Category: Topics

Castles, Georgia, ReligiousLeave a comment

Ananuri Citadel and the Church of the Assumption, Georgia

Rich McClear

Ananuri, a citadel used to sit on a ridge above a river that has been dammed so now sits on a point in the Zhinvili Reservoir.  The town that it towered over is underwater.  The Church of the Assumption was used as a barn in Soviet times and the frescos were whitewashed.  Some have now been uncovered.  The carvings on the outside walls of the Assumption Church include a huge cross visible from the highway and grape vines loaded with fruit.  Nicholas says the reason Georgians greet guests with wine is in commemoration of the Eucharist.  Each greeting is a … Continue reading Ananuri Citadel and the Church of the Assumption, Georgia

Georgia, ReligiousLeave a comment

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mksheka, Georgia

Rich McClear

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mksheka is the mother church of Georgian Orthodoxy.  St. Nino converted the King and Queen there.  I posted pictures from here in May but I had no pics from inside the church.  Nicholas, my cab driver, spoke good English and he arranged permission for me to take pictures if I did not use a flash.  There was a service in progress.  It was conducted in Russian but the choir sang Georgian hymns.  Nicholas pointed out one very strange and old fresco with three concentric circles.  The Trinity sat in the bull’s eye, between the inner and middle circles, the … Continue reading Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mksheka, Georgia

Religious, SitkaLeave a comment

St. Michael’s Cathedral, Sitka, Alaska, June 2013

Rich McClear

At noontime we were heading for an organ recital at the Lutheran Church.  We were stopped in our tracks when the bell tower of St. Michael’s erupted in glorious change bell ringing.  I had not heard the bells in years, mostly because we have been out of Sitka for years.  The Lutherans had to wait while we enjoyed the joyous sound.  We arrived at the recital late.  After the recital we noticed a sign on St. Michael’s Cathedral saying that for the first time we could see the altar.  Each time in the past when I had been in the … Continue reading St. Michael’s Cathedral, Sitka, Alaska, June 2013

Georgia, ReligiousLeave a comment

Mtskheta and Jvari Church, Georgia, 2013.

Rich McClear

Jvari (Holy Cross) Church is near Tbilisi, about a three hour walk or half hour drive.  It looms over Mtskheta.  Before Georgia became reasonably prosperous it used to be a full day excursion, now it a common picnic spot for people wanting to get out of town for an hour or two.  It is the spot where the King Mirian, who was converted to Christianity by St. Nino and, in turn made Georgian a Christian nation (Georgia was a “Christian” country before Rome) erected a cross to mark his, and his nation’s conversion.  The church itself was built to shelter … Continue reading Mtskheta and Jvari Church, Georgia, 2013.

Gibraltar, Pillars of Hercules1 Comment

Gibraltar, 2013

Rich McClear

Dear Friends, In Greek and Roman mythology the Mediterranean was a closed sea.  In a battle with another God Hercules struck the mountains closing off the Med from the Atlantic with his mace, opening a passage to the Atlantic creating the Straits of Gibraltar (although it did not get that name until much later, during the Arab conquest, when “the Rock” was named Tarik’s Mountain, “Jebel Tarik,” shortened to Gibraltar.) The straits are framed on each side by the “Pillars of Hercules.”  Both pillars are geopolitical anomalies, The European pillar, Gibraltar, is physically attached to Spain but is ruled by … Continue reading Gibraltar, 2013

Balkan Turmoil, CroatiaLeave a comment

Vukovar, Croatia

Rich McClear

Note, Vukovar was the first major victim in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.  It is a border town on the Danube, in Croatia but, before the wars, with a slight Serbian majority.  The Serbs finally took the town over but after the Dayton Accords the town was administered by the UN before being turned over to the Croats, 13 days before we arrived.  Our job was to work with the Serbian radio stations in the region to make sure they got licenses from the Croatian government and to help assure that the rights of the Serbian, Roma and Hungarian … Continue reading Vukovar, Croatia

a, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Religious, TrainsLeave a comment

Tracking an Old Memory, Dobrun, BiH

Rich McClear

This is from a June, 2010 letter: Thirty Eight years ago, (in 1972) Suzi and I fleetingly encountered a narrow gauge steam powered train while driving the back roads of Bosnia.  Last week, near the same place, we saw that train again.  The rail company is just re-opening the narrow gauge line into Bosnia after closing it in the 70s.  This time we chased the train to get a better look, driving onto side roads and catching up with it at a siding where the engine could un-hook its cars, shuffle around to the other side of the train, and … Continue reading Tracking an Old Memory, Dobrun, BiH

a, Religious, SlovakiaLeave a comment

Wooden Churches in Eastern Slovakia

Rich McClear

This is from a letter written in October 1998: Eastern Slovakia is an area crossed in trade and fought over by Tartars, Lithuanians, Poles, Hungarians, Germans, Russians and Slovaks.  It’s where cultures meet.  Kosice boasts the eastern-most gothic cathedral in Europe, and while it is VERY gothic, the clock tower has a very un-gothic gilded dome.  This region is a borderland, a krajina in Slavic languages.  We drove “along the borderland,” U krajina, the origin of the name Ukraine, which sits just a few kilometers to the east. More than a dozen wooden churches, built between the fifteen and seventeen … Continue reading Wooden Churches in Eastern Slovakia

a, Serbia, TrainsLeave a comment

Sargan 8, A railroad climbs a mountain in Serbia

Rich McClear

This is an excerpt from a June 2009 letter:   This week we started our journalism summer school at Mokra Gora, (wet mountain) in the mountains near the Bosnian border.   As part of the program we had arranged an excursion on the narrow gauge railway. This railroad has fascinated me for more than 35 years.  Suzi and I encountered it in 1972 on a drive through Bosnia, the little steam engines pulled trains of logs and passengers along track that sometimes ran beside the rutted road on which we were driving.  There was a lot of construction on that road … Continue reading Sargan 8, A railroad climbs a mountain in Serbia