russia: moscow oblast: mozhaisk

 

Mozhaisk is another random town I visited in Moscow Oblast, not long after it became permissable for me to do so. I was just happy to be able to see a new place, and wore a mask the entire time I was on the train. It is not listed in my Russia guidebook, so I must've heard about it through social media.

Mozhaisk is about 110 kilometers west of Moscow, with a population of just over 30,000. The documented history goes back to 1231, when it was part of the Chernihiv region. (This region is part of what is now Ukraine.) Later it was part of the Smolensk region, followed by the Moscow region. At some point in history, Mozhaisk was also part of Lithuania, showing how big that empire was at various points. 

What I get from reading this history is that the location was important, but the city itself was never strong enough to be independent.

In 1812 the Battle of Borodino took place not far from Mozhaisk, just 12 kilometers away. I hadn't realized how close the two towns are until I saw a few signs in Mozhaisk pointing in the direction of Borodino. I'm guessing some people come to both of them on one day on a tour.

During WW2 the Wehrmacht took control of Mozhaisk in October 1941, the Red Army took it back in 1942.

Mozhaisk is now a relatively small town. It isn't well known, and definitely isn't on the 'must see' list for anyone visiting Russia. That being said, its a cute town, with history worth seeing.

It is easy to get to Mozhaisk, all I had to do was take an elektrichka, which took two hours. The train station isn't in a particularly convenient location, but it was still walkable distance, at least in my head.

I started by walking toward the stela that marks Mozhaisk as a city of military glory. It looked just like the majority of such monuments I've seen. 

There was nice landscaping around the monument, and as I looked over to buildings nearby, I saw huge murals showing war scenes on the sides of the buildings. Mozhaisk clearly knows its own history as a location where lots of fighting has taken place.

I took photos and kept going. Next up was the first of two Lenins I wanted to see. The first was a full size statue on a pedestal, painted silver. He stood in front of a government building of some sort. Nothing special, but I always want to see Lenin statues.

My second intended sight was also a Lenen, though this one was just a large profile of his head, on the side of a grocery store. (It always surprises me where I find Lenin.) The walk to get to the profile took a while, (as it was basically on the other side of town,) but the weather was nice, and it gave me some great views over the surrounding area.

After seeing the Lenin profile, I walked back toward the city center, heading in the general direction of the main sight in town, the kremlin. For reasons I don't know, the kremlin in Mozhaisk is called the Detinets, but I'll probably refer to it as the kremlin throughout this entire post.

One of the views on the way to and from the Lenin profile was of the kremlin, which sits on the edge of a small hill. Absolutely lovely. If there had been trails to walk around the hill, I would've been happy to walk all the trails. 

The kremlin itself is several centuries newer than the town, though still plenty old. The first cathedral in the kremlin was made of stone, and built in the early 14^th century. As I got close to the kremlin, I realized it was still very photogenic, but also really small. Standing at the entrance gate I could see the entire territory, I think it was just two churches, and a model of what the kremlin used to look like.

As I was there during the height of summer, the flowers were in full bloom, the grass was green, etc... The sky was blue, so every photo I took was full of colour. At least from the outside. The inside of the churches wasn't nearly as eye catching. It didn't take me long to visit the churches and wander over the entire territory, it really is a small area.

From there I went back to the main street in town and followed it north. This part of my visit took me past a WW2 monument, which had the usual combination of a wreath, an eternal flame, plaques with names, and dates. I took a few minutes to honour those who gave everything for their country (whether they wanted to or not,) then kept walking.

A little bit later I saw a sign telling me to turn left to get to a monastery. This monastery is the second main sight of Mozhaisk. An official tour of the city probably includes the kremlin and the monastery, then moves out of the city.

Luzhetsky Monastery is the short name for a relatively small place. The full name is Nativity of the Theotokos and St.Therapont Luzhetsky Monastery. I wonder if anyone ever calls it the full name, because its certainly a mouthful. I didn't even try saying the name in Russian, not even in my head. 

Luzhetsky Monastery was founded in 1408, by a man named Therapont Belozersk. He created the monastery based on the commands of Prince Andrey of Mozhaisk, who never let him leave. Belozersk died in the monastery in 1426; he was later canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Luzhetsky monastery is surrounded by white walls with a few towers. The main cathedral, which was built and rebuilt several times, has five domes, and sits in the middle of the territory.

As I got closer and closer to the walls and entry gate, dark clouds started rolling through the sky, really really fast. Since there are a couple open fields near the monastery, the view of those clouds over the monastery was quite striking. This kind of a sky is my second favourite. (My favourite is a blue sky, with a few white clouds; yes, I'm very basic at times.)

There was no fee to enter the monastery, and since the main church is the only thing open to see, it didn't take me long to visit. Like about half the churches in Russia, the outside of the church was more eye catching (probably because of the crazy clouds,) than the interior. (The other half are the other way around. It seems rare that a church looks amazing both inside and outside.)

Not too far from this monastery was a house museum, that of artist S.V. Gerasimov. I ended up on a mini tour of the museum, which was not my intention. The docent clearly wanted to practice her English, and she seemed nice, so I let it happen. 

The museum was mostly paintings of Gerasimov, though there were also displays of the work of his family members and his students. All in all it was nice.

My last attempt at a sight was another church. Unfortunately, the entrance gates to the territory of this church weren't open, darnit. Oh well.

By that point it had started to rain. Thank goodness the rain wasn't too heavy, but it made the walk allllll the way back to the train station really humid and rather unpleasant. Because of the rain I wanted to take public transport, but when I looked at my options, it was only going to be five minutes faster, and was still going to cover half the distance with walking, so I opted to walk the entire way.

My arrival at the train station were nearly perfectly timed, I only had to wait 20 minutes for the next train back to Moscow. Yay!

I doubt I'll return to Mozhaisk, I think I saw everything on the list of sights.