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Tag Archives: Palekh

Beautiful Russia: The Golden Ring of Russia 1

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Lada Ray in CULTURE: Russia, CULTURE: World

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

Golden Ring of Russia, Holy Trinity by Andrey Rublev, JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Moscow Kremlin, Palekh, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia, Russian architecture and art, Russian matreshka, Sergiev Posad, Sergievo-Troitskaya Lavra, Suzdal, Suzdal Museum of Wooden Architecture, town of Vladimir, Yaroslavl

Today, I’ve prepared something truly special! I have long promised my readers a new series of posts, entitled BEAUTIFUL RUSSIA (Dear readers, thank you for your patience!).

And what better way to kick off the new series than with 2 awesome posts about the GOLDEN RING of RUSSIA. Ready to take a trip into Russia’s medieval past? Then get into my virtual time machine and fasten your seat belts…

The spectacular Golden Ring of Russia (Russian: Zolotoye Koltso) is comprised of a number of ancient towns, located just northeast of Moscow and renowned for their gorgeous architecture, including magnificent churches, kremlins and monasteries, making it one of the most desirable destinations in Russia and beyond. The Golden Ring includes: Sergiev Posad, Suzdal, Vladimir, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Palekh, Ivanovo, to name some. Many of these towns are more than a thousand years of age; most are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Here, history and modernity are intertwined in a striking and unforgettable way.

SUZDAL

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the town of Suzdal is so packed with history that I can barely scratch the surface here.

The Suzdal Kremlin

Home to magnificent churches, monasteries, beautiful kremlin and museums, including one-of-a-kind open-air Museum of Wooden Architecture, it boasts a developed tourism industry with scores of various hotels, cafes and restaurants. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t have a railroad, which may explain why its historic monuments have been preserved in such excellent shape. Nevertheless, it’s easy to get to Suzdal by either booking a day tour or catching a regular bus from Moscow, or by traveling to Vladimir by train, and then catching a bus (they depart every thirty minutes) to Suzdal.

A word about the Kremlin: it is a common misconception in the West that there is only one Kremlin – the one in Moscow. True, the Moscow Kremlin is by far the most formidable and famous of its brethren, however, it’s hardly the only. In fact, ancient kremlins abound in Russia, and not just in the Golden Ring. Every self-respecting medieval Russian town boasts one. The word kremlin means a ‘fortress,’ or a ‘castle’ in ancient Russian.

Suzdal, Church at the Euthymius Monastery

Suzdal, Euthymius Monastery Belfry

The Suzdal Kremlin, part of the “White Monuments of Suzdal and Vladimir.”

Interesting trivia: J.R.R. Tolkien modeled his White City in The Lord of the Rings after Moscow and the ancient towns of the Golden Ring. Traditionally, Russian medieval architecture was white stone, as seen on many pictures here. Although the current Moscow Kremlin is constructed with red brick, the original one was white. Moscow is often poetically referred to as “the City of White Stone” – Russian: ‘Moskva Belokamennaya.’ Oh, and by the way, the character of the delusional ruler of the White City who is ready to sacrifice his own son, is based on Stalin who incidentally did sacrifice his son during World War II. When they talk in the book about ‘the White City having to take the brunt of the attacks, while others are kept safe,’ the reference here is both to the Mongol Invasion (due to Russian resistance, Mongols were unable to advance further, thus protecting Europe), and WWII, when most of Hitler’s forces were fighting in the Russian (Eastern) front, thus making life easier for the Western front.

The Grand Dining Hall of the Suzdal Kremlin

Golden Gate, Suzdal Kremlin

Suzdal, Museum of Wooden Architecture. This museum was created around the astounding wooden churches, which are a trademark of the region and which were created by Russian artisans without a single nail. These amazing churches are at least several hundred years old!

Suzdal, Museum of Wooden Architecture. I typical house of a Russian peasant, called izba (emphasis on “a”).

Inside the izba. Items include various clay and wooden pots and bowls, as well as a must for every self-respecting Russian household: a Samovar.

