Welcome back to
exploring Moscow. Not long after my classes finished in the morning I
left school and started walking.
My first
destination was a museum called Gogol's House. Nikolai Gogol was a
Russian writer who originally came from what is now Ukraine. He was
born in a town near Poltava, when it was part of the Russian Empire.
When I lived in
Ukraine I heard Gogol's name a lot more than I've heard it since
moving to Russia. Much of his writing was influenced by his
upbringing, so there is a lot about Ukrainian and rural culture.
Gogol went to
university in what is now Nyzhin, the school is now named after him.
He went on to be a professor at a university in St Petersburg.
Like many well
known authors, Gogol struggled with depression. In one particularly
well known episode of his last years, he threw a bunch of his papers
into a fireplace. This fireplace is in the museum, protected by a
plastic/glass screen. Not long afterward he got into bed, and stopped
eating. He never left his bed, and died after nine days.
The reason this
museum exists in Moscow is because this is where he spent the last
four years of his life. He was originally buried in the grounds of
Danilov monastery in Moscow, but later on the Soviet authorities
moved him to Novodevichy cemetery, which is the home of a number of
other Russian celebrities.
This museum wasn't
terribly exciting, mostly because I don't know the writings of Gogol.
If's probably a good place to see if you're more familiar with the
man.
After the house
museum I started walking again, making my way to something you don't
see much of in Moscow: a Roman Catholic church.
The church of the
Immaculate Conception is red brick on the outside, with beige and
light yellow inside. After years of the over the top decoration of
Orthodox churches, this church pales in comparison.
No comments:
Post a Comment