The Monastery of Sergiev Posad

The Monastery of Sergiev Posad (Сергиев Посад) is easily reched by train from Moscow's Yaroslavl Station. Once you're past Moscow's outskirts the train brings you to stations, where only walking paths reach the stations. The ride took 1 1/2 hours.

One of the railway station in the midst of the forests

I know, a little decay looks romantic

Overview of the monastery complex

The golden domes

Some of the buildings have a history of nearly 600 years. It's an active center of worship and you'll see lots of pilgrims. Women wear headscarfs and long skirts and men are required to take off hats when they enter the different chapels. You can sit in some places and listen to the polyphonic liturgic songs as by chance you run into a mass or other devotional service. All the candles are made of bee wax, which gives the inside of the churches a distict, but very nice frangrance. You may watch some people being busy to scrape off wax from the ground or take out rest of burnt down candles from the candlesticks.

Note the alignment of obelisk, well, chapel, and church

The priest (pope) and his charming wife

Outside there's a well, where pilgrims go for water, which I also did, but I drank some monastery kvas (Монастырский Квас), too, but that's yet another story to be told.

Related links for this travel:

Black Sea and Arkadia Beach http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/02/black-sea-and-arkadia-beach.html  
The Wooden Church of Izhma http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/02/the-wooden-church-of-izhma.html  

On Renting a Car in Arkhangelsk http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/02/on-renting-car-in-arkhangelsk.html  

Outskirts of Kiev http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/02/outskirts-of-kiev.html  
Statues of old Old Comrades or Leaders http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/02/statues-of-old-old-comrades-or-leaders.html

New Logic or No Interest in Business http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/02/new-logic-or-no-interest-in-business.html  

The Burnt Muffin http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/11/the-burnt-muffin.html

Love locks from the Black to the White Sea http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/11/love-locks-from-black-to-white-sea.html

Antoniyevo-Siysky Monastery (Антониево-Сийский монастырь) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/antoniyevo-siysky-monastery.html  

On changing Moldovan Lei in Odessa http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/on-changing-moldovan-lei-in-odessa.html  

The Very Basic Guide to Russian http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-russian.html  

Crime and Punishment (St. Petersburg) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/crime-and-punishment.html  

Hram Ilias – the hidden silence near the Red Place in Moscow http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/hram-ilias-hidden-silence-near-red.html  
Kishinev – the prologue of this year’s travels http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/kishinev-prologue-of-this-years-travels.html