Joe Zammit Ciantar
To Moscow and St Petersburg
Last year, in June 2016, my wife and I - together with a couple who are friends of ours - started planning for a holiday in Moscow and St Petersburg and we succeeded, on our own. It was a marvellous holiday, a memorable one in all aspects, and an adventurous one, too.
We flew with Lufthansa to Munich in the afternoon of Thursday 29 December 2016. Another Lufthansa flight took us to Moscow where we arrived early at 00.30 a.m. the following day, Friday 30. Within half an hour or so, we passed through the rigorous Customs without any problems. A taxi driver was waiting for us and we soon were on our way to Matreshka Hotel in main street Teatralnyy pr-d. We were five minutes' walk from the Bolshoi Theatre and TSUM Shopping Centre, and 10 minutes' walk from the Red Square and the Kremlin. The trip took about an hour and we paid 2,000 Roubles (about 32 Euro).
We found a receptionist who could speak good English, and were soon given very good comfortable rooms.
Out for adventure
Later on in the morning, after a good breakfast, we started our site and place seeing experience, passing by the Bolshoi Theatre with the The Quadriga (chariot drawn by four horses, sculpted by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg) on the pediment on its front portico, and the large dark awesome granite monument of Carl Marx on the opposite side, crossed Revolution Square, and walked on our way to the Red Square.
The weather was some degrees below zero, but quite bearable. Of course we were well dressed for the freezing weather, with head wear and thermal gloves.
We passed by the monument of Georgy Zhukov and entered the large square trough the Resurrection Gate on the front of which stands the Ivron chapel, which houses the miracle working icon of Panagia Portaitissa or the Iviron Theotokos - an Eastern Orthodox icon of the Virgin Mary which, according to the Sacred Tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, was painted by the Evangelist Luke. On the back of the gate, facing the enormous large Red Square, there is a mosaic icon of the Resurrecting Christ; hence the name of the gate.
The Red Square
The impression of the largeness of Red Square was however, obscured by the large colourful Christmas market stalls put up all around the square, selling all sorts of ware, but above all souvenirs and the famous matryoshka dolls or Russian nesting dolls, and drinks and eats. There was also a skating rink. A large Christmas tree adorned with glistening baubles and other decorations, dominated over the low Christmas stalls.
We paid a visit to the Cathedral of the Mother of God's Kazan Icon, on the left, and then entered the long-established, Russia's most famous shopping mall - the State Department Store, GUM - the country's largest store, with very beautifully and artistically displayed shop windows.
Blessed Basil's Cathedral
But we were interested, above all, in visiting Blessed Basil's Cathedral - originally called 'Trinity Church' - built in 1555-1561 by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, to commemorate his victory over the Kazan Khanate. It dominates the far end of the square with its brightly colourfully painted onion domes, and looks like a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Today it is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat. The cathedral - made up of ten churches - was named after Basil when he was declared Blessed, in 1588; he had forecast the fire of 1547, in which nearly a third of Moscow was destroyed. A former Orthodox church, it is today a Museum of icons of saints and 'fools for Christ' figures. Here we had the first taste of icons and paintings and gilded ornamental frames and sculptured panels. The walls are particularly painted too.
It was in 1923, that the Cathedral was converted into a museum of history and architecture, and in 1929 it became a branch of the State Historical Museum. In the early 1990s, the cathedral, including the Chapel of Basil the Blessed, once again began to be used for religious services. In 1990, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The interior is really fascinating. Inside is a labyrinth of narrow vaulted corridors and vertical cylinders. Still, the place is an impressive evidence of the devotion of very religious people.
In front of the cathedral, on a high base made of massive red granite blocks stands the large monument commemorating Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin who gathered an all-Russian volunteer army and expelled from Moscow, the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian army, under the command of King Sigismund III of Poland, in 1612. It was made by sculptor Ivan Martos and unveiled in 1818.
A Christmas market
We then joined the many people and families with children enjoying themselves in the festive season - Christmas is celebrated on 7 January - and strolled among the stalls, fascinated by the multi-coloured ware, and souvenirs.
We passed by Vladimir Lenin's large red and black marble Mausoleum (with embossed five giant Cyrillic letters that spell "LENIN" above its entrance), exited the square, and turned to the left, walking into Alexander Garden outside the Kremlin walls. There we saluted the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - a war memorial, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers killed during World War II, unveiled on 8 May 1967. The dark red porphyry monument is decorated with a bronze sculpture of a laurel branch and a soldier's helmet laid upon a banner.
Alexander Garden
At one time, looking for a coffee bar, we found ourselves in Manezhnaya Square, embellished with a complex of fountains presently non-functioning; the water around them was frozen. Among these there are the Four Seasons, symbolized by four magnificent bronze rearing horses, and the Heroes of Fairy Tales, an array of canals, all frozen, with larger than life-size statues illustrating the fairy tales of Ivan Krylov.
This is the acknowledgement of the authorities' respect to their authors!
Tickets for St Petersburg
In the afternoon of this our first day in Moscow, we took the underground and travelled to Leningradsky Train Station from where, with difficulty but some fortune, and with the help of a young ticket seller who could understand and speak some English, we eventually succeeded to buy return tickets Moscow-St Petersburg-Moscow.