Izba’s spiritual corner, called krasniy ugol (red or beautiful corner). Every morning/night, inhabitants would pray facing this corner filled with family icons and sacred artifacts.

This whimsical and elaborate church had been built without a single nail!

Russian windmill: just like everything in this museum, built without a single nail.

Russians love their cucumbers, whether fresh and crunchy or pickled, and there is a gazillion varieties of those, including: summer, lightly pickled, spicy, garlic, winter pickled, etc.

Suzdal is renowned for its cucumbers, considered the best in Central Russia.

The Cucumber Festival of Suzdal attracts cucumber, and Russian art, lovers from all over the world.

SERGIEV POSAD

The town of Sergiev Posad is home to the famous monastery: Sergievo-Troitskaya Lavra – Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius.

Entrance to the Monastery.

Sergievo-Troitskaya Lavra, The Trinity Cathedral.

Sergievo-Troitskaya Lavra, Assumption Cathedral.

Russian churches are renowned for their beautifully painted icons. The art of the Russian icon-painting has been passed from generation to generation and is taught in local monasteries. Sergievo-Troitskaya Lavra houses Russia’s most precious and famous icon: The Holy Trinity, by the legendary medieval artist Andrei Rublev.  

The historic town of Sergiev Posad is also the birth place of the famous Russian Matreshka (or Matryoshka).

Matryoshkas are nesting dolls that come in all sizes, colors and various whimsically beautiful and creative designs.

VLADIMIR

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the City of Vladimir is the capital of the Vladimir region and yet another spectacular example of Russian architecture.

Vladimir, city view.

The magnificent Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir.

The Vladimir Kremlin and its beautiful medieval churches.

PERESLAVL-ZALESSKY

The town was founded in 1152 by prince Yury Dolgoruky. It is located halfway between Moscow and Yaroslavl, about 130 km North-East of Moscow, on the bank of Pleshcheevo Lake. Here, in 1693, young Peter the Great constructed a “fun fleet” which became a prototype of the first Russian fleet on the Baltic sea.

Bogolyubovo Monastery (Love of God Monastery).

Cathedral of Trasfiguration of the Savior, the oldest surviving architectural monument in Central Russia.

Fyodorovsky Church.

Goritsky Monastery.

Magnificent monastery gate.

The nature here is untouched. Paining on the river in Pereslavl-Zalessky.

ROSTOV VELIKY

What a view! Rostov Veliky, Kremlin.

A close-up of the Rostov Kremlin.

Rostov, Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery.

More Rostov Veliky, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

YAROSLAVL

Elias Cathedral.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral.

Church interior.

Historic Yaroslavl Train station.

Dmitry Medvedev speaking at the Yaroslavl 1000’s birthday celebration.

PALEKH

Palekh is a tiny town in the Ivanovo region.

Its main treasure is not so much architecture as the stunning artistic heritage of its residents.

Palekh box depicting Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, and characters from his fairy tales.

It is home to the world-celebrated Palekh paintings (Palekhskaya rospis’), exquisitely refined miniature works of art performed on lacquer wood surfaces – mostly jewelry boxes, as well as collectible paintings, plaques and trays.

Above are several exquisite Palekh boxes. They range in size from 1-2 to 10-20 inches. Some of these one-of-a-kind creations are only a 2-3 centimeters (1 inch or less) in diameter. Imagine what kind of eye and hand are required to perform these paintings with such artistry and precision!

Palekh jewelry boxes, chests and other items, filled with characterts from the Russian literature, folklore and history go for hundreds and thousands of dollars on world markets.

Matryoshka, Palekh style. These Matryoshkas sell for a hefty premium compared to the market.

Unusual Palekh miniature box, depicting Western fairy tales.

Enjoyed my journey in time? Keep reading!

Beautiful Russia: The Golden Ring of Russia 2. Many more great pics and interesting stories from the past, plus Russian art, dance and Youtube links to live performances!

Also, do check out my other posts about Moscow, St. Pete, Russian Metro, Russian Trains, my childhood memories etc., complete with lots of rare and cool pics! https://ladaray.wordpress.com/category/culture-russia/

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Award Party on Lada Ray Blog + Beautiful New Photos of Russia!

