Trips and Tales (Part 21)
Musings on Great Cities…and Others
After a potted history of Moscow, it’s about time to run through some of its major attractions. As with St.Petersburg, I plan to contrast some of the more populist features with the more obscure. There are certain boxes that have to be ticked off first, though: the picture-postcard stuff. Which sets me thinking: isn’t it strange how the incredible becomes ordinary through familiarity? I was wondering whether the residents of places that seem remarkable to outsiders, like St.Petersburg and Moscow, share the same feelings about their surroundings.
I live in an old stone town, not in the same league as either of the above, but which nevertheless avoided the bleak depersonalisation of the industrial revolution, largely through resistance to “progress” by the town’s most powerful and wealthy family (whose lineage and stately house still exist today). Whilst the everyday machinations of the town’s existence, and the lives and deaths of its inhabitants mean little to me if I’m honest, I still feel something in the sandstone, the limestone and the slate, and in the archaic character of its surviving late-medieval aspect. Even the obligatory “faceless precinct” doesn’t seem quite as faceless in this town as it does in others. It was an interesting revelation for me when a bona fide St Petersburg Russian viewed my photographs and declared that my home town appeared “a perfect place to live in”. I felt no pride, actually. I mean, I didn’t build it, I just live in it.
When I look at images of St.Petersburg or Moscow, I still feel that first “hit” from the grandeur and magnificence of their architectural forms, and I’m in awe of how minds from different places and times thought buildings and cities should be built. And I’m hoping that I don’t lose that. Some things deserve to remain amazing.
Anyway, on we go…
On the Beaten Track: Moscow Must-Sees
The Kremlin
Where else to start? Ok, we all know that it’s the seat of the Russian government. However, did you realise that it’s not actually a single building but a vast, fortified stronghold, encompassing grounds, several cathedrals, a bell tower, an armoury and a palace, as well as other military and governmental buildings? Its form reflects a defensive concept once repeated throughout major Russian cities. “Kremlin” essentially means “fortress” in English and has functional parallels in medieval walled castles at the core of towns and cities across Britain.
The sheer magnitude of the Kremlin’s construction is perhaps an indicator of the scale of dangers faced in a medieval Russia, with its warring districts and rampant Mongol Hordes. Today, tourists are granted entrance into many of the buildings. Delights include the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, and The State Armoury – all positively dripping with history and culture.
Next time: Trips and Tales (Part 22)
Moscow Must-Sees (continued): Red Square, Kilometre Zero, St. Basil’s Cathedral.
[Photo by Panoramas]