ROSKILDE, DENMARK

                              A 20-YEAR PUZZLE COMPLETED

In Roskilde, Denmark we visited the Viking museum. A thousand years ago the Queen ordered ships sunk to block the entrance to the fjord. Five Viking ships were filled with rocks and sunk. In 1962 money was raised to excavate the sunken ships. 100,000 pieces of five ships, one a long boat, were dug out of the silt and mud. The silt was literally rolled back on itself. After careful measurement of each piece it was carefully removed to a pool of water. The boards were soaked for a year in a glyocol solution. As the water was removed from the wood cells it was replaced with the glyocol solution which kept the boards from crumbling. Eventually the jig saw puzzles were put together. After 20 years of painstaking work the reconstructed ships were placed in the museum. Patience truly is a virtue!

            We watched an excellent movie in English explaining the whole process. The first timbers for the museum were laid in 1968.      

            It was interesting to learn how much stronger cleaved wood is than sawed wood. It is thinner and can be bent more easily. It is not only a lot less brittle it is also a lot stronger.

Roskilde Cathedral

An English speaking guide was waiting for us at the Cathedral. We learned the Cathedral encompasses seven architectural styles and students come from all over to study them. The 800-year-old church was first built in 970 and was a wooden structure, but wood  burns and rots. Two limestone buildings followed, and in 1175 the present Romanesque brick structure was started and was finally finished in Gothic design. The large church measures 84 meters long with a ceiling 23 meters high.

          Fancy wrought iron grille work, in the form of gates to the many chapels, is throughout the church. One iron worker always signed his work with a hammer and key somewhere in the design and at the bottom of each piece he wrote his name.

            The 1650 organ was restored in 1991 at a cost of 4 million krona. The carved oak altar is gilded with gold and holds a 1589 bible. The oldest chapel in this church dates back to 1464 and is a monument to Kings Fredrik IV and Christian III.

Royal Tomb

            Frescos cover the walls. One of the chapels has 3D paintings covering its walls. The pillars and statues look so real! It really is a fantastic piece of art.  In yet another chapel King Christian (there are many Fredriks and Christians in Danish history) and Louise’s tombs are the length of the wall they are placed against. Elaborate carvings cover the tombs and larger than life marble statues, sculpted by the same man who carved the Little Mermaid, stand at the end of the tombs. This cathedral is a museum in itself and was more than worth our time.

            The guide ended the hour by saying, “This cathedral holds the tombs of 170 people and is the burial place of 20 kings and 17 queens. As you have seen, each of the seven chapels is done in a different architectural style. King Christian IV was known as the builder king. He had 23 children by 4 wives.”

            Traveling one sees many churches, this was one of the memorable ones.

UGLICH continued

                                                  UGLICH continued
      Just before arriving at Uglich we passed under the Victory Bridge, built after defeat of the Nazis. Next we passed the hydroelectric plant, completed in 1940. Only two people operate the plant. The lock just before town has a water exchange measuring 11 meters, for us traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg it was a drop.

      Red, blue and gold domes of the churches came into view as we approached the city from the water. Waiting to greet us was a pretty young girl, in native dress holding a paska, the special decorated bread, for each of us to sample.

      In town we met our local docent  who told us, “It’s a quiet place and the air is clean because we have no big factories.

      The original Kremlin walls were torn down in the mid 17^th century. The 18^th century Transfiguration Church is perched on the water’s edge and we had a good view of it as we came into port. The green

domed cathedral, built in 1713, has a high vaulted ceiling unsupported by pillars creating interior drama. The cathedral houses a splendid baroque iconostasis as well as valuable icons and religious artifacts. The frescos were in excellent condition. A gilded dome crowns the 100-foot belfry, built in 1734. The ancient clock chimed regularly for decades, but in 1984 the Chaika watch factory installed an electronic bell that is suppose to ring every half-hour. Services are held on Sunday and holidays.

