The Most Beautiful Wooden Churches I've Ever Seen
Trip Start
Sep 13, 1997
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12
22
Trip End
Oct 02, 1997
Kizhi Island and Petrozavodsk,
Russia
Tuesday, September 23, 1997
You can see several of my favorite pictures taken on Kizhi Island in the photo gallery.
Only the word emote' can describe Kizhi's location. It lies in the middle of Lake Onega, Europe's second largest lake and several hundred kilometers from St.Petersburg. Getting there usually people have to take train to Petrozavodsk from St. Petersburg (overnight train), then taking ferry from Petrozavodsk to Kizhi. The ferry takes more than 1 and ?hours each way and there is only one ferry per day
A mid-autumn morning landing at the Kizhi Island
.Sounds horrible to make your own way there, isn't it? Fortunately, we were on a cruise boat, so we just head directly to Kizhi after the ship entered Lake Onega the night before. Though the ship really swang a lot the night before on this "second largest lake in Europe", it was relatively peaceful this morning when we approached beautiful Kizhi.
There are not too many buildings on this "open air museum." Three peasant houses with some exhibition, a windmill, sauna, barn and the most unique - two wooden churches: Cathedral of Transfiguration and the Church of the Resurrection of Lazans. Both are completed made of wood and the Cathedral itself have 22 unpainted onion domes.
I have to confess that I was really mesmerized by this cathedral. It's not colorful but some magic just came out of it in this cool autumn morning. In case you didn't notice, the picture of me in the homepage is me in front of the Cathedral.....
We only have three hours on that small island (there is nothing else to see, in fact). I just make sure I'm the last one to leave this isolated island
A windmill on the Kizhi Island
.After lunch, all the passengers were treated a tour of the captain's bridge. This is not a big ship (I've been tour the bridge on an ocean liner plying Baltic Sea) but it's always interesting to see something different.
What!? This boat was made in communist East Germany! I was told it is a 'German-made'' ship. Why wasn't I told it is from he other Germany'?
The weather was really bad that day on Lake Onega. It was rainy, damp, and cold when we arrived the port of Petrozavodsk. Petrozavodsk is the capital of the autonomous Republic of Karelia (which means that it is still a part of Russia). This city is not attractive or interesting at all. Adding to the bad weather, this stop is really an anti-climax to this morning's tour. We did watch a nice folklore performance in the local theater.
Which they sang the song Kalinka again....
Back to the boat, they showed the movie "Hunting Red October" to conclude this busy day. I didn't finish this movie since I've seen it about 7 years ago.
Another American movie made in the cold war era. Anyway, at that time, Russia is a big evil empire. Some Russians are bad, and the good Russians want to become Americans......whatever.
