After the Great Novgorod it seems pretty logical to
acquaint you with Staraya (Old) Ladoga - one of the biggest russian towns
once, and quite ancient too - built about 862 (it was called just
"Ladoga" then). For some time Old Ladoga was the capital of the
Russian State, just like Moscow and Kiev. It was the domain of the elder
Rurik prince, who had later moved to the Velikiy (Great) Novgorod. And,
above all, the Great Novgorod and Ladoga are joined by a common river -
Volhov.
Old Ladoga is about 120 km from
St.Petersburg (by the Murmansk route).
This time, weather was a bit better than in the Great Novgorod, but
far more colder.
En route...
This, as you can see, anything but a town. Even the fences don't have
anything in common with their relatives around the mansions on the
Kamenny island.
Today, Old Ladoga is just a pretty big village. Apart from its
historical past and the buildings that are related to it, visually it
is identical with ordinary villages. It ows this change to Peter I in
particular, who, in 1704, had moved all establishments and citizens to
the New Ladoga (aside lake Ladozhskoje). From that time
"Ladoga" turned into "Old Ladoga".
And, once the railway was built, cargo transfers by Volhov were
cancelled, which futher minimized the value of Old Ladoga.
On the hill (called Malisheva mountain)
we can see the first place of interest - the church of Johann
Predtechi (Johann the Baptist).
And by my side there is supposed to be the kurgan where Veshy Oleg
is buried.
The river on the left is Volhov. We'll talk about it later.
So, the church of Johann Predtechi
(1695).
Once was a part of the Johann Predtechi male monastery (didn't
survive).
Bell. Fastening method (right) is quite
simple :)
The window looks as ancient as the church
itself.
And this "second campus" is
built just a few meters away from the church. Locals say it the
priest's house.
There is a dog in the booth to the left. A minute later it was saying
everything it thought about unwelcome guests...
An interesting top for an exhaust tube (left).
To the other side of the church there are
steps and footpath to the houses. Church people must be living there.
Later I've been told that if you go slightly left off the footpath,
there well be entrance to one of the caves of Old Ladoga's stone
quarries.
This happy cat was found by the church
entrance.
As if some rich liquid was poured... this
is Volhov.
Quite a big river, flowing from the Il'men' lake (where the Great
Novgorod is) and into the Ladozhskoje lake (15 km above Old Ladoga -
close to New Ladoga).
Volhov's pecularity is it's ability to change direction sometimes
(after heavy rains and snow melting).
By the way, rivers depicted on the Rostral'nije (Rostral) columns in
St.Petersburg are Volga, Dnepr, Neva and Volhov.
For a long time I wanted to express
gratitude to Vitaly Lunev and his wife, Oksana: for good company and
transportation.
Without their help there'd be far more less albums (as well as time
spent for writing comments :)
Anyways - a big "thank you!" to them.
Having looked around, we move further.
There's a lot more interesting in Old Ladoga. The next stop is pretty
close - we are going to take a look at the Uspenskij (Assumption) monastery.
