russia: voronezh

 

Voronezh is the capital of its own oblast. The city is 515 kilometers almost straight south from Moscow, and has a population of over a million people.

Wikipedia tells me the first written references to the city date back to 1177. Something about the prince of another region (when Russia was made up of various princely states and was not a single country,) fled to the city. Reading this makes one think the city was actually older than this date, but I guess there is no other proof?

The region in which the city is located used to have lots of oak forests, which are typically pretty dark in colour. The first half of the name, voron, often means 'black/dark' in Slavic languages. Wikipedia goes on to say that folk etymology in Russia combined the names for raven (voron,) and hedgehog (ezh) to make the river, and therefore city name.

By the 17^th century the city was of a reasonable size, enough that Peter the Great built a dockyard in the city. It was at this dockyard where a fleet of ships was built to help Russia in its Azov campaigns of the late 17^th century.

(When Russia tried to take over access to the Sea of Azov in Turkey.) It didn't work, but that's another story.

During WW2 Voronezh was the sight of a lot of fighting between Russian and combined Axis troops, in fact Germany used the area as a staging area for the seige of what was then Stalingrad. The industrial factories of the region were altered to help produce military equipment, which was a major help to the war effort for Russia. All the fighting took a toll on Voronezh, as it was more than 90% destroyed by the end of the war.

More reading of the Wikipedia article tells me it took decades to rebuild the city after the Great Patriotic War. Industry continues to play a big part in the city and regional economy and environment, with factories for machine tools, and heavy mechanical pressing. (I have no idea what this is.)

My train to Voronezh arrived on time. The attendant in my train car must've been really concerned that I wouldn't get up and off the train after it pulled into the station. She tapped on my leg twice, and was very insistent that I wake up and get up, even though it was still more than 30 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.

I usually get down from my bunk no more than 15 minutes ahead of time, as I have nothing to do except clean up my sheets and put on my shoes.

Anywho. The train station in Voronezh seemed pretty big. Most stations have the city name on the back side/track side of the station, but Voronezh took that to another level. The city name was on the back side twice, as well as on both sides of the station. You'll never end up in Voronezh (by train) and not know where you are.

The inside of the station is nice too, with some stained glass. I was taking a photo of the front of the station (there are some statues on the roof,) when a security officer asked if I was a professional photographer. I'm not sure why he asked, maybe because I was taking a photo with a real camera, not a phone? Who knows. Part of the front of the station was covered with scaffolding, so the photos didn't turn out very well.

It didn't take me long to walk to the hostel I'd booked. I'm pretty sure the hostel wasn't very busy, and I was likely one of few foreigners they had this summer. 

I got the impression that the front desk lady was happy to be able to practice her English, and I didn't mind, knowing that the 'lesson' wasn't going to take very long. I got to have a dorm room all to myself, which was really nice. I ended up staying inside for a few hours, doing nothing in particular.

I finally walked out the door at 11, I didn't want to waste the entire day inside. The first 'sight' I saw was the former 'Officers' House,' which looked more like a theatre to me than a military or government building. Though it was listed as a sight to see, I don't think it was open for visitors to wander around inside.

The Officers' House was on a main street, which I followed for a while. The street was busy, and felt very 'normal.' I don't think Voronezh is high on most people's list of places to visit in Russia, so it doesn't feel at all touristy. I liked seeing a theatre with quirky statues and turrets on top, a building with lovely mosaic tiled decoration, and a government building of some kind.

I walked through a garden that had some modern art pieces on display, they were very very colourful. I don't know how to describe them except to say big circles on sticks. I wonder how long they'll stay on display.

I tried to get close to the main Lenin in town, he stands in the middle of Lenin platz, which is in front of the city administration building. Getting to that platz wasn't as easy as I thought it would've been. There are roads on three sides of the platz, but none of them had a crosswalk going to the platz anywhere close to where I was.

From there I had a long-ish walk. I stopped at a WW2 memorial, which included an eternal flame and big Soviet style statues. There was also a separate building to go in, which was really well done. There was basically one big room, with small displays for each official Hero City from WW2. There were photos, as well as dirt from each city, as well as medallions and ribbons and such. There was intense music and fake flowers too.

There was a small chapel next to the memorial, but the doors were locked when I tried to enter.

From there it was another long-ish walk, this time going over a bridge across the river the splits the city in two.

My goal on the other side of the river was to get to a Lenin statue. Crossing the bridge was easy (but windy,) but as I got to the other side I ended up with the same problem I'd already had once, a lack of crosswalks. The 'as the crow flies' distance to this Lenin statue wasn't that far, but to get there I had to add an extra couple blocks of walking distance, in order to avoid cars flying down the street. Argh.

