Churches 教会

Regina, the person in charge of the apartment, brought something out of smashed sunflower seed and kept that in fridge. Today I tried that with bread. It was better than it looks like; it is gray and looks not pretty nice, I feel that it might be good for stomach. It is called halva and usually people would not eat it with bread.

レギーナがひまわりの種をすりつぶしたという塊を持ってきて冷蔵庫に入れていた。今日はそれをパンにつけて食べてみる。なかなかおいしい。ねずみ色で見た目はなんとも悪いが、これはおなかによさそう。ハルバという食べ物で、普通はパンと一緒に食べたりはしないらしい。

Just before noon I left the apartment and went to St.Isaac's cathedral. It was not a really fine day. I bought two tickets both for museum and observatory with allowance of taking pictures, I first climbed up stairs until the weather was still all right for taking pictures. Very differnt from the stairs at St.Stephan's cathedral in Vienna, stairs are very wide and we could go up with two others at the same time. The church is not very tall. I thought it should still have some fine view if they would charge me for taking pictures, in actual in three directions north, east and west I just saw construction sites and paied 180 Rubles. First I thought it was too much, but thought in Euro 5, maybe it can be.

お昼少し前に家を出てまっすぐ聖イサック教会へ。今日は天気がどうも良くない。博物館と展望台の両方のチケットを写真撮影許可つきで買い、まだ天気がいいうちにと最初に展望台へ。ウィーンのシュテファンスドームの階段とは違い、広くて３列で登れそう。それほど高い建物ではないが、写真撮影に追加料金を取るくらいだからさぞ景色も素晴らしかろうと思ったが、東北西の３方向はどこを見ても工事現場。占めて１８０ルーブル。これはぼられたなと思ったが、ユーロで考えてみれば５ユーロか。まぁしょうがない。

 

 

I came back and then went inside the church. It costs 350 Rubles, it is the price for a some museum. I saw lots of religious paintings hanging and the ceiling decoration was marverous. Russia at that time invited many architests from France or Italy to let them design. This church, too, they wanted to build a really nice one which can be even competitive against France, England or Italy, their role model. Such the explanation was written in French. Well, sure it is wonderful. To raise 17-meter-high marmor pillar should have been very tough then. It is even a surprise that such the church stands here. I seldom go inside churches but it is worth visiting and paying as a museum.

降りてきてまた今度は教会の中へ。こちらは３５０ルーブル。ちょっとした美術館並み。中には宗教画が沢山飾られていて、天井の装飾も素晴らしい。当時のロシアはフランスやイタリアから建築家を招いて設計させているが、この教会もフランス、イギリス、イタリアのお手本になるものに負けないものにしようとしたという説明がフランス語で書かれていた。確かにこれは立派。１７ｍもある大理石の柱をこんなに沢山立てるだけでも当時は大変だったろう。これだけのものが建っていること自体が驚き。教会の類にはなかなか入らないが、これは博物館として料金を取るだけのことはある。

After lunch, I thought of going to Smolny cathedral, I still had much time. It is more than 5km away in direct way, but I did not want to use subway; I cannot see anything outside and I walked to the cathedral. I understood that people would say that it is very beautiful. I have never seen such a beautiful church. It was worth walking for one and a half hours. The color is based on white and the striking blue color adds strong accent to it. From that time sun started to shine and was perfect to take pictures. I walked around the place and looked for perfect angles and took some pictures.

昼食後、せっかくまだ時間があるのだからスモルニー教会を訪ねてみる。ここから直線距離でも５ｋｍ以上あるが、当然景色の見えない地下鉄など使わない。いつものように歩く。綺麗と言われるだけの事はある。こんなに綺麗な教会は見たことがない。１時間弱歩いただけのことはある。白を基調としてはっと目の覚めるような青が一段とアクセントになっている。ちょうどこのときから陽が差して来て写真を撮るのには丁度いいタイミング。敷地の中をぐるっと回って、いろんなところでシャッターを切ってみる。