      The blue-domed Church of Dimitry on the Blood, built in 1692, has a fascinating façade. Its red walls are topped with blue domes. It was designed with a love for embellishment, rich ornamentation, and striking color. Frescos cover nearly all of the inner walls.  This church was built 100 years after Prince Dimity’s death on the spot where he died.

One story of Dimitri’s death is that he was playing with his sword and during an epileptic seizure fell on the sword and died. (Dimity is also spelled Demetrius.) However, most believe Dimity was murdered.

      The floor in this church is rather unusual. It is onion dome-shaped metal because there is a heating system, pipes and furnace, underneath it. This was a winter church, which means it had heating. Summer churches did not and were used only in summer time. Frequently the winter and summer churches are attached.

      Around dinner time we boarded an old van and traveled over rather rough roads to a housing development of Stalin-era concrete apartment buildings. Our hostess was a schoolteacher who spoke some English and was delighted to be hosting  dinner for us. We walked up two flights of stairs to her small three-room apartment. Her daughters 25 and 27 plus her 79 year old mom were waiting for us.

      Grandma had made the vodka and although I’m not much of a drinker I do have to say her vodka was very good and I actually drank it straight! One of the daughters had made the dessert apricot sweet buns that were delicious. It was a delightful evening with very gracious people. There was a lot of animated conversation as we exchanged views on our differing cultures. The girls had made us a bookmark using dried flowers. How sweet. They were most gracious, and we had a delightful evening.

UGLICH, RUSSIA

                                    Charming Uglich,   History

      The day after leaving Moscow and the first day on the waterways we woke to find ourselves in a lock. We passed through several locks during the night, but the boat was so quiet we never head any outside commotion.

Sunken church tower

      Late morning we were alerted  that we would be passing the flooded belfry of Kalyazin. Built in 1800 it was part of St. Nicholas Cathedral, which sat on Kalyazin’s market square. At 210-feet high it was considered one of the finest structures along the Volga. The ship passed over Market Square that was flooded when the Uglich hydroelectric plant was built. Kalyazin dates back to the 15th century monastery that by  the 16^th century was one of the richest in Russia. On a visit Ivan the Terrible donated rare manuscripts to the monastery. In the 20^th century Stalin dynamited the monastery to ruins. The present town of Kalyazin lies around the mouth of the Zhabnya River. 

      From info slid under the cabin door we learned that although Uglich dates to 937, it’s officially recognized founding is 1148, with the establishment of its own principality in 1218. There are three theories  to how the city got its name, but the most common one is that the Russian word ugol means angle and there is a sharp bend in the Volga River at the site of the city. Others say that ugol also means coal and that coal was burned there, and still the third explanation is that the name derives from the town’s original settlers, a Finno-Ugric tribe who called the settlement Uglichy.

      In 1326 Ivan, the Moneybags, purchased the flourishing principality for Muscovy.  Its Kremlin was fortified with formidable wooden walls protecting a palace complex, a monastery, a cathedral, and a trading bazaar. The small principality even minted its own currency. A 1491 fire devoured most of that Kremlin.

      The settlement fell under repeated attacks by the Poles and ultimately was obliterated in 1611 by the Swedes. In the 16^th century Ivan the Terrible used the city as a base for attacks on the Tartars. The area recovered and by the end of the 17^th century it became a destination of religious pilgrimage to the Church of Dmitry on the Blood, built to honor the 1591 murder of Ivan the Terrible’s son. After the church construction new Kremlin walls were built, but of stone. In 1713 the Transfiguration Church was added to the complex, and the following year Peter the Great forbid stone buildings to be built anywhere except in St. Petersburg.

      During the Northern War with Sweden, the city’s bells were melted to forge artillery and the male population was summoned to St. Petersburg to either enlist in the navy or to build stone structures in the new capitol.