22 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Lada Ray in BOOK: Catharsis, BOOK: GOLD TRAIN, BOOK: Stepford USA, BOOK: THE EARTH SHIFTER, CULTURE: Russia, My Updates

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

Accidental Spy Adventure Series, Author Lada Ray, Beautiful Blogger Award, Blog awards, Gold Train by author Lada Ray, Golden Ring of Russia, Kremlin, Moscow, nature photography, Palekh, photos of Russia, Reader Appreciation Award, Sergiev Posad, The Earth Shifter, World Heritage Site

Welcome to my Award Party! Celebrating two new awards!

Wow! I am very honored and touched to receive Reader Appreciation Award from a fabulous guy and fellow author, Jim L. Wright. Thank you very much, Jim!

Here is the link to Jim’s post about the award. http://jimlwright.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/301/

Please check out Jim’s blog, The Left Wright Brain – it’s really great!

The rules for this award are:

  • Post seven interesting things about yourself,
  • Nominate 5 people who in turn will post on their page the award with the link to the giver,
  • Let them know about the nomination
  • Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog
  • Post the award logo

I already mentioned various interesting things about myself in my “acceptance speeches” for previous awards. 😉

You are invited to check them out here:

1. Sunshine Award 

2. Versatile Blogger Award

3. One Lovely Blog Award

This time, I decided to do something a bit different, something I think my readers will enjoy. In keeping with the theme of this particular award, here are…

SEVEN THINGS I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO WRITE ABOUT!

1. Awesome adventures, mysteries and thrillers. My adventure/thriller series with a touch of romance and paranormal, Accidental Spy Adventures, is well underway. So far, I’ve released Green Desert (Prequel, short novella), STEPFORD USA (US Adventure, full size novel) and GOLD TRAIN (Russia Adventure, full size novel). Coming next year: DRAGON GATE (Asia Adventure).

2. Fantasy and scifi. On September 13 I released my first fantasy/scifi short entitled CATHARSIS, Legend of the Lemurians (Earth Keepers Chronicles: Book 1). In December I’ll be releasing the highly anticipated THE EARTH SHIFTER, my new YA fantasy/thriller novel.

3. Wisdom and Spirituality

4. Futurism, or put another way, predictive analysis of future events

5. Nature and animals

6. Feng Shui, beauty, and Oriental art. (I regularly write about all of the above on my blog and I invite you to check out my posts!)

7. Last but not least! My travels and world cultures. In addition to writing about those, I love photography and try to post great pics of my favorite places to make it visual.

The new series of posts I am starting this fall is entitled “Beautiful Russia.” In this series I will be posting about various beautiful gems of Russian architecture, art, nature and culture. The first 2 posts will be about the Golden Ring of Russia, a ring of beautiful ancient towns north-east of Moscow. Most of these towns are at least 1000 years old and all of them are a feast for the senses, boasting beautiful art, architecture and nature. The UNESCO World Heritage Sites abound here. I will have tons of gorgeous pics soon, but for now, enjoy a sneak peek:

The ancient Kremlin, town of Suzdal, the Golden Ring of Russia

Suzdal monastery

The town of Sergiev Posad, the famous Sergiev Monastery, the Golden Ring of Russia

The town of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, the Golden Ring of Russia

The artisans of the Golden Ring produce exquisite traditional Russian art. The town of Palekh is where the famous Palekh boxes come from. Each tiny box is hand-painted in the secret Palekh technique of feather-light stroke and goes for hundreds and thousands of dollars. And the town of Sergiev Posad is the birth place of the famous Russian Matryoshka (above).

I love this award! Once more, many thanks to Jim L. Wright for nominating me for the Reader Appreciation Award!

In turn, here are five (+ one) of my favorite bloggers whom I want to nominate for this great award. I love reading their blogs and highly recommend them to my readers!

