Check out this quaint town of 200,000 in Western
Russia. The photo above is stunning. This city has a recorded
history that goes back 1100 years. At
one time, this region was not under the authority of the newly crown Russian
czars. in fact, the "prince"
who ruled it was contemplating moving from orthodox to Catholicism (aligning
with Poland and Lithuania). But, one of
the Ivans (the terrible, I think) ransacked this town and the growing area of
Muscovy kingdom continued expanding. the
tradition when conquering towns that had a religious significance, like this
one. Often a task was to capture the huge church bell and bring it back to Moscow. That, and if they were nice, send the prince
into exile. Many times these takeovers
were not peaceful, and a lot of blood was shed.
Today these towns are often museums and simply relics of the past,
without any major commercial activity.
Oh, the walls you see...the fortress really...is a kremlin. So the word kremlin means fortress ,and
kremlins can be found all over Russia.
The most notable of course:
Moscow. For more photos of Pskov, click here. For a look at Twelve Russian Kremlins, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment