New Jerusalem. Istra

An Indian summer in the end of September a year ago gave us a chance to make a Sunday trip to New Jerusalem, a monastery near Istra outside Moscow. It was a gordgeous day though in the end of our tour we were stuck at the parking. But the latter is typical here.
New Jerusalem is also known as the Voskresensky (Resurrection) monastery. The town of Istra was also called Voskresensk before 1930. Apparently the splendid monastery is the greatest local asset.

Unlike other Moscow monasteries, this one had no military use. It was modelled in plan pretty accurately on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in (old) Jerusalem by Nikon, the patriarch whose reforms drove the Old Believers from the Orthodox Church. The original design of the monastery was part of Nikon's deliberate intention to make Russia the third Rome and the centre of global Christian belief, leading to religious reforms, the ensuing schism and the formation of a group known as “old believers”. Tsar Alexei (father of Peter the Great) later used this rift as an excuse to exile the Patriarch, who was getting too powerful.

The Baikal.

Though the blog was named after Moscow (Moskvoved means "Moscow regional historian") and supposed to be devoted to the capital city, I couldn't help focusing on the most famous Russian place of interest, which is without question Siberia. Last summer I decided to put a two-week vacation to good use by venturing there in order to explore Lake Baikal, that is considered to be "the Pearl of Siberia" or "the great, holy sea".

I'm gonna write about the trip in series of posts here. 

Captain Obvious prompts me that Baikal is the world’s deepest lake – over 1600 meters at its deepest – and it contains about 1/5 of the world’s fresh water. But today I'd like to tell you about another Baikal, which is actually 'the Baikal'. The latter was much smaller than Lake Baikal but also great. 

Here's the description:

"The Baikal ... is of over 4,000 tons, close on 300 feet long, and has nearly 60 feet beam. She has three triple expansion engines of 1,250 horse-power, two amidships and one in the bow. This power is required in the ice-breaking. She will break through ice 36 inches thick, and her bow is made with a curve, so that when the ice is thicker she can be backed and then go full steam at the ice, partly climb on it with her impetus, and then crush it with her weight. This means that the Baikal sometimes takes a week to cross the lake." 

(From John Foster Fraser’s "The Real Siberia")

Yes, it's a vessel as you have guessed by now. And to my mind it was the most interesting landmark of the region in the beginning of the 20th century untill it was destroyed by burning during the Civil War.

 The Baikal appeared in Siberia while the section of the Trans-Siberian railway to the south of the lake was under construction. Then the Russian government placed an order in Newcastle, England, for a ferry/ice-breaker, which could hold 24 cars and one locomotive on its middle deck.

Three years later after the Baikal, an ice-breaker Angara was also built in England for carrying cargo  and passengers. Both of these Baikal giants were assembled in Listvyanka, on the southwestern shore of  the lake, where a shipyard was built especially for this purpose.
I think I'll write the entire story about this ferry later. And now just have a look at some pics.