1. Russel Ray is a San Diego photographer and a very outspoken, fun blogger – I love this guy! (purely platonically, Russel ;)) http://russelrayphotos2.com/

2. M. G. Edwards blogs about his world travels – lots of great pics! http://worldadventurers.wordpress.com/

3. Francis writes lovely poetry and does lovely photography http://niltsi.com/

4. Elisa Cashiola – blogs about feng shui http://elisacashiola.com/

5. Lesley Fletcher – lovely blog http://inspirationimport.wordpress.com/

6. Holly Michael blogs about Christian values, her world travels, writing and family http://writingstraight.com/. I know she has already received this award, but I love her blog and want to honor her here. Holly, let’s consider this an honorary award. 🙂

How awesome is that! Another beautiful award!

I received The Beautiful Blogger Award from a fellow Indie author and wonderful blogger, Cassandra Giovanni. http://cgiovanniwrites.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/holy-cannoli/ Thank you so much, Cassandra! It is a true honor!

Cassandra is the author of the novel, Walking in the Shadows, to be released on October 31, 2012. Check out her blog http://cgiovanniwrites.wordpress.com for more about her and her books!

These are the rules for accepting The Beautiful Blogger Award:

  1. Write a little something about the Beautiful Blogger who nominated you. See above and don’t forget to go and check her out too.
  2.  Share 7 things about yourself.
  3. Nominate for this award 7 worthy beautiful bloggers.

Here are the 7 things I’d like to share:

1. I love my collection of Oriental art.

2. …And my writing retreat in the Catskills, NY

3. In 2011 I published two novels and one short novella in the Accidental Spy Adventure Series: GOLD TRAIN (Russia Adventure), STEPFORD USA (US Adventure) and Green Desert (Iraq Prequel). DRAGON GATE (Accidental Spy Asia Adventure) coming in 2013!

4. I love designing my own book covers! I find it to be a very creative, uplifting and meditative experience. I always feel better having designed a new cover–the more beautiful the better!

5. GOLD TRAIN and STEPFORD USA just got a face lift, with new cool covers and updated blurbs. Check them out!

6.  I have just released my first fantasy/scifi short CATHARSIS, Legend of the Lemurians (Earth Keepers Chronicles: Book 1), prequel to the upcoming fantasy/thriller THE EARTH SHIFTER. If you haven’t yet, check it out! It’s only $.99 on Kindle and FREE for a limited time on Smashwords. You can also enter the Catharsis Contest.

7. In December, 2012 I will be releasing my new YA fantasy thriller novel, THE EARTH SHIFTER. Earth Keepers Chronicles (see above) serve as companion for the upcoming EARTH SHIFTER trilogy. Incidentally, CATHARSIS includes an exclusive sneak peek excerpt from THE EARTH SHIFTER (first 2 chapters). More about The Earth Shifter.

There are so many beautiful blogs and it’s so hard to choose just 7! These are the bloggers I’ve decided to nominate:

1. Rick Braveheart – beautiful American nature photography http://thegreatamericanlandscape.wordpress.com/

2. http://imaginecontinua.wordpress.com/ Historic photos of Romania and nature

3. http://astronomybythecosmos.com/ Awesome posts about Cosmos, astronomy and Outer Space – I just love it!

4. Carl Pettit, columnist, journalist, author http://carlpettit.wordpress.com/. Cool illustrations.

5. Ash, beautiful poetry http://momentsofclarityandotherthings.wordpress.com/

6. Lovely Christian blog, poetry, devotional and more http://watmattersmost.wordpress.com/

7. Fascinating photography by a Spanish artist http://manolirizofotografia.com/

Once more, many thanks to Cassandra Giovanni!

Congratulations, winners! Enjoy!

ANNOUNCEMENT:

This is Harvest time all over the world and the time of October Fest in Germany. As a total non-drinker, but lover of harvest and the idea of abundant October Fest,

I will host the INDIE BOOK REVIEW FEST on my blog on 10/2. It will include my recent reviews of various great books by fellow authors + the best and most recent reviews by readers of my own books! You are invited to stop by, and I promise a feast for the reader’s soul!

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