Goritsy--July 30, 2005--Monastery of St. Kirill, Visit to Local Home
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While cruising in the morning, we passed a submerged church (29). During Soviet times, religious worship was officially forbidden and many churches were abandoned or destroyed. In some areas, the construction of dams and power plants caused flooding which submerged the abandoned churches in addition to other property. Photo 30 shows two young girls from Switzerland who were on the cruise with their parents and younger brother. They were in Russia to eventually visit their grandmother in Moscow at the end of the cruise.
Once we reached Goritsy, we traveled by bus to the Monastery of St. Kirill of the White Lake (32-54). The monastery was founded in the 14th century by a pious monk who left Moscow because he found that city lacked spirituality. The monastery eventually became close to the Czar's family and by the 18th century, it had 20,000 serfs and many treasures, a few of which are shown in the photos. However, moral corruption eventually took over the monastery and its leadership sided with the White Guards against the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution. This failed; the Bolsheviks shot the reigning bishop and the monastery was put under state control in 1923. In 1969, it was declared a museum by the Soviet government.
On the way back to the ship, we encountered a local home open for inspection (55-63). The owner, unemployed, showed us around what seemed to be a typical home for the area.