Veliky, The Towers

This morning I started with visiting a beach, and then I continued with unhurried walking around the Kremlin.

The height of the brick walls of the Novgorod Kremlin ranges from 8 to 15 meters, the thickness of the walls is  between 3.6 and 6.5 meters.

In fact, there were twelve towers around the Novgorod Kremlin, but currently only 9 of them are survived: Dvorcovaya, Spasskaya, Knyaznaya, Kokuy, Pokrovskaya, Zlatoustovskaya, Fedorovskaya, Mitropolichya, Vladimirovskaya. The tallest tower is Kokuy with the height of about 40 metres. So, from the viewing room at the top of  Kokuy you can see over the town and into the surrounding countryside.

I have also visited the Cathedral and basically was astonished by the interior. In St. Sophia Cathedral you can still see frescoes from the eleventh and twelfth centuries and religious icons and artifacts dating from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, as well as other Byzantine and Western European object of art.

The huge iconostasis, one of the biggest in Russia, dates back to the 15th century. The cathedral’s most important relic, the icon of the sign of the Holy Virgin, was made in the 12th century and became a famous symbol of Novgorod when it miraculously helped the people of the city fend off an invasion by the Suzdalians.

The way back to Moscow is not with the express train, but with the regular train, which departs in the evening. So, in the morning I am expecting to arrive to Moscow. The night trip must be quite convenient.

I occupied a compartment, and likely there was no other passenger in my section.

Of course I could not resist taking a cup of tea with the original glass-holder. The metallic sounds of the spoon in a glass and wheel squeaking very soon lulled me to sleep. 

Early in the morning, just right before arrival to Leningradsky railway station the conductor woke me up and delivered a hot coffee. Good start of the new day. Time to come back to reality and start a productive working week at busy Moscow.