June 29, 2013 (Posted Aug 7)
Following our departure from Murmansk, we spent a day at sea paralleling the coast of the Russian Kola Peninsula. Looking toward shore, Michael spotted a large antenna array that we later found out was a cold war era listening station equivalent to the U.S. DEW line. The Google Earth photographs show that it even looks similar to a U.S. installation. Two huge curved antennas pointed toward Alaska and two more toward northern Canada. The installation appears to have been abandoned some time ago. We both noticed that the Russians typically abandon equipment in place when they are finished with it or it has worn out. We noticed it particularly with the rusting ships in Murmansk, the cranes and dry docks as well as abandoned buildings in the city.
The Silver Cloud entered the White Sea while we were sleeping and proceeded toward our next destination, Solovetsky Island. The Solovky Islands are a group of six relatively large and many small islands located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea west of Archangel, Russia at 65 degrees north latitude. We had come just south of the Arctic Circle. The climate is mild and misty in the short summers and harsh in winter. The White Sea freezes over and quantities of snow cover the ground.
 |
| A Priest Leading Pilgrims on a Tour |
Bolshoi Solovetsky (Greater Solovetsky) is the largest island and has a famous fifteenth century monastery that was once known as the citadel of Christianity in the Russian North before being turned into a Soviet prison camp in the nineteen twenties. It later served as a naval training station during world war two. The monastery is currently undergoing restoration to its former state and is inhabited by a small group of Russian Orthodox monks. Solovetsky monastery has become a tourist attraction and pilgrimage site. The monastery draws visitors from all over Europe. Most come by boat from Archangel; Silver Cloud is one of the first cruise ships to visit. We did see a fairly large number of pilgrims during our visit.
 |
| Pilgrims Entering a Shrine |
Solovetsky Island has only a small dock, suitable for pleasure boats only. Silver Cloud anchored in the bay and we tourists went ashore by ship's tender. The monastery is a World Heritage Site and the rest of the island is a nature preserve. Only people on the organized tour with an official guide were allowed ashore.
A  |
| The Archbishop's Church |
We had a wonderful tour. Our tour guide spoke English well for someone who learned the language from a non-native English speaker. She said that she lived on the island and had been doing this, summers, for nearly twenty years. She knew the history and the ins-and-outs of the building complex well. We spent more than three hours in the complex and still did not see all of it. The Russian government is spending a considerable amount on restoration and we could hear the sounds of construction in many of the portions of the monastery that we did not enter.
Solovetsky Monastery consists of a number of buildings, including at least three separate churches, inside a fortified wall. The walls outline the shape of a ship. There are defensive towers every hundred feet or so and even some rooms are built into the defensive wall. I took many, many photographs with my new camera.
 |
| A Cannon in a Corner Turret |
We saw two of the churches, the refectory and the "treasury" where once monks kept their valuable gold and silver religious items, icons and the greatest library in the North of Russia. Some items have been recovered and returned to the monastery but the library is gone. We trouped along a section of fortified wall and examined a defensive tower with its ancient cannon. We toured the dungeon where the Tsars kept troublesome political prisoners. And we saw the ingenious heating system as well as the water powered mill and other pre industrial infrastructure. At tour's end, we had a good idea of how a late medieval religious community far from anywhere supplied its own needs and even prospered.
 |
| Interior Yard |
 |
| Our Guide: In the Dungeon |
When all the tour groups returned from the monastery, the Silver Cloud raised anchor and moved across the bay to Zayatsky island where some of our passengers took a tour of some mysterious labyrinths of low stone walls. No one knows who built them or what their purpose was. Michael and I passed on this tour since it seemed to be no more than a walk to visit stones on an island that we were warned had a very large mosquito population. We spent the time having champagne on the rear deck and watching the scenery from the comfort of lounge chairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment