Back to Kolomenskoye

Two weeks ago when we walked by the river there was still lots of lying snow and the river bank was decidedly slipperly. Since then spring has arrived. The first thing we had to contend with was a flooded playground. It has been bad in the past but I think this year it was deeper than ever - and yes we did have ducks for a few days.

The children couldn't go out for over a week as there was no where to play. It slowly dried out and we are back to normal: and then it turned hot!! The end of last week upto yesterday was in the mid twenties!! Having to work on Saturday when it was so nice was very hard. Still we have three days off.

Looking back over the blog I see we last went to Kolomenskoye in May 2010 and promised to go back. I thought I had taken lots of photos, but I find fewer than I expected. Lucky I took lots yesterday. When we went last time we missed the reconstructed summer palace of Tsar Alexei. It is the most amazing building, made entirely from wood. The smell was wonderful. The original palace was on the far side of the park. We chose not to go into the main palace but to keep the rooms for another day as it was so nice outside. There has been a lot of criticism of the reconstruction as it took money from restoring genuine historic buildings, but it is pretty amazing to look at.

We approached the palace from the back. This was the entrance to the Middle aged and young females - that is what the sign said.

An inner courtyard. The detail in the carving is amazing

The front!!

I love the mixture of shapes and levels. It's mad. The roof reminds me of a dragon!!

In one of the building was an exhibition entitled angels and distaffs. I wasn't interested in the angels which looked like angels seen in churches in many places, but the distaffs and other exhibits were much more interesting.

These distaffs are used for holding spun wool while it is wound into balls. The different patterns are now seen on wooden tourist items.

Embroidered linen - these were special piece and often used as curtains. I have seen items like this at the museum near Yaruslavl and at Abrasevo.

A traditional wedding outfit. Note the shoes made from birch bark.

A young girl's outfit

A weaving loom used for weaving linen which was (and is) grown north of Moscow

A pair of carved doors

An ornate carved doorway, I think from a church

The detail in the work was amazing but difficult to see at a distance so I took a few pictures showing parts close up.

A church banner which was carried on a flag pole in a procession. It is a mixture of metal work, enamel and embroidery.

The embroidered centre

The enamelled corner

A church canopy rescued from St Nicholas monastry (don't know where). It was in complete disrepair and an interesting video showed the state it was found in and how it was repaired. Inside is a beautiful as the outside.

We then headed to the World Heritage site on the hill over looking the Moscow River. The first place we came to was the Church of John the Baptist built by Ivan the terrible to celebrate his accession to the throne in 1547. Look at the image over the gate.

This church is interesting because it shows a change in style in architecture. It has five domes which is what all churches have today, but they are not the true onion domes of today. At this time of year between Easter and Pentecost, families take time to tidy the family graves. I think families have to travel a long way to visit graves and real flowers don't last, so many are decorated with plastic. We saw this lady tidying up.

We then walked onto the main site to the Church of the Ascension. Look carefully and you can see the roof is a completely different style. It was built in 1532 by Basil III for the birth of his son Ivan (the Terrible). The roof is a tent style. This was one of the first in Russia to be made of stone. A later decree said that church roofs should have five domes, but the people liked the tent style, so the church roofs are made with five domes but the bell towers are usually tent style. Look back at past posts and you will see what I mean.

Just to the right of this picture is the bell tower to St George's church. The church has gone but the tower remains and we were entertained by a couple of bell ringers.

The bells are controlled by a series of ropes and pedals and each bell is rung to a slightly different rhythm. I often hear them on my way home from the little wooden church.

One final church with the full five onion domes we see today. This time Our Lady of Kazan completed in 1650.

This blog has gone on long enough for now and it my bedtime. More pictures in a few days time.