2008-10(Oct)-16 Novgorod Wood Village

http://picasaweb.google.com/terricallaway/NovgorodWoodVillage#

We took many pictures on our trip to Novgorod so here is another group - this Wood Village was recreated on a site of an old city, Vitoslavlitsy. The structures are period 1300 - 1800, all of wood. We had a lovely tour guide who was a resident of Novgorod who spoke very good English and had quite a nice sense of humor.

As she told it, the first structures the communities built were chapels or churches. Chapels were small and typically were used as meditative or resting places. The churches were larger and more grand. Of course, in rural areas, more grand still means a wood structure with perhaps, a dirt floor. We are talking about rural areas in 1400 here, not 1700 when Peter started building St. Petersburg as a copy of the great European cities. Russia has been a Christian country (except during the Soviet times) with their roots coming from the Eastern Orthodox tradition (remember, in about 1000, the Great Schism divided the medieval Christians into followers of the Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) churches).

Most of the structures were closed to the public. There were 'interpreters' in native costumes who explained to the Russian visitors what kind of lives people had then, you could peek into windows but really the insides were about the same as the outsides - logs, stripped of their bark and placed together perfectly - no nails. Absent also was any mud as filler for the spaces between the logs. As best I can tell they just fit together. All the intricate designs were made with hand tools and remember that we are very far north, so there was limited times to build with all the cold weather. Another interesting tidbit was that the villagers were taxed by the number of windows on their houses, so only the 'wealthy' had many windows. Probably a good thing since it got so cold. The roofs were also made of wood - looked like wood slats.

We did go into one house. The ceilings were extremely low and you climbed up to the top level to get to the living quarters. The ground floor (it actually was dirt) was used for storage and to house the animals when it rained or was cold. Upstairs there was a storage area for crops and one room for living. There was a clay stove/fireplace for cooking; people slept on hard wood benches; the very young and the oldest people (you know, the ones in their late 30s or 40s) slept in a small loft or above the stove to keep warm. Our guide said that the houses typically had an icon (religious painting) to remind them of their faith and 'charms' to keep away bad spirits. I guess in case God was too busy, when the pagan spirits were acting up!

I did find it interesting that these buildings were reconstructed on site and they did use nails - even if we knew how to build such structures today, it would have cost a fortune in man-hours to do. Even in Russian wages!

Now for the next question: DO you cook dinner for John every night?....:)
Of course, I am Betty Crocker (or perhaps Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray or Paula Dean) now! I do cook a couple of times per week. But actually we have left overs at least once from the cooking I do on Tuesday nights, we go out for pizza on Thursdays with co-workers, we usually do something with other couples on the weekend so I am not really cooking much - but enough for me - since most of you know I do not like to cook. We certainly are not starving here.

Hugs to all, Terri