It was 6:20 AM when we disembarked at the Novgorod station; it was already light out, which is one of the blessings of these northern climes this time of year. The station was a lot smaller than I expected; in fact, through my sleepy eyes, I felt like I was arriving in Eatontown, NJ around 1958. Our guide and driver were waiting for us -- Sonya and Alex. It was Sonya who helped us with the luggage. There was no platform, so we had to negotiate the steep metal steps of the passenger car. Alex at least remembered where he had parked the car -- actually a white Mercedes van (after all, we were originally supposed to be an entire group.)
They left us off at the Volkhov Hotel in the very center of Novgorod. (It was a larger renovated version of the Sokol Hotel, back in Suzdal.)
We changed our wrinkled clothes, freshened up and went down to the breakfastt buffet. Shortly after 9 AM, Sonya and Alex re-appeared and took us on a van tour of the Novgorod area. Here is a riverfront view of the town (the river is the Volkhov)...
In Russia, the town is known as Veliky Novgorod (meaning 'Great New City'); this distinguishes it from Nizhni Novgorod, a larger and later city many miles to the southeast. It's founding is somewhere back in those nebulous pre-Christian Dark Ages; officially it is celebrated as being in the year 862.
We visited one of the oldest and most important institutions of the city, Yuriev Monastery, founded by Yaroslavl the Wise in the late 11th Century. The church with the starry blue domes was added much later.
The Monastic Church of St. George there was built in 1119.
The domes once were covered with gold (so God could easily see the church when he looked down from heaven), but they were plundered during one of the many invasions and wars of the last 900 years; they are now zinc...
As you can see, 900 years can do a lot of damage. But the people of Novgorod are gradually restoring the church and monastery to their ancient glory.
Here is the picturesque old well in the center of the monastery.
As we left the monastery, we caught sight of this juxtaposition of a 20th century street light and an 18th century windmill.
Next, we went to the Outdoor Museum of Wooden Architecture, which could well-have served as a movie set for a movie of 'The Brothers Karamazov." For example, here is the town's Tavern.
And here is the dusty old town square.
And here is the unusual fence around the town; as Sonya put it -- to keep out the wild deer, and to keep in the wayward boys...
By now, Phoebe was ready to go back to the hotel; but we still had the walking part of our tour ahead. So we took her back to the hotel, and visited the Kremlin, across the square from the hotel. (She found a great hair-dresser in the hotel, who didn't speak a word of English but knew exactly how to do her hair).
Here is the ancient Kremlin of Novgorod, the Detinets, dating from the early 15th Century.
Inside is one of the gems of Russian Christendom -- St Sophia's (the Church of the Holy Wisdom), the oldest church in the Russian Federation (1045-1050), still an active parish, and originally designed after St Sophia's in Kiev, two decades earlier. Over the centuires, additions have been made, but the original walls are still extant...
Another notable sight inside the Kremlin is the Millenium Monument of 1862; designed by Hartmann and Mikeshin. This 65-ton 15-meter bronze bell, topped by Rurik's cross, is covered with 129 statues and bas-reliefs depicting the tsars and commanders represented side by side with sixteen eminent personalities of Russian culture: Lomonosov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Karl Brullov, Mikhail Glinka, etc. The most expensive Russian monument up to that time, it was erected at a cost of 400,000 roubles, mostly raised by public subscription. The one tsar missing is Paul, probably the least-popular of all the Russian monarchs; and of course, the great cultural 'icons' of Russia's Golden Age to come (the latter half of the 19th Century) -- Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
From the back of the Detinets, we took the footbridge over the river to an area known as 'Yaroslavl's Court' -- an area of merchants and traders in medieval times, with many churches built there by the wealthiest and most competitive of them...
Here are some more of these very interesting churches...
And here is another.
Sonya and I had long discussions about the state of religion in the Russia, as we strolled around Yaroslavl's Court. All of our other guides, when we asked them about religion, said they seldom attended church. But they were quick to mention that they had been baptized in an Orthodox church by their grandmothers, when they were children. (Apparently the KGB was ineffective against
babuchkas.) Sonya had grown-up in a home of devout Orthodox, and had seen the discrimination they faced, but had continued practicing her religion. These were not just historical buildings to her -- they were places of worship. When we parted at the entrance to the Volkhov Hotel, I felt I had met a kindred spirit.
Phoebe's hair looked very nice when i got back to the room, and we traded the day's adventures. We had a 4-course meal in the dining room, complimentary from the tour company. After a brief walk around the nearby streets, we went to bed early. The next morning we had early train to catch for the 'Northern Capital", St. Petersburg.
