|
A small town 60 kilometers northeast of Moscow, Sergiyev Posad's greatest treasure is the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius (Troitse-Sergieva Lavra), founded in 1340.
From a religious and historical point of view St. Sergiust is considered one of the most important monasteries in Russia. The Tatars burned down the original wooden structure in 1408 but within a decade a new sandstone Trinity Cathedral was built.
The monastery's highlighs are the icons painted by Andrei Rubylov and his disciples. The cathedral also houses the tomb of St. Sergius, whose relics are the most esteemed in Russian Orthodoxy and attract thousands of pilgrims every year.
Monastery tel. 8-254-45356
Regular suburban trains run from Moscow's Savyolovsky Station.
New Jerusalem
Known in Russian as Novy Iyersalim, this monastery 50 kilometers west of Moscow is a complete recreation of the temples and shrines of the Holy Land.
The complex was built in the 17th Century by Nikon, a patriarch whose reforms caused a schism in the Orthodox Church. The monastery is located in the Istra River valley and christened with names from the Bible. A hillock nearby is known as Mount Sion, the river is called Jordan and the main structure on the premises —The Cathedral of the Resurrection — is trumpeted as a copy of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchure.
At the back of the monastery is a spring whose waters are supposed to have healing properties. Beyond the monastery's walls are several wooden buildings -- an 18th-century house and inn, a 19th-century peasants home, a windmill and a chapel -- all relocated from a nearby village to form the Museum of Wooden Architecture.
For guided tours in English for groups contact 8-231-44375.
Monastery open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday.
Closed the last Friday of the month.
Gorki Leninskiye
Gorki Leninskiye is a small village 30 kilometers southeast of Moscow and houses the estate where Lenin whiled away his last years. The estate formerly belonged to Lidya Morzova, the wife of an industrialist, but was confiscated after the revolution. It was chosen as the place for Lenin to recuperate after he was shot in 1918 and again after his stroke in 1922.
The house is now a museum where all the clocks still stand at 6:50 a.m., the time of Lenin's death. Visitors also get an insight into Lenin's spartan tastes. The estate also houses the Lenin Museum, which was built in the 1980s to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Lenin Museum and the Gorki Leninskiye Estate
Tel: 548-9309
Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Monday.
Closed last Monday of the month.
Borodino
The village of Borodino, 115 kilometers west of Moscow, is famous as the battlefield where the Russians fought Napoleon's army in 1812.
An estimated 100,000 soldiers from both sides died that day and the French went on to capture the abandoned city of Moscow. But the toll the Russians took on Napoleon's forces at Borodino eventually proved too much, and with winter as their ally, the Russian troops beat the French into submission on their arduous trek back to Paris.
History buffs can walk the entire battlefield Ñ more than a 100 square kilometers marked with obelisks dedicated to the fallen units on both sides. There is also a collection of bunkers, some dating to back to World War II when the Germans followed Napoleon's footsteps.
The nearby Borodino Museum offers a miniature overview of the battlefield.
Borodino Museum
Tel: 8-238-51057/51546
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday.
Closed last Friday of the month.
Peredelkino
The village of Peredelkino was originally a part of the pre-Revolutionary Kolychev family estate. After the Revolution the Soviet Writers Union took it over and converted it into a writers refuge.
Twenty kilometers southwest of Moscow, Peredelkino today attracts tourists who wish to see Boris Pasternak's dacha. Now called the Pasternak House Museum, the wooden dacha has been kept as it was in Pastenak's day Ñ the iron bed where he died, the study where he wrote Dr. Zhivago and the bookshelves where the works of his favorite authors sit gathering dust.
To round off the trip it's worth visiting Pasternak's grave located in the writers' cemetery near the Peredelkino railway station.
Pasternak House Museum
Tel: 3-934-5175.
Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday to Sunday.
Arkangelskoye
Arkangelskoye is considered one of the grandest estates in the Moscow region. It was once the home of Prince Nikolai Yusopov, one of the richest Russians ever and was filled with the treasures that he collected.
The palace has been undergoing lenghty reconstruction; there is no completion date nor end in sight and the house is not open to the public. The estate grounds, however, are a pleasure to wander in. The gardens are built in a multilevel Italian style filled with copies of 18th century classical sculptures.
Arkangelskoye
Tel: 561-9456.
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday.
Weekend Trips
Vladimir
Vladimir is one of the main towns on the Golden Ring, a loop of very old cities northeast of Moscow.
Founded in 1108, 40 years before Moscow, Vladimir was a flourishing cultural center dotted with magnificent churches and cathedrals. It was destroyed by the Tatars in 1238 and 1293, and slowly fell in importance as Moscow became more prominent.
Today Vladimir looks like many provincial Russian towns and is used primarily by tourists as a stopover en-route to the more pictaresque Suzdal. Most of the impressive historic buildings can be found off Ulitsa III Internationala.
Behind the Golden Gates (Zolotoye Vorota) is the Assumption Cathedral (open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily) built between 1158 and 1160. In the 1470's the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanto was instructed to use it a model to build the Moscow Kremlin's own Assumption Cathedral.
Though it has a strikingly simple exterior one of the most exalted treasures inside is a fresco of the Last Supper by Andrei Rubylov and Danil Chyorny painted in 1408.
Further along the bank of the Klyazma River is the Cathedral of St. Dimitry famous for its stone carvings of fantastic birds and strange animals. Inside are 12th century Byzantine style frescoes, but the cathedral is usually locked to the public.
Suzdal
Fifty-three kilometers north of Vladimir, Suzdal is a charming little town famous for its monasteries, churches and convents. This is what Russia might have looked like if communist architecture had not prevailed.
Almost fairy-tale like in appearance, the oldest buildings are located in the Kremlin, which was founded in the 11th century. The most remarkable is the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral, built in 1225 and rebuilt in 1528, with its blue domes spangled with gold.
A fine collection of icons can be found in the Archbishop's Chambers. North of the Kremlin is the Pokrovsky and Spaso-Yefimyevsky monastery; off the main square are the Rizopolozhensky monastery and Alexandrovsky convent.
In order to make the most of Suzdal, it is advisable to spend the whole day walking from one monastery to another, soaking in the atmosphere of this quaint little town.
The town is used to busloads of tourists and has an efficient Main Tourist Complex, which can help arrange overnight stays in the local hotels and guest houses.
Main Tourist Complex (Glavny Turistky Complex) tel. 8-09231-21530 3.
Yasnaya Polyana
Yasnaya Polyana (Clear Glade) was Leo Tolstoy's sprawling country estate. Located 240 kilometers south of Moscow, the complex is one Russia's most famous literary landmarks and houses the Tolstoy House Museum and Tolstoy Literary Museum.
It was here that this famous writer was born, spent most of his life and is buried. The large unkempt grounds are marked with little green signs displaying fragments of prose or poetry inspired by that particular location.
The Tolstoy house is a modest two-story building preserved in much the same manner as it was before the writer's death in 1910. One of the main attractions is the study where he wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
A short walk from the main house is Tolsty's unmarked grave — a raised grassy patch fenced off by cherry trees. Visiting the grave is a tradition for newlyweds from the nearby town of Tula.
Yasna Polyana House Museum and Estate
Tel: 8-0872-339-832
House Open -11am-3pm, Estate-10:30am-4:30pm Wednesday to Sunday.
Closed last Wednesday of the month.
| 
