A Day in the Country

On Saturday I decided to be really adventurous, and I rented a car to drive out into the country. I don't know why driving here is any more adventurous than some of the other places I have driven, but somehow Russian police and Russian drivers seem especially threatening to me. Fortunately I had no problems, though I did drive on some interesting roads. I tried to take pictures of some of the highway that I was driving on, but none of them really turned out well. And don't worry, I only took photos of the road when I was stopped because of traffic. The highway I was on was the main road to Murmansk, a city with about 350,000 people way, way up North, near the Russian border with Norway. The trip from St. Petersburg to Murmansk would be about 1,500 kilometers, all on a two-lane highway, mostly without any lines at all, and full of potholes and covered by a patchwork of different types of pavement. It made for a bumpy ride and would be an unpleasantly long drive Murmansk. It took me more than two hours to drive the 125 kilometers to my destination, Staraya Ladoga.

Staraya Ladoga was founded in 753 and until about 950 was one of the most important trading posts in Eastern Europe. The trade routes through here were pretty extensive; in fact, the oldest Arabian coin found in Europe was discovered in Staraya Ladoga. The Viking Rurik arrived in Staraya Ladoga in 862. His descendents moved to Novgorod and later Kiev, establishing the beginnings of Kievan Rus - the first major Russian state, so Staraya Ladoga is sometimes called Russia's first capital. Now the town is a little village of about 3,000 people and there's not a lot going on, but there are over 100 important archealogical sites in the vicinity, along with a fortress and some 12th century churches, so I thought it might be a nice place to spend the day.

This is the heavily rebuilt 12th century fortress in Staraya Ladoga. It was first rebuilt in the 16th century to accommodate modern weaponry. Clearly, there is also more modern restoration going on, as it was heavily damaged during World War II.

St. George's Church is inside the fortress and was built in the 12th century. There was also a 17th century wooden church in the fortress.

This is an original fresco inside St. George's, painted in 1167.

From the fortress I went to the Monastery of St. Nicholas, which had structures dating from the 12th-19th centuries. In the 12th-13th centuries, Staraya Ladoga apparently had six major churches and 12 operating monasteries. Those numbers are seriously reduced now, and this monastery is one of two in the town. Still not bad for a town with 3,000 people.

It looks like this monastery has had some serious rough times, however, which is not hard to imagine considering a world war and seventy years of official government atheism. The monks seemed hard at work rebuilding and raising money for restoration of the monastery buildings.

A view from outside the walls of the monastery

The main churches inside the monastery walls


From there I went to the Convent of the Assumption. In Russian it is actually still called a monastery, but this was designated specifically as a monastery for women. These grounds were in significantly better shape and had really nice gardens all over. There were still a large number of very run-down buildings, though. Again, I presume these are the result of war and many years of government oppression.

The monastery guard dog

The 12th century Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. Unfortunately the church was closed and I was not able to go inside.

One of the back gates to the monastery


Many of the other major historical sites of interest are burial mounds, which are scattered all over the town. I stopped at a spot where there are several together on the north side of the village. These mounds date from the 8th and 9th centuries, and it is believed that Rurik himself may have been buried in one of these mounds.

This was a really peaceful spot, and there were a couple families here picnicking. There were flowers growing all over the mounds, and the mounds stand right on top of the bluffs overlooking the river.

Here are a few more photos from around the town.

Nice place for a swim?

Typical Russian wooden houses


I got back to St. Petersburg a little earlier than I thought I would, so I used the car to go out and visit a cathedral that I had been meaning to get to for a while, but is inconveniently located. The Smolny Convent was designed and built by the Italian architect Rastrelli, and the cathedral is supposed to be one of his great masterpieces. Interestingly, the convent was begun so that Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, would be able to take her vows and live there as a nun, because she was not going to be allowed to succeed to the throne. However, Ivan VI was overthrown in a coup d'etat, and Elizabeth decided not to become a nun after all when the throne was offered to her. The royal family continued to fund the construction of the convent, until Catherine the Great got the throne. She wasn't a fan of baroque architecture, so she cut off funding and Rastrelli was not able to build his bell tower or complete the interior of the cathedral. As a result, the interior is disappointing, and it's really just the outside that is worth taking a look at. The cathedral is mainly used for concerts now.

After returning my car I went home and ate dinner. I went back out around 11:30 and walked down to the banks of the Neva. Saturday was a Russian holiday, that I'm still not quite clear on. Everyone kept telling me it was like prom, except everyone in the country has it on the same day, and school's already out for the summer. Regardless, at 11:45 or so, a big sailboat with scarlet sails was supposed to sail down the river and there would be fireworks. This sounded like something worth seeing, so I joined the crowds in their festivities. Apparently the boat has something to do with some book I had never heard of (it's not Russian), that everyone seemed to think I should know. Something about a guy returning for his lover in a ship with scarlet sails.

Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the photograph above (credit goes instead to wikipedia), because sometime a little after 1:00 am, I was still waiting for this alleged boat. I was so tired I was about to fall over (I had gotten up early) and there were mosquitoes constantly biting me. As I got more and more irritable I became less and less interested in seeing some boat from some book I had never heard of for some holiday that was supposed to be like prom. Looks like it would have been pretty awesome, though.

Here's the picture I took, around 1:15, just before I went home.