07.15.2013
Pictures:
Unfortunately,
on Mondays museums are closed so we decided to visit a place which is always
opened – Alexander Pushkin’s and his ancestors’ tombs in Sviatogorski
Monastery. But to refresh in the morning we went swimming in river Sorotj. That
was wonderful, because the day was hot, the sun was shining and the current in
the middle of the river was pretty strong.
After that
we drove to a center of a small town Pushkin Mountains where a monastery is
placed. Actually, the monastery itself is pretty small: tiny territory and only
20 people. Pushkin’s tomb is neat and beautiful right next to two old
gravestones of his grand and great grandfathers are buried as well as his
parents and his little brother Platon. Pushkin came here pretty often to visit
his ancestors’ tombs. A church is unusually dark inside and has a lot of very
old icons and you feel like at real home there. There is incredibly beautiful
icon of the Virgin Hodigitria in a side chapel as well as a picture where the
moment of its discovery on this hill by monastic elders is represented. I was
impressed by different icons of Our Lady: some of them were so modern, some –
very old, with different expressions on their faces, different looks, different
techniques of painting. But all of them were so warm and attractive…
Passing the
monastery main gates we noticed a booth were a woman was selling a monastery
tea and “sbitenj” (something like “saloop” – a special hot alcoholic (could be
non-alcoholic) Russian drink based on honey and different herbs) and local
pasty. We tried all kinds of patties and my mom especially loved the ones with
cabbage – she said they taste exactly the same as the patties her grandfather
used to make.
After lunch
at home my sister went to work as she had some urgent things to do and me, my
dad and Max went to another ancient settlement Voronich where Pushkin was
writing his famous historic drama “Boris Godunov” about a Russian tsar who
killed a crown prince, little boy, to be a tsar himself. Actually, there was a time when this settlement
was a huge city, the second one by size after Pskov. There were about 50
churches in it and a lot of people. But the same Stephen Báthory destroyed and burnt the city
completely and it never managed to revive. Now there is a new church of Saint
George reconstructed on the place of old one, couple of old wooden building, a
pile of stone cannonballs left after Stephen and an old cemetery with a
basement of ancient church.
Actually, there was a tiny road marked on our map leading directly to the
settlement Voronich but either we didn’t find it or it doesn’t exist anymore
and we went through a meadow, making a circle around a hill where a settlement
is placed. Finally, we found a road on the top but it was closed with a sign
that a place needs a reconstruction (it’s in “emergency state”) that’s why the
access is limited. However we also found a high wooden steps leading to another
museum mansion and park Trigorskoye which was an estate of Pushkin close
friends and where he spent a lot of time. It’s so magical walking around these
places when there is no tourists and almost no people at all. I made a lot of
wonderful pictures there. For example, we saw a real stork strolling around a
meadow and looking for frogs! I have never seen alive storks so close.
Park around a mansion is huge and wonderful, full of secrets and
discoveries. One of a few places I got to remember from our last trip here with
my mom was an “Onegin’s bench” (Onegin is a main character from the most famous
Pushkin’s poem “Eugenie Onegin”, this poem had a lot in common with this estate
– with people, nature and views). On this bench in a poem Onegin was explaining
to Tatiana who was in love with him that he is not “the right one” for her. There
was a “Tatiana’s path” in a park where (in a poem) she was walking and
suffering from her love and composing a letter to Onegin.
Going back home from there we saw a lighting striking directly to the
ground and a triple rainbow right in a few minutes after. Also we met a real
fox that crossed a road right in front of our car. There were so many miracles
in this wonderful Pushkin world…
In the very evening we went to the river again where my dad was imitating
a crocodile and Max was contentedly screaming. Suddenly it began to rain but we
enjoyed swimming under the rain a lot – it was an absolute happiness. We even
didn’t change our clothes after swimming and just ran home in our swim suits.
That was a lot of fun!
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