Sunday, August 4, 2013

Kolomenskoye

August 3 was a BEAUTIFUL day with temperatures in the 70's with a little breeze and sunny skies Elder Ken and Sister Jeannie Pierson, Elder Paul and Sister Shirley Millar, Elder Dean Smart and Sister Carolyn Sonda and Dave and I went to see the "wooden wonders of Kilomenskoye."
Kolomenskoye is a former royal estate in Moscow, Russia. The ancient village of Kolomenskoye  was first mentioned in 1339!

We arrived early and decided to take a walk around the park.  And walk we did. We walked for almost seven miles around this beautiful estate to see the sites! As we walked along, we saw the Church of the Ascension built in 1532  in white stone to commemorate the long-awaited birth of an heir to the throne, the future Ivan the Terrible. Behind it you can see the Moscow River.
 

We passed many apple trees, cemeteries sprinkled throughout the grassy areas of residents who used to live here. Sadly, many of the little homes were ordered destroyed  within the past 100 years.
We passed this horse drawn carriage as we were walking
This was a beautiful carriage we tried to get a picture of (but they moved it)

We walked up 100 plus stairs and down to continue our tour of these vast grounds. We passed an overlook where we were able to see for miles into Moscow and the Moscow River.

As we continued along we had another 100 stairs to climb and down again. we made our way around to the highlight and the main purpose of our trip today. The Wooden Palace.

In 1640, tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich ordered the construction of a luxurious wooden palace. It was built entirely without saws or nails and had 250 rooms and 3000 windows. Peter the Great spent part of his youth there. The palace fell into disrepair and Catherine ll refused to live there and had it demolished in 1768. A wooden model of the palace survived and a full-scale reconstruction of the Wooden Palace was completed in 2010. It is spectacular.

It is referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. It was built also without saws or nails. It also has 250 rooms and 3000 windows. WOW. The furnishings are either original from the period and in some cases replicated.

We enjoyed our tour very much. It is very beautiful. It is a nice change of pace seeing wooden buildings because most of the buildings in Moscow are cement and glass.
 
this is the church where there was a funeral going on. It certainly wasn't an easy place to access. but it is a church used today. Here is the name of the church:
The Church of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner (the Baptist)
the front door was open and the open casket was right inside the door. there was music playing.
This lovely church is called The Church of the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan
the Moscow River behind me
L-R - Sister Millar, Sister Pierson, Elder Pierson, Elder Millar and yours truly in front

                                         there was a red carpet on the stairs leading into the Wooden Palace.
We obviously were not able to go into all the rooms. We did see many of them though. The men and women each had their own "side." There were these HUGE intricately designed ovens used to keep each room warm. We could not figure out how they worked because there didn't appear to be any openings.
in the bath room there was a huge pit to heat large stones to make things steamy. I hope to have pictures later to share.
until then, dos vidonya.




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