THE BRONTE SISTERS

                                   Bronte History
                                        

                Most people know that Yorkshire, England was the home of the Bronte sisters whose books are set in the Yorkshire moors. We visited the Bronte Parsonage where an informative exhibit gave us a lot of information.

            Their father, Patrick Bronte, came from a poor family.  He taught himself to read, and at age 16 was a schoolmaster.  Later he attended St. John’s College in Cambridge and changed his name from Prurty or Brunty to Bronte.

            In 1809 he moved to Yorkshire as curator at Dewsbury, then Hartshead. In 1815 he became vicar of Thorton where daughters Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and son Bramwell were born. Daughters Maria and Elizabeth were born prior to this move.

Statue of sisters outside home

      Mrs. Bronte was the daughter of a prosperous merchant. She and Patrick were married in 1812. She died of cancer in 1821. Her sister went to Haworth to care for the children. In1824 the girls were sent away to Clergy Daughters’ School.  Conditions were very poor and the children were not properly feed and became malnourished. Heating was also a problem. Maria and Elizabeth became ill and returned home. Elizabeth and Maria died within a month of each other. Patrick withdrew the other girls from the school.

      Bramwell became a struggling artist but never realized success. He took to drinking and died in 1848 at age 31 of TB complicated by alcoholism.

        Emily died in 1848 at home on the sofa still in the home. Anne died at 28 in 1849.

          Charlotte was the only one to marry. She fell in love with Rev. Arthur Nicholls who had come to the vicarage to assist her dad. Patrick Bronte did not approve of his daughter’s marriage and did not attend the wedding. Charlotte died nine months later from complications of pregnancy. Arthur survived another 51 years and did eventually remarry.

            All the Bronte girls were artistically talented. A self published book of  selected poems only sold two copies, but this did not deter the girls from writing and all went on to write several novels, perhaps the best known are Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.

            The girls all played on the moors. It is speculated, as was the custom in those days, that they had been  told family stories over  the years,  and that is where they got much of the information and imagination for their stories. None of the children lived to see 40.

            Patrick Bronte lived to 84, but was ill and nearly blind in his later years. A large type book and a huge thick magnifying glass sit on a table in his study. Dying in 1861, he outlived his wife and all six of his children.

            We all agreed that the Bronte family history was a very sad one indeed.

RED SQUARE

                                           Red Square

As promised here are brief descriptions of some of the important buildings in Red Square behind the Kremlin wall.

            The Armory Palace, Moscow’s most fascinating and richest museum, flanks one side of The Kremlin at Red Square. Created in 1806, it is Moscow’s oldest museum. It opened to the public in 1911. The crown jewels, Catherine the Great’s coronation crown with its 5000 diamonds, religious icons, priceless artifacts, and fabulous world famous Faberge egg collection are housed in the Armory. Gold and silver shine everywhere in bowls, goblets, chalices, and jewelry.  Also included are carriages, royal vestments, robes, and headdresses as well as the 189-carat Orlov diamond.

            We spent a long time walking the many rooms of the Armory while our guide explained different displays as everything was written in Russian. No English subtitles here! At times the glitter was overwhelming. Thousands of pearls decorated gowns, crowns, book covers and more.

            We were all agape at the tiny waists of past female czars as we viewed some of their garments. My thigh was bigger than those waists!  I was fascinated with the bronze floor to ceiling gate that protected one room. It displayed the coat of arms of each Russian state/district. It was truly a beautiful work of art. It was a mind boggling visit.

Six churches are located within and all are Russian Orthodox. 

Cathedral Square. The white limestone Assumption Cathedral’s exterior dates to 1475. Five gilded cupolas glitter atop narrow drums. The cathedral has stood for centuries as a Russian national shrine. Patriarchs have been anointed and czars have been crowned before her altar.  Ivan the Terrible’s custom-made coronation throne is housed within. Napoleon used the cathedral as a horse stable and its icons for firewood in 1812. The bell tower holding 23 bells towers 264-feet in the air.

Archangel Michael Cathedral with its five domes was built 1505-08. Sarcophagi dominate the interior. The remains of every Russian czar up to Peter the Great rest here.

At the nine-domed Annunciation Church we learned a lot about the Russian Orthodox Church. People attending church services stand, with the exception of the ‘royal’ or ‘patron’ box, there are no chairs, benches or pews. Frescos, telling the story of the bible for the illiterate, cover the walls, ceiling and columns in the church. The frescos in this church date to the 15^th century and were restored in the 17th century.

   The altar is hidden behind an iconostasis, which covers the entire front wall of the sanctuary. Icons are religious paintings that are usually painted on wood, sometimes on canvas. In the center of the iconostasis is an ornate door that opens to the altar. The second icon to the right of the door is of the saint from whom the church derives its name. The rows of icons are always an uneven number with five being the most common. Each of the icons is ‘framed’ with ornate gold molding making for a glittering wall. Russian Orthodox churches normally do not have statuary, angels etc as they are considered pagan. From what we could gather music is sung without the benefit of instrumentation.  I stood in the middle of the sanctuary admiring the crystal chandeliers and looking around I could not find a square inch of wall or ceiling space that was not painted.

  By then we’d been pretty well churched out so we left for other areas of Red Square. It is a huge area and several buildings are office and government buildings not open to the public.

The Gum department store and the Russian artillery are described in earlier blog posts, 6/10 and 4/13 respectively.

