The second day of our weekend, we took the bus (guided tour) to go first to Raifa monastery.
Raifa male Bogoroditsky Monastery is located 30 km North-West from Kazan and is one of the most visited places by tourists coming to Kazan. This monastery is situated on the shore of the lake, surrounded by centuries-old pines.
 |
Photo in summer, but we have only seen snow in March !
|
The monastery, originally an hermitage sanctified in the name of Reverend fathers tortured in Sinai and Raithu (former name of El-Tor, South Sinai). It was founded in 1613 by monk Filaret under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovitch (remember December post about Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and his Summer Palace at Kolomenskoye : Mikhail Feodorovitch was his father). Closed during the Soviet years, it was the first monastery in the Diocese of Kazan to be returned to the Church of Russia in 1991. Restoration work began immediately. This monastery is the largest in the Diocese of Kazan and in Tatarstan.
There is a legend about Raifa Bogoroditsky Monastery (thanks to Viktoria who told me). In the lake there are a lot of frogs. In the 17th century, the frogs croaked loudly, and prevented the monks to pray. In the past, one of the monks asked God that the frogs kept silent and nowadays the frogs next to the monastery are still silent !
Once, scientists from France (every knows that frog is a French speciality and there are a lot of experts !) brought their frogs into the lake, and they were also silent next to the monastery. Then they took the frogs who lived in the lake to analyze them, why they did not croak. But once they drove away from the monastery, at about 1 km, the frogs began to croak out loudly : silence of the frogs is considered as a miracle !
Now, let's start the visit of the Raifa Bogoroditsky Monastery.
The Bell tower with over-the-gate Church of Archangel Michael was among the last of the principal churches to be built in the monastery in 1889.
Church of SS. Reverend Fathers :
This church of Reverend Fathers tortured in Sinai and Raithu was erected instead of the first wooden temple and consecrated in 1708. Later on the church was reconstructed by designs of architects A.G. Nevinsky (1892) and N.F. Malinovsky (1897). After the Raifa Monastery was returned to the Russian Church, it was consecrated for the second time on September 4, 1992.
Holy Trinity Cathedral :
This cathedral was built by design of architect F.N. Malinovsky. The temple was famous for its remarkable acoustics, so that the singing of four monks in the church gallery could be heard in a distance of 2 km from the monastery.
Some other buildings and churches :
Cathedral of God’s Mother of Georgia (on the left) :
The main shrine of the Raifa Monastery is the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God of Georgia.
By the middle of the 17th century, the Georgian icon became the object of worship, as it was considered the miracle-working one. Metropolitan of Novgorod, Nikon (later on the patriarch) investigated all the facts about the miracles which happened from this image and set in 1650 the celebration of the Georgian icon of the Mother of God on August 22. The annual procession of carrying the image to Sviyazhsk was fixed on July 31.
This house is for the monastery governor :
We also saw people bringing holy water from a spring located in this building :
Now, a short visit on the frozen lake ... I can't imagine the winter season for frogs ! (certainly French frogs can't resist)
And a video to see the monastery during summer : http://video.yandex.ru/#search?text=раифский%20монастырь%20казань&where=all&id=18639984-02-12
After this monastery, we took again the bus to go to a small island on the West of Kazan.
We had a break for the lunch at a family restaurant along the road between Raifa and Sviyazhsk, that we can reach by river or by car through the bridge over Sviyaga river. Sviyazhsk is situated 30 km far from Kazan, at the place of confluence of the Volga and Sviyaga.
 |
In summer but we saw it in March with snow all around
It is totally different with snow as you can see !
|
Sviyazhsk was founded in 1551 by Ivan the Terrible (he was 21 years old !) as a fortress and till today it preserved monuments of Old Russian architecture, among which wooden Troitskaya church and Uspensky cathedral, built with the participation of Postnik Yakovlev, legendary creator of Moscow St. Basil’s Cathedral. After the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, Sviyazhsk lost its military function and political center moved to Kazan. In 1708 Sviyazhsk became a part of Kazan province. Repressions in Sviyazhsk began after 1917. Since 1920-s Sviyazhsk became the place of isolation of the prisoners, branch of GULAG. The town became desolated, church relics, historical and cultural monuments were destroyed. Mental hospital was established in the monastery on the island. Only in 1960 Sviyazhsk was named historical and cultural monument of Russia.
Today Sviyazhsk island is enlisted in UNESCO cultural and nature heritage list. Uspensky monastery was given under the jurisdiction of Kazan Orthodox patriarchy in 1997.
Sviyazhsk nature reserve was established here in 1998 and thanks to newly-built road, Sviyashzk became a peninsula.
Churches under restoration can be seen such as Church of Konstantin and Yelena (XVI - XVIII), Troitskaya church of John the Baptist (XVI) – first Orthodox church in Kazan region, Sergievskaya church (1604), ..., Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin (1560) - see below on the left side.
When walking in the island, we saw wooden and typical houses : however, not a lot of people are living in this island during winter.
More information about Sviyazhsk :
And a video to see it without snow (a bit long !) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAjY9HyhUq4
Back to Kazan for the third day of visit.
We visited first the Peter and Paul Cathedral (1723-1726).
Today in Tatarstan, in Kazan and in all Russia have been created the conditions for the interconfessional dialogue. Though most part of the population follow main religions such as Islamic, Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran, others as Old Believers and Cryashen churches coexist peacefully.
There are many mixed marriages in Kazan and the religious tolerance became the way of life long time ago.
There is also a Krishna temple and a unique temple of all the religions has been built by the artist Ildar Khanov (we didn't see it but there are 16 religions represented, as told - see image below).
Peter and Paul Cathedral and bell tower are performed in Russian baroque style (“Naryshkin”), which was very popular in Russia at the end of XVII – beginning of XVIII centuries. Decor, numerous façade details and their bright colors, which survived till today gives the cathedral unique look. The main relics of the cathedral are miracle-working Smolensk-Sedmiozernaya Icon of Our Lady and Iverskaya Icon of Our Lady.
There are many mixed marriages in Kazan and the religious tolerance became the way of life long time ago.
There is also a Krishna temple and a unique temple of all the religions has been built by the artist Ildar Khanov (we didn't see it but there are 16 religions represented, as told - see image below).
Peter and Paul Cathedral and bell tower are performed in Russian baroque style (“Naryshkin”), which was very popular in Russia at the end of XVII – beginning of XVIII centuries. Decor, numerous façade details and their bright colors, which survived till today gives the cathedral unique look. The main relics of the cathedral are miracle-working Smolensk-Sedmiozernaya Icon of Our Lady and Iverskaya Icon of Our Lady.
We concluded our visit in Kazan with the National museum of the Republik of Tatarstan.
It is situated in former Gostiny Dvor building and was built in 1800-1803 according to the project of architect M.Yemelyanov. The building suffered numerous fires and reconstructions. After the fire of 1987 the museum part of the building was reconstructed – two upper floors were destroyed and the historic image of the building of XIX century was restored. Private collection of the archaeologist and historian Andrey Likhachev (1832 - 1890) and exhibits of the scientific industrial exhibition of 1895 form the basis of the museum collection. Nowadays the museum stocks include 800 thousand items. Bulgar collection of A.Likhachev, collection of the Ananyinsky burial grounds digs, collection of golden coins, ancient scrolls and manuscripts are among the most precious.
Among of things to see, we noticed the Catherine II coach used when she travelled in the city of Kazan.
After, it was time to go back to Moscow with the night train ... 12 hours !
No comments:
Post a Comment