here

The Temple Gallery
in association with ETR, Lausanne, Switzerland
30th September – 13th October 2016
Holy Russia
Churches and Icons
Pokrov Church on the Nerl, 12th c. Bogolubov, near Vladimir
Itinerary for the Temple Gallery’s visit to Russia incorporating
Moscow, Vladimir, Sergiev Posad, Suzdal, St Petersburg, Pskov and
Novgorod. 30th September - 13th October 2016.
Day 1 Friday, 30 October
We leave from London Airport (Heathrow) on British Airways (BA233) at 08:45 and arrive
at Moscow DME at 14:35. After customs and immigration we meet our guide and transfer
by bus to our hotel. Note. Accommodation will be in
level hotels or higher. Except for
the night sleeper from Moscow to St Petersburg transportation throughout the trip is by
private luxury bus with our own driver and English speaking guide. In Moscow, where traffic
circulation is notoriously bad, we will in certain instances find it quicker to make short trips
by Metro. This in itself is an adventure: dating from the 1930s the stations were designed to
bring palatial grandeur, hitherto the preserve of the aristocracy, to the people.
MOSCOW
Novodevichy Monastery
Vladimirskaya
Monumental Rublyov icons
Ouspensky Cathedral
Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed and the Kremlin
Andronikov Monastery (Rublyov Museum)
Detail of Rublyov’s Trinity
Day 2 Saturday, 1 October
We begin at the Kremlin, the city’s fortified citadel developed by Prince Yuri Dolgoruki in
1156, destroyed by the Mongols and rebuilt by Ivan III (Ivan the Great) in the 15th century
with Italian architectural influence. It has always been the seat of Russia’s might and power.
In Cathedral Square we visit the Assumption Cathedral where Metropolitans of Moscow
and all the Russias, Tsars and Emperors were crowned. Adjacent is the Annunciation
Cathedral, completed in 1489, its iconostasis by the 15th century Constantinopolitan master
Theophanes the Greek. On the other side of the square the Cathedral of Archangel
Michael with its icon by Andrei Rublyov. Nearby is the Armoury, now a museum containing
the crown of Vladimir Monomakh, other Imperial regalia and a 12th century Byzantine
steatite icon of St Demetrius.
Afternoon: we first visit St. Basil’s Cathedral, its maze-like interior consists of numerous
chapels, some with magnificent 16th century iconostases.
From here we make our way to the Tretyakov Gallery where we concentrate on the icon
collection that includes many of the greatest examples from the 12th to the 16th century such
as the Zvenigorod Deesis of Rublyov and his monumental Deesis tier icons from Vladimir.
Dr Engelina Smirnova, Russia's leading authority on early icons, together with her colleague Dr
Alexandr Preobrazhensky, have kindly agreed to meet us here. We also see the Virgin of
Vladimir housed in a separate chapel consecrated within the gallery. End of Day 2
Day 3 Sunday, 2nd October
Morning visit to see beautiful icons in the Rublyov Museum, a place of great charm, it was
formerly the Andronikov Monastery where Rublyov was a monk. It features prominently in
Tarkovsky’s 1966 film Andrei Rublyov, considered by many critics to be the best art-house film
ever. The frescoes in the Cathedral, built in 1425 and itself an architectural masterpiece, are
attributed to him.
In the afternoon we visit the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The original was built by
Alexander I as a thanksgiving after the defeat of Napoleon in 1812. Stalin destroyed it in
1931, replacing it with a swimming pool. The foundation stone for its rebuilding was laid on
7 January 1995 and now, once again, it dominates the Moscow skyline. A number of icons in
the Treasury, located in the crypt, were acquired from the Temple Gallery.
Nearby is the Pushkin Museum, housing masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist
art, Fayum portraits and the famous Byzantine icon of the Twelve Apostles. End of Day 3
Novodevichy Convent
Kolomonskoye
Day 4 Monday, 3rd October
Morning visit to the New Maiden’s Monastery, ‘Novodevichy,’ now a UNESCO World
Heritage site, it was founded in 1524 by Prince Vasili III as a religious institution and also as a
defence fortification.
After lunch we visit Kolomenskoye, a former royal residence in south east Moscow
overlooking the Moskva River. There are several architectural marvels including Church of
the Ascension, built in 1532 which combines traditional Russian forms with a major
innovation: the Russian ‘tent’ dome. The immense Wooden Palace is a successful recent
reconstruction. The museum houses a large number of icons, many of them of later periods.
End of Day 4
SERGEIEV POSAD
Trinity Cathedral, Sergiev Posad. The 14th century church contains Sergei’s relics and an iconostasis by Rublyov
View of the monastery , Sergeiev Posad
shrine of St Sergei; icons of Rublyov
Day 5 Tuesday, 4th October
We leave Moscow for Sergeiev Posad (about an hour’s drive), whose fame derives from the
Trinity Lavra of St. Sergei of Radonezh. Sergiev is the holiest of Russia’s sacred sites, its
most important pilgrimage centre and the home of an important seminary. An exquisite 14th
century church houses the relics of Saint Sergius and we remember that Rublyov’s famous
Trinity icon, dedicated to Sergei, was originally here. One can join the pilgrims in venerating
the saint’s relics and singing the simple phrases of the ceaseless requiem and thus find oneself
resonating with the heart of Holy Russia.
Sergei was a monk in the 14th century whose intense spirituality lies at the heart of the
religious mysticism that Russia inherited from Constantinople and Mount Athos. He is
generally regarded as Russia’s greatest saint. The intensity of his inner life, corresponding to
the hesychast traditions of the desert and Mount Athos attracted numerous followers to his
hermitage in the forest. He was canonized in 1422, when work began on the construction of
the Trinity Cathedral. Since then, and today, this loca sancta has always been a centre of
spirituality and devotion. The iconostasis in this chapel is by Andrei Rublyov and his
companion Daniil Chorny.
In the late afternoon we board our coach and drive for about three hours to Suzdal for dinner
and our hotel. End of Day 5
SUZDAL
Suzdal general view
Suzdal icons
Day 6 Wednesday, 5th October
Lack of industrialisation and the richness of its medieval religious tradition have preserved
Suzdal as a place of exceptional beauty and appeal. The city includes two UNESCO world
heritage sites: the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius and the Kremlin with the Nativity
of the Virgin Cathedral. Its famous 11th century Bronze Doors are an extremely rare and
important example of Russian 13th mercury gilding. The museum, formerly the Archbishop’s
Chambers, has a collection of very good and interesting icons. Suzdal icons are notable for
their subtle colours and delicacy of line, qualities later absorbed by the Moscow School.
There is the Museum of Wooden Architecture, a collection of log-built churches and other
wooden structures that have been brought from various villages in the Vladimir Region.
Beautiful views are provided by the meadows and the river that flows through the city.
From Suzdal to Vladimir is about an hour’s drive. On the way we visit the Church of the
Intercession on the Nerl. It is famous for its ideal proportions and its situation in a beautiful
landscape through which the waters of the Klyazma River quietly flow. This church, together
with the cathedrals in Vladimir, represents the flowering of Russian medieval art in the
golden age of high culture and great military power before its submission to the Mongol Batu
Khan in 1238. These buildings are equal, if not superior to, anything produced in
Romanesque France or the Byzantine world.
We arrive in Vladimir in time for dinner. End of Day 6
VLADIMIR
Dormition Cathedral, 12th c., contains frescoes by Andrei Rublyov
Pokrov Church, 12th c.
Day 7 Thursday, 6th October
Once a Grand Principality, Vladimir today is a small town with three UNESCO World
Heritage Sites.
The Dmitri Cathedral is built of white limestone, and notable for its carved exterior. Nearby
we find the five-domed Cathedral of the Assumption, built in 1158. The 15th century
frescoes are by Andrei Rublyov and Daniil Chorny.
After lunch we visit the local museum to see Rublyov’s copy of the Vladimir Icon of the
Mother of God.
We return to Moscow in time for dinner before taking the night sleeper (four-berth
couchettes) to St. Petersburg leaving shortly before midnight. End of Day 7
SAINT PETERSBURG
Neva palaces and St Isaak’s Cathedral
Novgorod icons in the Russian Museum
Fontanka canal
Day 8
Church of the Spilt Blood
Friday, 7th October
Arriving in St. Petersburg we go directly to our hotel for breakfast and, if needed, a rest. We
then visit the Russian Museum (once the Mikhailovsky Palace) which houses some of
Russia’s most important icons. There is also a vast collection of 18th and 19th century
Russian paintings, the masterpieces of which we will view selectively: Bryullov, Repin,
Levitan, Makovsky, Serov, et al. We might also visit the Ethnographic Museum next door.
After lunch our bus will take us to some of the main sights: St Isaac’s Cathedral and Church
of the Spilled Blood. We can walk along the Fontanka Canal and – for readers of
Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment – The Griboyedov Canal.
Dinner at a local restaurant. End of Day 8
The Jordan staircase
Matisse
State rooms
Leonardo da Vinci,
Scythian art
Leonardo da Vinci
Rembrandt
Day 9 Saturday, 8th October
Today the main event is the Hermitage and, for those who wish, we will arrange a morning
visit to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery for the Liturgy (or part of it).
