!!!Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin

by Stanislav Sedov and Dmitriy Moiseenko,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

28 April 2012

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

The idea to photograph The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River,
the famous monument of medieval Russia, was rather spontaneous. I heard
in the news that the territory near Ryazan city was under the state of
emergency: nearly 500 houses were flooded by the high water.

I already shot the Church of the Intercession from the air in 2010. I
made a few calls asking my friends about how the flood affected Vladimir
city. I received several promising images very quickly — the valley,
which we crossed by foot last time was flooded up to the railroad
tracks. Obviously, we had to move quickly. We had to go right away,
before the water goes away. Having no boat in our fleet was a serious
problem. My friends told me that it was practically impossible to hire a
boat on location. I described all these challenges to my partner, Dima
Moisseyenko, and asked him if he was ready to put aside his business
(ladies and Facebook) and come with me to Vladimir city. Like a good boy
scout, Dima was always prepared. The second "boy scout", prepared to
take on challenges for the beautiful photo, was Denis Sinyakov, staff
photographer of the Reuters agency.

[{Image src='01_The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River.jpg' caption='The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='602'}]

It was decided to leave immediately to arrive by sunrise. We had to find
a floatation device right away, so Dima ordered a boat online. They
delivered his order an hour before our departure, which was about
midnight. In 3,5 hours of driving a bad road and fighting drowsiness we
found ourselves near Bogolyubovo railway station. It was dark and quiet
at 4 o'clock in the morning. After several attempts to read the manual
for our boat in the deem light of the streetlight, and the group brain
storming, we finally assembled the boat. Than we hauled it over the
railway tracks and put it in the water. While in a hurry, we completely
forgot to break a bottle of Champaign during this Gala launch. Well, we
didn't have it with us anyway.

As promised, there was a lot of water. The fog descended on the river
and made it look like we were on an ocean shore: there was nothing but
the water up to the horizon. The opposite shore was completely
invisible. The moment we set to launch, a group of photographers
appeared on the shore. They carried a lot of photo gear, even tripods,
but they didn't have the main piece of equipment required to photograph
the flood — a boat. They looked at our boat, sighed, and went on along
the rail tracks, disappearing in the fog...Wasting no more time, we
sailed away.

[{Image src='02_The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River.jpg' caption='The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='528'}]

I will skip the details of our glorious voyage through the flooded
forest first, then through the valleys and fields. I just want to
mention that among three of us only Denis had waders, and that in ten
minutes after volunteering to raw the boat, Dima confessed that he's
never done it before.

After wondering through river channels for about an hour we saw a blurry
silhouette of the Church. Right before the sunrise. The sun painted the
sky and the water with such surreal colors that we almost forgot why we
were there.

[{Image src='03_The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River.jpg' caption='The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='360'}]

The guys grabbed their cameras and I took the paddles. Only the sound of
their shutter clicks disturbed the silence for the following half an
hour. Our photographers got so carried away, that only my threats to
"misuse the paddles" made Dima focus on shooting aerial spherical
panoramas, which you can see now in today's tour...

[{Image src='04_The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River.jpg' caption='The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='664'}]

The Church of the Intercession of the Holly Virgin on the Nerl River
(1165 AC) near Bogolyubovo village is a greatest monument of Russian
architecture. Being an important component of the White Monuments of
Vladimir and Suzdal, the Church belongs to the World Heritage of UNESCO.
This remarkable Russian heritage attraction was built on the man-made
hill, at the confluence of Nerl and Klyazma Rivers. The 5-meter deep
foundation of the Church was especially designed to protect it from
flood. The amazing fact: it took only one year to build this Church. The
Life of Andrey Bogolyubsky says «This church is to by erected within one
year and create home for monastics". This chronicle shows that the
Church is related to the victorious campaign of Vladimir's army to
Bulgarians, and to the death of Knyaz Andrey's son Izyaslav.

It is a miracle that the Church of the Intercession has survived to our
days. At the end of 18th century the abbot of the Bogolyubsky monastery,
under whose supervision the Church of the Intercession of the Holy
Virgin was kept, decided to disassemble the building — it didn't bring
any profit — because the monastery needed bricks to build a belfry.
Fortunately, the abbot didn't have enough funds to commence the
demolition. Unfortunately, original interior frescos were lost during
its reconstruction in 1877.

[Quote from "Drugoi Journal"|http://drugoi.livejournal.com/3722520.html]

\\ \\
[2 Panoramas of Church_of_the_Intercession_of_the_Holy_Virgin|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Church_of_the_Intercession_of_the_Holy_Virgin]










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