left of the Kremlin stands the WWII monument commemorating the defeat of the Germans in Novgorod. Every city has some kind of monument like this. As I've said before, this war, here, may be over, but I doubt it'll be forgotten quickly. I may be wrong though, the new generation has no care of this war or its memory. They are more interested with meeting the west in terms of salary, material wealth and possession as quickly as possible. This may be the undoing of that memorial conscience surrounding the second world war.

Inside the Kremlin were a number of smaller churches but we went into St. Sofia to see the tomb of Theodore Nevsky, younger brother of Aleksander that founded St. Petersburg 300 years ago. He died on his wedding day from an epileptic seizure and was originally buried in St. Gregory's but was moved to St. Sofia due to restoration and excavation of the church. He will eventually be put back to rest in St. Gregory's which had a number of tombs, but not as many as St. Sofia that had them well below the floor, which is a 19th century floor, they lay around the stone floor of the 12th century. The church used to be taller, but soil settled outside and they keep things level. To keep from having to step down into the church they added new floors thus burying the previous one.

A huge brass chandelier of intricate design, a gift in the 16th century from Boris Gudanov, hangs in the center, over a cross with the iron dove. The dove was a sign of the holy spirit and there's a legend about the dove that if it fell 3 times the city would fall. It fell once by the Swedes when they occupied it, then it fell under the Nazis reign and eventually found its way to Spain. It only recently returned. There's a 12th century Icon which is the priz. Its a Madonna, and she supposedly cries visible tears at time. Take this with a grain of salt, or at your own discretion, it is a gorgeous and time worn piece however. The iconostasis of this church is intact and one wall, near the place where they are excavating the tombs and restoring the floor, there is a section of wall preserved from the 11th century with a painting of Constantine, the father of the Orthodox church and former Holy Roman Emperor done by an unknown Greek artist.

The whole place is kept in a low light and is absolutely gorgeous... I'm floored by it. I tried to shoot pictures, long exposure stuff, no tripod... left it at home trying to keep down the weight... DUMBASS is what I say now... but anyway, we'll see how steady my hands are... sleep deprivation does amazing things to them. As I walked along the paths with Sasha, we both agreed, we would have to get parker to do like a staff camping trip to the lake and spend a night v prirodi (nature) because the lake and surrounding hills are so bloody relaxing. I think if I could go to a real datcha and banya i would be in bliss. The two most intoxicating and relaxing things in place...

We wandered around and visited a monument by an artist whose name escapes me, but his work is here in Peter as well. It features figures and faces from 17 of the most important Russian epochs. From the Viking who found the Russian state, to that of the general who defeated the Swedes, Pushkin, gogol, the wife of Ivan the terrible, clergy and political figures. Since this was done well before communism it lacks any of that soviet drab elitism thankfully. During WWII it was dismantled by the Germans to be carted off to the Reich when the Russians launched a sneak attack on the fortress. It took over 1 year to reassemble it and return it to most of its former glory. You can see a big crack on one side.

The main souvenir of Novgorod is the bell. There was a legend about a certain bell that was to be carted off from the city. It didn't ant to go at all and fell shattering into tiny pieces. From each of these pieces a smaller bell was made and that is why the bell still remains the symbol of the city. We saw the largest of the bells of Novgorod that weighs in at 26 tons sitting inside the Kremlin next to small 16the century cousins of 17tons. A pile of excavated 15th century stone canon balls used in catapults lays at the base of St. Sofia.

I was sad to leave this place. Between fatigue, a happiness to be out of the city, and the quiet of that lake, the name still eludes me, felt an over arching sense of calm. I could've spent the night in Novgorod. Beyond its historical importance its a preaty dreary and dead place. There's really nothing going on, but the history of that city seems alive in all of its Deadness... You're right Mom, I do like touching history, always have loved being in the middle of it, that's probably the main reason why this day trip appealed to me, I'm happy I went.

Ok, time to say adieu... I'm off to get a bite to eat and then sleep.... sleep and more sleep... I'm opening the office tomorrow. I think I'm going to go to "Zov Iliyich" (Lenin's Mating Call), they done got bear on the menu!!! Who knows, I might just decide the four blocks is too far and the Brick is on the way home and open and the food is damn good there... Gruzinskaya Kuxhnay will be the death of me... I love it so...

Shislivo vsem... xo