THE KREMLIN

                                   The Kremlin

            St. Basil’s, a true Moscow landmark, is located on Red Square, and is surely recognized everywhere around the world. Ivan the Terrible built the church in 1561.  The original idea was to have a main chapel surrounded by seven others, but it ended up with nine chapels.  Legend says that the eyes of the builder were gouged out so nothing so beautiful could ever be built again. (I’ve heard that story in other places also.) The interior is now a museum. Except for the Kremlin, St. Basil’s is the oldest building on the square.

            The symbolic, historic, and geographic heart of Moscow is at the 69-acre Kremlin and Red Squar. In the 17^th century krasny meant beautiful, but over time the meaning has come to mean red. The Kremlin is a north-pointing triangle with sides 2460 feet long. Red Square lies along the east side while the Moscow River flows past on the south side. From here, Moscow spreads out in four distinctive rings of development, each area having its own collection of monasteries, museums, and elegant buildings. Most of the city’s sights are within the first circle, an area easily covered on foot.

The Kremlin not only represented the political power of the country from czars to Soviet prime ministers, but in earlier centuries it also was the religious heart of the Russian Orthodox Church. An air of mystery and intrigue surrounds the Kremlin, which has its roots in the fortified stronghold that defined medieval towns. Kremlin translates to the citadel. Its 12^th century wooden construction marked the birth of Moscow.  Fortified walls, over a mile in circumference, 65-feet high and 20-feet thick make it virtually impregnable. The current Kremlin dates to the 15^th century and the reign of Czar Ivan III. The red brick Kremlin wall has 20 towers, the highest 264 feet high, and five massive gates. In addition, the halls, palaces, and six cathedrals, the grave of Josef Stalin and urns along the Kremlin wall holding ashes of other famous Russians are impressive.

            This is where government decrees were read, and where czar opponents were slaughtered. It is also where potatoes and vodka were bartered and where Soviet leaders dutifully tributed their subjects during government sham pageants. Cobblestones cover the 70,000 square meter expanse. The Kremlin Wall is bordered by St. Basil’s Cathedral, the GUM department store and the red brick State historical Museum. Lenin’s mausoleum is in front of the Kremlin Wall. Historical artifacts are housed in the multi-spired museum, built in the late 1800s over the site of the original 1755 Moscow University. The tower clock chimes every 15 minutes and every three hours plays music.

            Over the centuries Moscow’s Kremlin has been witness to many tragic and famous events. Enemy guns have rattled its walls and celebrations and revolts have taken place. Now, the Kremlin is one of the largest museums in the world with its art and architecture being national treasures.

            The Spasskaya Tower, built in 1491, is considered to be the most beautiful and harmonious tower of the Kremlin.          Trade Square (Torgovaya) was its first name. In the 16^th century the name became Trinity Square after the church by the same name. In Russia the same area may have several different names, and by the 19^th century the square officially became Red Square. Stalin opened the Kremlin to the public in 1953.

            A description of its many buildings in the next post.

TIBET'S POTALA PALACE

                       The World's Highest Palace

            The first thing anyone arriving in Lhasa, Tibet notices is the Potala Palace, which dominates the Lhasa skyline. The extraordinary 13 story Palace, one of the grandest monuments in Asia and the world, towers over one of the world’s highest cities. Stretching 400-meters east to west and 350-meters north to south, it would be hard to miss! It stretches 400-feet toward the sky on top of the red hill and is 1000-feet above the valley floor. It definitely dominates the city. At an altitude of 12,359-feet it is the highest ancient palace in the world. The name translates into Buddha of Mercy.

            Built in the 17^th century it boasts 10,000 chapels, a labyrinth of mysterious dungeons and 1000 rooms, including the Red Palace, where the Dalai Lama once lived. It took 7000 workers and 1500 artists/craftsmen more than 50 years to build the adjoining Red and White Palaces that are known as the Potala Palace.

            A small bus drove us up the hill to the 5^th level of the palace. From there we walked up one level at a time until we eventually reached the top. There were not too many stairs and the climbs were not too steep.

            The palace has a complicated  layout of halls, chapels, libraries, small galleries, and winding passageways on several levels. The Great West Hall, the largest at 7800 square feet, is surrounded by three chapels. I thought the inside of the palace was dark, dank and dingy even  though it houses a stunning array of treasures including bright brocades, religious scrolls, murals, gold and jeweled-encrusted tombs, 200,000statues and hundreds of Buddhas. The Palace was designated a UNESCO site in 1994. Some restoration was in progress.

            The Red Palace is painted red to symbolize stateliness   and power. The White Palace  represents peace and serenity. The building was started by the 5^th Dalia Lama in 1645 and only two parts of the construction remain that date to the 7^th century.

            We spotted 3-4 of the ten resident cats of the palace that are kept to keep a rat population under control.

Sweeping views of the city below could be seen from various vantage points. It was a clear sunny day and at the very top of the world we were surprised to see how large the city actually is. At ground level it seemed smaller.

Top of the world was a perfect place for a group photo. We lined our cameras on a bench for our guide to take the pictures. We were the focus of many Chinese also visiting the temple and it was fun to see so many of them line up to take pictures of us. It was a new experience to be an attraction. But there was no way an American group could blend in to that society.

A walk down many many steps returned us to street level. However, for the most part the steps were not very steep and pretty easy to navigate.