“Russian Icon”

June 11 - June 27, 2010

The Russian Icon tour is the first comprehensive study tour that includes all of the major and many less famous, but important monuments and collections of the Russian Sacred Art

If you are interested in joining this tour or have any questions, please contact us!

The “Russian Icon” tour is the first comprehensive study tour that along with all of the major collections of Russian Icons will include many generally overlooked, less famous, but yet very important monuments and collections of Russian Medieval Sacred Art. The itinerary for the current tour is fully and personally prepared by Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky. The itinerary includes visits to Moscow, most cities of the Golden Ring, Vologda, Ferapontovo, St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Pskov. Travelers will get a real in depth course not only on the History of Russian Sacred Art and Architecture, but also on the History of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian State. Another benefit of this trip is the fact that we will work directly with museum staff and clergy along the way. We have a longstanding and personal friendship with many of them and that enable us to see and to do much more than you would with a tour prepared by any travel agency.

Russian Icon

This trip is intended as a comprehensive educational course on the development, tradition and various historical schools of Russian iconography presented in frescoes, stone and wood carvings, but most importantly in icons. Along with most of the major museum collections, containing masterpieces representing the very beginning of Russian iconography through the eighteenth century, we will visit several restoration workshops and icon/fresco studios where modern Russian iconographers are working on resurrecting the centuries-old tradition of the Russian Icon. The emphasis of our tour is definitely on the Icon, and for that we concentrate most of our trip on exploring numerous places where religious art is most brilliantly and explicitly present. Along our tour we will see a lot of sites in both world famous and very secluded locations of rural Russia. Sometimes it will be done at the expense of not having “enough” free time for “souvenir shopping” or by overlooking the major tourist attractions. Knowledgeable travelers have to understand that it is impossible to cover everything along our way, but even under such circumstances group members will, in addition to a comprehensive study of the Russian Icon, get a good idea of the Russian Church and secular history that impacted religious art. Although we’ll be dealing for the most part with realities of Eastern Christian Church Art, every iconophile is welcome aboard. The only forewarning for a prospective traveler is to be prepared for a lot of walking during incredibly interesting and educational, but long, days.

Day 1.

Friday, June 11, 2010.

Meals: Dinner.

Group arrives to Moscow. Transfer to the hotel for Dinner and o/n.

Day 2.

Saturday, June 12, 2010.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

We will start our day with a morning visit to Visoko-Petrovskiy Monastery that serves as a wonderful example of the restoration where various styles of iconography are organically co-exist. Then we will continue to the magnificent Moscow Kremlin. While all of the cathedrals are interesting and significant for our exploration, special attention will be devoted to the Dormition Cathedral - important for its age and its role in Russian church and state history. It is also very important as a museum since it houses a very fine collection of the earliest Russian icons. After a short break for lunch we will visit the Red Square with its famous Cathedral of the Protection of the Theotokos, more famously known as St. Basil’s, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, rebuilt just 15 years ago and the Chapel of our Lady of Iveron. Then we will explore the main church of the Sretenskiy (Holy Meeting) Monastery with some fine 17 century frescoes and modern Iconostasis.

Day 3.

Sunday, June 13, 2010.

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch.

Today we’ll tour the best icon collection in the world that is housed in the Tretyakov gallery. We plan to spend several hours here, with some free time for lunch at the museum’s cafeteria. In the afternoon we will visit Novodevichiy Convent, with its magnificent iconostasis and frescoes that are preserved undisturbed from the 17th century. We’ll end our day with a visit to Arbat Street for some book and souvenir shopping.