Moscow Day 6: The Convent and the Cemetery
Finally, today was the last day of a long series of meetings. We were all partly hung over after the "Illumations: Moscow by Night" tour (posted the pics in earlier entries) and not in much mood for the last day. Because when they say "by night", they don't mean 7pm; it's more like 12am to 3am. No one was sad the sessions ended by early afternoon so those based in Brussels could catch their flight back.Those who were left decided to see some of the other lesser-known sights in Moscow. Todd (from China), Thanos (the funniest person alive on the planet) and Adrian (swoon...) joined the Asia gang in our jaunt.
First stop was Novodivechy Convent where Peter the Great exiled his meddling sister after she kept trying to kill him. It was a nice quiet place, not the sort of place you would expect to see hanging bodies as Peter the Great did, to send a signal to his sister to quit poking around his kingdom. Today, it houses some of the best collection of Russian iconic art.
Unlike the other European medieval religous art, Russian icons are quite peculiar. First, there's gold overkill. That's the first thing you see when you enter, a massive wall of gold (see picture #5). Only upon closer inspection do you notice the icons, which are painted and the gold overlay is done almost as if to clothe the holy figures (pic #3).
Good thing Thanos was with us so he could explain some elements of the Russian Orthodox faith - like why they have nowhere to sit in the Church (pic #1). Answer: Because you come to worship, not to relax. :)
There is a cemetery right beside the convent where famous people are buried, or so we're told. I can't verify how famous they are since the tombstones are in Cyrillic letters but Mikhail Gorbachev's wife is there somewhere though I didn't even know she was dead. The cemetery is an interesting novelty because the graves are original and very personal. It felt a little creepy to be walking around so we didn't stay long but worth a stop if you have time. The weeping woman grave was very touching.
Final stop was Victory Park which is a much lovelier place to visit at night. The fountains spout red water at night and makes for a very dramatic picture. The two pictures at the bottom of the collage seem exactly the same except for me. Ezer and Raffy are amazing at keeping their poses.
posted by moan @ 8:32 PM
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