Lenin seemed about life size, on a pedestal not too much taller than me. He was painted silver, nothing special. That being said, this statue felt smaller than most Lenin statues I've seen; he is often portrayed as being larger than life even though he was not a big/tall man. I took my photo and figured out a slightly faster way to get back to the bridge to go back across the river.

Just after crossing the river, I veered off the bridge and onto a road that followed the river. Eventually I got to a platz with another memorial, a boat museum, and a church.

The boat museum was pretty impressive from the outside, though I chose not to visit the museum this time, figuring it might be worth seeing another day. I could tell this summer was different than usual, because this type of platz would probably normally be teeming with people, but there was hardly another soul to be seen.

I walked out another side of the platz, and followed a path that basically took me straight up a steep hill. The path brought me right to a church, which wasn't open when I walked by. From there I followed roads to get to a bridge listed as a 'sight' worth seeing. Hint, it wasn't.

It was just a bridge over another road. I doubt I would've noticed it at all if it hadn't been marked on the map and mentioned online.

I headed back in the very general direction of my hostel, my walk brought me to a series of triangles leading to another platz. I wanted a photo of me standing in the triangle 'tunnel,' but there were just enough people out for a walk to make that photo difficult to take. I decided to come back in the morning, and hope for fewer people to avoid.

The next morning I made sure to get moving earlier in the day, in order to take a couple photos without worrying about other people getting in my frame. The first was near a bar, go figure. Just outside Barack O'Mama was a series of Warhol style portraits, which I thought would make for an interesting photo background.

I was also able to take the photo I'd wanted in the triangle tunnel I'd seen yesterday. Woo hoo.

After the triangle photo I went back to the platz at one end of the triangles. Called Sovietsky platz, there was a fountain in the middle, and a church on one side.

The outside of this church was blue, and the inside was absolutely lovely with frescoes all over.

From there I walked to the 'main' Lenin statue I'd spotted yesterday. Since it was still early, there wasn't much vehicular traffic, so I got to the platz by just crossing the street where it suited me.

Next on my itinerary was a huge monument. It looked like a giant globe, and had the slogan 'proletarians of every country unite.' Very very big, it took up the entire middle of a traffic circle.

Earlier in this post I mentioned a church on a hill, it hadn't been open when I walked by. I went back, just in case it was open this time around, and luck was with me. This was another blue church, also with great frescoes all over the interior.

Not far away was yet another church, this one looked old. At least, most of it looked old. The bell tower was in need of some love, but the inside was almost sterile. There was a small iconostasis, but nothing else, just white walls. I hope there are plans to add more.

I made my way back to the main street on which I'd started my explorations the day before, this time I walked back in the opposite direction. As I passed a fountain I realized I could see a couple having wedding photos taken. I was hot, the bride and groom must've been roasting. Just off this street was Victory platz, which had a couple big monuments, and a great view over the edge of the hill.

On the other side of the main street I could see Annunciation church. (Or is it a cathedral? I've never figured out the difference.)

Very big, painted white outside with green domes on top, and very eye catching. The inside was stunning, even with part of it under renovation. Brightly painted frescoes all over, a huge iconostasis with bright icons up in front.

After leaving the church, I found a street that headed slightly downhill, hoping to see another couple of churches. Go figure, one of them was another blue church. Too bad, this one was closed. I got down the street to the second church (actually, it was a monastery,) but the outer gates were closed and locked.

Since other churches had been closed at various times, I had no idea whether these churches were closed because of Covid, or if there was another reason.

To get back to my hostel I walked along the path given to me by Yandex maps. I giggled to myself when I realized one of the streets I was following was called Sakko and Vanzetti (sp?) street. Rather odd to find a street named after Italian anarchists, given the political systems and history in Russia. 

When I got back to the hostel I had enough time to charge my phone, and relax a bit, then walk to the train station. Unfortunately, I hadn't looked very carefully at my train ticket, because I was at the wrong train station! The one I needed was on the other side of town!! I tried to get there by taxi, but ended up missing my train by just two or three minutes. Argh.

Fortunately I was able to buy a ticket for the next train going to my next destination, which left just an hour later. While waiting, I walked back to a big memorial of a plane to take a couple photos. There were kids playing on the plane, trying to climb up the 'spine' but not making it very far.

I made sure to be at the train station in plenty of time for my train, hee hee. I shared a coupe with a couple police officers for a couple stops, then they got off and I had it all to myself. Woo hoo!!