Identifier: throughsiberia00lans (find matches)
Title: Through Siberia
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Lansdell, Henry, 1841-1919
Subjects: Prisons Prisoners Work camps
Publisher: London : S. Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
inRussia, finds almost nothing upon which to expend his vocabulary ofarchitectural terms. He sees merely wood, stone, or brick and plasterbuildings, not loo evenly finished, and whitewashed over in such a fashionthat, but for their proportions, they would not be thought too good foran English homestead. The Russian churches are so far alike that they are all modelled onthe Byzantine style of architecture—a Byzantine church having beendescribed as a gabled Greek cross, with central dome inscribed in asquare. On the exterior, besides the central, there is sometimes awestern dome , often there is one at each angle of the square, and,occasionally, one at each end of the cross. Accordingly, instead ofspires, the eye of a traveller in Russia becomes accustomed to cross-crowned domes, which, as they are brightly painted and sometimescovered even with gold, and furnished with bells, affect both eye and earnot unpleasingly. On entering a Russian church from the west, the internal arrangement
Text Appearing After Image:
THE GREAT BELL OF MOSCOW AND IVAN VELIKI TOWER. page 333- THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA. -:,;,2> Oxford, weighing 7 tons—is but a baby comparedwith many in Russia, The largest in Petersburgweighs 23 tons ; Great John, in the older capital,weighs 96 tons; whilst the old Tsar Kolokol, orthe King of Bells, in Moscow, weighed originallynearly 200 tons, or 432,000 lbs. Reckoning theirvalue at 18 silver roubles per pood, we get a price forour Oxford bell of ^1,100 ; and for that of the largestone of Moscow of ^32,000. This monster bell is26 ft. high, and 67 ft. round! It was neither its bells, however, nor its architecturethat made Kiakhta cathedral a fine church, butrather its costly fittings. It has two altars, both ofsilver; a candlestick with numerous rubies and emeralds,and a large chandelier studded with precious stones.More striking still, perhaps, was the profusion ofobjects made of solid silver, such as the royal doors,which are said to weigh 2,000 lbs. ; and, above all, t

Note About Images