May 23 – Kuzino, Russia-Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. To get here from Uglich we sailed down the Volga River, across the Rybinsk Reservoir that I've described before and then down the Seksna River to the pier. Today we are docking in Kuzino for the sole purpose of visiting the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Or at least so I thought.
An enterprising local entrepreneur is recreating a fort from the days when the Rus' ruled most of the area known as Russia. The Rus' were descendants of Viking who had come here on vacation and decided it was ok to stay. Part of the fort is done but the main house has been constructed. He is trying to be historically accurate. The downstairs would have been living area and the upstairs was the meeting hall. It's the home of the prince of the locality.
The actor who played narrator was very authentic looking, a large man with long dark hair and a short beard and mustache. He had a booming voice and his accent just added to the recreation. He was dressed in a red, short, belted tunic, with bloused trousers and boots. He told us about his life and the building and fort we were in. The he picked a man to be the prince, another to be his bodyguard and one more to be the berserker (a big, semi-wild, strong man to protect the princess. He picked a woman to be the princess. He had authentic costumes for each of them that were attractive. The hardest thing to get on was the chain mail tunic of the prince's bodyguard. The berserker was easiest, all he wore was a bearskin where the head was his cap and the rest just draped over his back and shoulders. The bodyguard had on a tunic with the chain mail over it, an iron helmet and was carrying a large sword and shield. The prince was wearing an emerald green long tunic with gold accents and belt, a crimson fur-trimmed robe, a fur trimmed hat and was carrying a large flask made from a bull's horn. The princess also had a similar hat, a long crimson dress with gold piping and pearls and a cape of blue and silver. Under her had she had on a white cloth headdress held in place with a silver band from which rows of silver disks hunt to either side of her face. They looked very authentic. The moderator then sang us a song of the time extoling the strength of the prince and the beauty of the princess.
This kind of thing can get pretty hokey but this presentation was enjoyable, informative and funny at the right places. Sometimes I burn out part way through them but not this time. Definitely a good time. When we walked out of the meeting hall we could see the crew of the ship standing on deck three wearing their life jackets. Apparently a crew safety drill was underway. Of course, we waived to them and they waved back. Some of the below deck crew didn't recognize any of us but the Filipino waiters waived and hammed it up.
Now we are headed out to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. It's a way out of town and on some pretty hoppy roads. Occasionally just enough rise and drop to make you light in your seat for a moment. The driver seemed to know where they were an slowed a bit so no one's butt actually left the seat. It was kind of fun actually.
In about 30 minutes we arrived at the entrance to the monastery. At one time it was the largest monastery in Northern Russia. It's dedicated to the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos and is sometimes referred to as the Dormition Monastery of Saint Cyril,
The monastery was founded in 1397 by Saint Cyril. He had a cave dug, then built a wooden chapel dedicated to the Assumption and a house of logs for the monk's living quarters.
The government in Moscow thought of this area as very important center for trade to the north and military defense of their northern border so they encouraged its development. During the Byzantine era a center was developed for the translation of textbooks on various subjects.
By the 1500s the monastery was the second wealthiest landholder in all of Russia. Ivan the Terrible had his own cell here (the place where a monk lives, not a prison) and planned to take his monastic vows at this monetary. Speaking of prisons, the cloister here was used as a political prison for Muscovite politicians.
The large walled monastery actually has two priories (so they had two abbots), the Assumption and Ivanofsky, and eleven churches with the great majority of them being over 500 years old. Nine belong to the larger Assumption Priory. The Assumption Cathedral was built in 1497 and at the time was the largest monastery church in Russia. The iconostasis held many ancient icons that are now in the museum in the former abbot's residence. The silver Beautiful Gates endowed by Czar Alexis in 1645 are also there but I can't show you the icons or the gates because no pictures are allowed and we didn't get any postcards.
The monastery's walls are 21 feet thick, some were part of an earlier citadel built to resist the Polish attack. When they were doing some restoration they discovered some well preserved frescoes from the 1500s in the gate church of Saint Sergius.
We walked around the grounds of the monastery and had a thorough visit of the museum. It has almost the complete collection of icons from the cathedral. It's an impressive collection of ancient icons. I'm not sure there's one to match it anywhere.
From the monastery we drove to the local school. It's sort of like a middle school and high school combined. Classes were still in session but they are close to the end of their year. A pretty 9th grader was our hostess. After greeting us in English, she took us around the building showing us various displays and artifacts the school has collected. We visited a class where a younger girl was giving a lesson she had prepared in English to her English class. Her subject was Scotland and she had a Powerpoint style presentation to illustrate her talk. Her pronunciation was actually very good. I'm pretty sure they handpicked her to present for us. She had her facts down on Scotland. I'd have given her an A.
From the classroom we went to the assembly hall for a brief presentation by the students. A girl and boy were dressed in native costume. He played an accordion style instrument but it had buttons on both sides, no piano style keys. The girl recited a poem in English. After the show they had some handicrafts made by the students in their art classes for sale. I bought a little cross stitched bag that I thought was very attractive.
Then it was back on the bus and down to the port. The Viking Fort has a display of old boats, more like canoes actually, that I had to take some pictures of on the way to the ship. The best one was a twin outrigger that looked like a dragon or sea serpent.
As we sailed down the river we passed the ruined church of The Nativity in Krokhino. Another victim of the building of the waterway.
Beautiful buildings and hairdos!
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