      Fifty years after Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, a westernizer, visited Uglich and ordered the city to become more symmetrical. Neoclassic civic structures were added as were stone churches and dwellings to the newly straightened streets.                                                                                   

Friendly Welcome

      Uglich declined in the 17^th century when the canal system altered river traffic. As the century moved on the city of uncommon beauty with a rich history began to attract artists, writers, and historians who fueled a revival of the city’s heritage. Today its 40,000 residents work in light industry.

      Uglich became a base for a large-scale engineering project when Stalin built a hydroelectric plant. In the process the city lost many old churches, monastery walls and monuments. In its 20^th century revival, in addition to the hydroelectric plant, the city gained a stone cutting plant and cheese factory. The Chaika watch factory turns out 5 million timepieces a year. The forested countryside still exists in spite of industrial exploitation.

      One of Russia’s oldest and most beloved cities, little has changed since 1916. Historically located on the right bank of the Volga River, now it is located on the bank of a reservoir, all without moving. With its many medieval buildings it is an impressive site when seen from the Volga or when walking its ancient streets.

            More on this interesting town next time.

CHINA'S SUMMER PALACE

                                      A Real Showplace

            Covering 270 square hectares, the Summer Palace is larger than the Forbidden City. Located northwest of Beijing, the Summer Palace is just shy of 10-miles from central Beijing. It is the largest and best preserved royal park in China. The construction started in 1750 as a luxurious royal garden for royal families to rest and entertain. It later became the main residence of royal members at the end of the Qing Dynasty. With a couple of previous names it was renamed the Summer Palace after reconstruction in 1888. In 1900 foreign troops torched the Summer Palace, but it was rebuilt a few years later, and in 1924 was opened to the public.

            In 1949 it underwent major restoration. There are many rocks on the grounds that serve both as scenery and as protectors of good luck. Entering the first court yard we stopped in front of a large bronze imaginary animal—the Royal Statue. The creature had the horns of a deer, the skin of a fish, the hooves of oxen, the tail of a lion, and the head of a dragon. It was pretty weird.  That courtyard led to the Hall of Longevity built in 1750 to celebrate the 60^th birthday of the emperor’s mother. Not surprising the thresholds were high throughout the Summer Palace. In contrast to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace had numerous lovely spacious gardens and courtyards. The roof tiles were different from others we’d seen. These tiles were long red tube-shaped that flipped at the end. Many buildings contained ornate furnishings and fine art work.

            Stopping in front of a huge but interesting rock our guide explained that it is called the unlucky rock. A long time ago the richest man in the country wanted to move this rock to his home, but half way he ran out of money and abandoned the rock alongside the road. Later the emperor saw the rock and had it moved to the palace. But the palace was already built and the rock wouldn’t fit though the gate. So part of the palace had to be disassembled to get the rock into the courtyard. I’m not sure when all that happened.

         

Covered walkway

   We strolled down the half-mile covered walkway, which provided a walking area for the empress during inclement weather. Beautiful murals were painted all along the ceiling of the walkway roof. During the Cultural Revolution the ceiling was whitewashed to protect all these lovely murals. After the revolution the whitewash was removed. The walkway ended at the marble boat, an elaborate two-deck pavilion of marble and stained glass---an interesting and unusual site.

   A lot of bamboo grew on the grounds. Bamboo, a symbol of strength, bends but never breaks, which is quite typical of the Chinese themselves over the centuries.

            The whole area radiates natural beauty and the royal gardens are not only grand but also beautiful. Over 3,000 manmade ancient structures including pavilions, towers, bridges,

Marble Boat

corridors, etc account for building space of more than 70,000 square meters.

            Kunming Lake covers two-thirds of the grounds. The lake has two stone bridges to a manmade island in the center. The lake is formed and fed by natural springs. We ended our tour of the Summer Palace by taking a boat ride across the lake.

            In 1998 UNESCO declared the Summer Palace a World Heritage Site declaring it  "A masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value."

      It is a fantastic place and was a wonderful visit on a lovely sunny day.