Re: Feodorovsky Cathedral

to buy now: http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/1548756/

to buy now: http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/1548756/

Good grief, approx US $3,600! As it is 1915 edition not allowed to be exported out of Russia and we are in midst of global financial meltdown, to not buy is not a difficult decision.

Joanna

Further to EmmyLee ...."Does anyone know what state the original shrine is in today (if it still exists)?"...
Yes, the shrine is still there, between the AP and the cathedral/gorodok. There is a path that one would take past the pond in front of the palace out of the grounds through a fence entrance. Follow the path created by lots of feet! It is to the left of the path to the gorodok in a grassy area. Today it is red brick, unmaintained but in excellent shape. You can see the Cathedral through the opening at the upper part of the shrine. Very dramatic.

Thank you for your response, Cathy. I wish I could go see it!

В январе в первые будут проводить народные гуляния около Фёдоровского городка (немного пока не понял может и в нём).
In January to the first will spend national гуляния about Fyodorovsky small town (a little yet has not understood can and in it).

I think that the Russian word not translated above means "...outdoor merrymaking on a public holiday..."

Fascinating 3D recreation of the Shrine at the Feodorovsky Cathedral which survived the war:
http://pics.livejournal.com/fedor_ragin/pic/000c9rh8/s640x480
A view of the Shrine in the Yale albums c1910s:
http://highway55.library.yale.edu/ROMANOVIMG/size3/D0023/00233003.jpg
The full article with more 3D photographs with interesting notes on #3 and #4 of the lamps on the side of the Alexander Palace and at the entrances to the Feodorovsky Cathedral:
http://fedor-ragin.livejournal.com/4160.html
Joanna

A fantastic video interview with Fedor Ragin of his research on Maximov's lantern which shows the location of the shrine in relation to the Sobor/Gorodok and also Larissa and Iraida of the museum complex:
http://www.tv100.ru/news/Mogila-Grigorija-Rasputina-ili-mesto-shabasha/

Joanna

Another of the Cathedral from this month:

http://polinadorofeeva.livejournal.com/13024.html

I had not seen this part completed with the cross spiral (?):
http://pics.livejournal.com/polinadorofeeva/pic/000sz8sw/

Joanna

I was lucky to see it when it was a total wreck.  Seeing it in that condition helps one to appreciate how far the Russians have come in restoring the church.


In the 80's there was no floor in the church, holes in the roof, signs of fires, graffiti and garbage everywhere. It looked like a devils lair and made tears come to one's eyes.  Here was one of the great  monuments of Russian art and architecture lying in ruins before you.  When you looked up into the dome and saw the rooks flying in and out of the shattered windows it was fair to wonder if the Cathedral's fate was to simply crumble into the ground through further neglect.

One of the advantages the building had is that is was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century and the foundations were solid and firm, otherwise it would probably had collapsed into dust long before.

This ruin was evidence of so much hate for art, religion, Russia, the Romanovs... the scarred remains of the cathedral were a monument to evil and destruction.  When you drove from Leningrad to Pushkin the hulking black mass of the church loomed like a ghost on the right of the road - a reminder of the past and all the bad things that had happened here.

Back in the 80's nobody thought the Feodorovsky would be restored in our lifetime - if anything was done the facade might be renewed, but the dream that it might be a working church again - well that seemed impossible.

So much as changed since then.....

Thanks to God, the people of Tsarskoe Selo and the clergy of the church a 'resurrection' has happened.  Little money has meant much has had to be done on a shoestring budget and volunteers did much of the work.  In the midst of all this goodness unscrupulous people - even criminals - who wanted to defraud the church and use the sobor for their own venal purposes appeared.  They descended upon the church like 'sheep in wolves clothing', but they were stopped!  People sometimess laugh about the 'babushkas' of the sobor, but their eagle eyes could spot these people a mile off!

So the struggle and the resurrection continues - thanks to Antonio we will soon have some beautiful new pictures to see what the Russians have accomplished....

Its lovely just what a few good hearts can do. Miracles even.