Christmas decorations
In the evening, back in the centre of Moscow, we could appreciate the Christmas lights decorations with thousands of small colour bulbs illuminating the highly crafted designs embellishing Theatre and opposite Revolution Squares; they were so really beautiful! What would one expect better in Moscow?
Monuments all over
In the morning of our second day, Saturday 31 December, we walked again to Alexander Garden, where we appreciated monuments to Alexander I, to Patriarch Hermogenes (installed at the walls of the Kremlin for the 100th anniversary of the glorification of Hermogenes of Moscow), and the Romanovskiy obelisk. We continued on to the square where an enormous monument to Prince Vladimir 'rules' over a flight of steps and the enormous space in front and around.
Christ the Saviour Cathedral
We had planned to buy tickets and visit the cathedrals in the Kremlin. Instead, we decided to leave that for the following day, and walked to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, on the northern bank of the Moskva River, a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin.
This church was rebuilt between 1995 and 2000, on the same site where a former one stood and was destroyed by Stalin in 1931. With an overall height of 103 metres, it is the highest Orthodox Christian church in the world. Although one could lament about the fact that the building is modern when compared with old similar ones, the interior walls covered with colourful beautiful icons of saints are mavellous. A large marble cross enjoys great devotion.
New Year's Eve
Very late in the evening we wanted to find ourselves for the New Year's Eve celebrations. Out in Teatralnyy Street, we found that control barriers had been placed, and we saw entering the centre of the city busses full of soldiers and/or police, who were placed in every street; it was safe to walk among the thousands and thousands of people, all walking in the same direction, Revolution Square, and on to the space in front of Resurrection Gate, for entry into Red Square.
At one time my wife and I lost our friends; one could hardly walk in the thick crowds.
We managed to approach the barriers controlled by a cordon of soldiers, for entry into the Red Square; nobody without a ticket was allowed to proceed to the square. Such was the security control around the Kremlin.
Still, we enjoyed ourselves among the many young and not so young people around us. We observed that nobody was carrying any bottles or drinks or any fireworks - as we have experienced on New Year's Eve in other cities we have been to. And still the people seemed happy, just to be in company, among merry making people ... awaiting something to happen, or someone to announce the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.
Hail 2017
Finally, at midnight, a few bangs of artificial fireworks and loud singing on an open air stage nearby hailed in 2017.
Soon after, the people started on their way back home and we to our hotel. It was very difficult to walk; we were rather being pushed towards the only opening in a row of police barriers into Revolution Square. We passed by a fresh barbequed kebabs and sausages seller with quite a lot of people queueing for a share. We would have cherished a sausage had the wait would not have been long; but we proceeded to our hotel where we found our friends had already arrived. We cheered and greeted each other with the New Year wishes and ... then went to sleep.
Leninka and Orthodox churches
In the morning of Sunday 1 January 2017, we tried to queue for tickets for entry into the Kremlin and see the Cathedrals inside. For some reason we did not manage. Instead we walked along the long Mokhovaya Street where we passed by the Russian State Library, overlooking the Kremlin, known as 'Leninka', in front of the main entrance of which there is a monument dedicated to one of Russia's most famous authors - Fyodor Dostoevsky, unveiled in 1997 as part of Moscow's 850th anniversary celebrations. It depicts the author sitting on a pedestal, looking rather gloomy and deep in thought.
We paid a visit to the Church of St Tatiana; a modestly small Orthodox church.
St Louis' Catholic Church
At about 12.30 we reached and entered the French St Louis' Catholic Church - a long way away - and there we participated in the celebration of Holy Mass.
After a good New Year's Day lunch at 'My My' restaurant, we walked back to the hotel, just a few meters away.
In the evening, my wife and I walked to Nikolskaya Street - with the Marilyn Monroe Papier-mâché figure - down which we strolled under a myriad of Christmas lights on festoons, all along, together with people who were just enjoying themselves, those going one way on the left, those going dawn into the Red Square on the right.
Historic Arbat Street
On Monday 2 January we took the streets that lead to Arbat Street, in the Arbat District. An important part of Russian culture, it is a pedestrian street, about one kilometre long, in the historical centre of Moscow and exists since at least the 15th century. Originally the street formed part of an important trade-route and was home to a large number of craftsmen. Because of the many historic buildings, and due to the numerous artists who have lived and worked in the street, the Arbat has also become an important tourist attraction.
A large decorative sign with the year '2017' some two meters high, standing across the opening to the street, greeted us; we could pass through the large arch provided by the '0' in '2017'.
In the middle of the road there were Christmas stalls, as usual built with dark brown wooden panels and shutters, elegantly decorated with real Christmas trees laden with red ribbon bows, and large shining colourful baubles. We could enjoy souvenir shops and I bought a Russian Porcelain Gzhel Orthodox Shrine Kiot Icon with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, from one of them; it was the only place I was allowed to pay in euros!
We walked all along the street with elegant shops on both sides, and beneath a sort of an arcade in the middle, with a beautiful cascade of Christmas decorations and many large baubles and sets of tiny lights dangling, providing a decorated sky of colours and lights.