We can begin in the Hermitage with the great staterooms, have lunch (in the museum’s
restaurant) then see Italian Renaisance art – Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, Rafael, Titian,
Michelangelo – they are all there; Flemish and Dutch painting (there are twelve
Rembrandts). There is also an important department of Byzantine Art where the director,
Dr Yuri Pyatnitsky, is a friend of mine. Perhaps he will talk to us about some of the icons.
There are famous paintings by Matisse and Picasso and if we still have energy there are
important examples of Greek, Roman and Egyptian art.
Dinner at a local restaurant. End of Day 9
Stroganov Palace (Rastrelli), 1754
Razumovsky Palace, 1762
Day 10 Sunday, 9th October
Those who have seen the recent BBC War and Peace, will have intimations of the
magnificence of Russian aristocratic life. On the Nevsky Prospect, St Petersburg’s equivalent
of the Champs Elysées, there are a number of important sites such as the Yusupov Palace
(the site of Rasputin’s murder) and Rastrelli’s Stroganov Palace. Also notable are the
Vorontsov Palace (Rastrelli) and the Razumovsky Palace (Rastrelli and others).
After lunch we can see the Kazan Cathedral. The building, by Voronkinin, begun in 1801,
is modelled on St. Peter's in Rome. It once housed Russia’s most revered icon, the Virgin of
Kazan (present whereabouts unknown). After the Revolution of 1917, the cathedral was
closed and later reopened as a Museum of Atheism. Today, and indeed as we see in all the
churches we visit, instead of the cold, empty and dank spaces of the Soviet era, the Liturgy,
Vespers and all the church offices are celebrated; there are priests, incense, chanting and
candles; the icons are venerated and the space is filled with the light and warmth. End of Day
10
NOVGOROD
Sofia Cathedral, 12th c.
Novgorod churches
Novgorod icons
Icon of Boris and Gle
Day 11 Monday, 10th October
Early departure for Novgorod, (approximately three and a half hour’s drive).
Novgorod the Great is the grandest of Russia’s medieval cities, a World Heritage site and
marvellously rich in architecture and icons. For Byzantinists the frescoes of Theophanes the
Greek (Fiofan Grek) are the only surviving wall paintings of this great master who reputedly
decorated forty churches in Constantinople.
We begin at the Detinets, or the Kremlin, and the St Sofia Cathedral, the oldest church in
Russia, consecrated in 1050. It contains the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of the
Sign which saved the city from Suzdalian attack in 1169 (the event is illustrated in a famous
15th century icon).
The icons in the Museum of History and Art are extremely important. Also, they are
beautifully exhibited.
We then return to our hotel and dinner at a local restaurant. End of Day 11
Day 12 Tuesday, 11th October
Visit to Yuriev Monastery, one of Russia’s oldest monastic foundation. The largest in
Novgorod, it played an important role in the ecclesiastic, political and cultural life of the city.
We then go to the nearby Museum of Wooden Architecture, an open air museum with
churches from as early as 1531.
After lunch we drive to Pskov, a four-hour drive, arriving in time for dinner. End of Day 12
Day 13 Wednesday, 12th October
Pskov was a great principality with affiliations to Novgorod in the 13th and 14th
centuries. Much of Pskovian architecture is preserved: the citadel (or kremlin) and
Trinity Cathedral date from 1138. The Mirozhsky Monastery is famous for its 12thcentury frescoes. There are many charming small 15th and the 16th century churches and
17th-century mansions such as the Pogankin Palace, now a museum with important icons
of the Pskov School. Icons of the Pskov School can be distinguished by of large colour
masses and the prevalence fiery orange-red and a deep “Pskovian” olive green giving
the art a sombre and intense emotional quality. We begin with the medieval kremlin, by
the Velikaya River. Within the walls we find the Trinity Cathedral, a church destroyed
and rebuilt numerous times over the centuries; the present structure dating from 1699.
The Mirozhsky Monastery is a 12th century Russian Orthodox complex unique in Russia.
Inside the Transfiguration Cathedral are 12th century frescoes made by both Byzantine and
local artists and the starting point for all that later developed in Pskovian art.
Then by bus to St Petersburg, a four hour journey arriving in time for dinner. End of Day 13
Day 14 Thursday, 13th October
Breakfast and 12:30 transfer to St. Petersburg International Airport (LED) for our British
Airways (BA879) flight leaving at 15:50 and arriving in London (LHR) at 17:25.