[cont. from previous] …from the Church on the Blood we piled back into the bus and choked off again on our mystery tour, complete with interesting facts on why to be considered beautiful, Russian women used to be on the rather large side. The story goes that larger women can weather the harsh conditions and do the work around the house better than those given perhaps less ‘insulation’. The thinner women to make themselves more attractive wore several layers of coats to make them appear larger but the men had sussed this trick out and carried long pins with them to check! nice. Just shows how tastes have changed I guess.

We arrived at our destination after 20 or so minutes and were surrounded by dense forest comprised of very tall thin trees – pine and birch – held in a carpet of power-soft snow. Although each tree was quite narrow they were packed together pretty closely so that very little light reached the ground.

This is a strange area indeed, in the middle of almost nowhere there used to exist a mine shaft, this was where the royals’ bodies were placed on 18th July 1918.

the notice reads:

“After July 18, 1918 near this mine 7 of the bodies of the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia were burned with the use of petrol and then destroyed with sulphuric acid”

Around the shaft 7 chapels have been built, or rather will be built, there was still some construction work going on to complete the job. Again this follows the same lines as the Church on the Blood, people couldn’t do anything about the death of the royals until quite recently so its almost a catch-up history-in-the-making sort of thing going on. Each church is dedicated to a member of the killed royal family and around the shaft itself is a walkway holding images of the Tsar from the early 20th century and the long overdue ceremony when the family were transported to St Petersburg and interred 1998. The sun came out creating some fantastic shadows and lines in the landscape, the muffeling effect of the snow and the surrounding trees gave a very calm feeling to the place.

Inside the chapels were huge metallic water containers people were filling up from to take home as ‘Holy water’. The theory being the chapel bells vibrate the water in a ‘good way’ and this makes the drinkers of it happy…this perhaps didn’t sink in too much being a group of scientists but if people want to believe the story then who are we to stop them? There were also cakes and things being delivered about the place…yum!

The wood from the forest is used to make the buildings so allow them to blend together…

And yes, just a reminder; it was still pretty freezing outside