Photos

Innern passage of church of Our Lady Sovereign in ancient fortress in a city of Gdov. Fortress now is just a circle of walls on a top of the hill, and church itself, built in XVI century, was ruined during WW II and restaurated in 1990-s.
But its interrior looks exactly how it looked like 500 and 1000 years ago in this and other churches, standing still or long gone. This is the essence of Orthodox Christianity - nothing really changed in its rituals and faiths during these hundreds of years since Russia was christianised. And it happened in year 988.
I'm not a beleiver, by the way. But I like this, that religion, if you beleive in something, must be like it was, must look like and sound like it had to be.
These white walls, these icons on the walls, these candles. All on its place, and all is fitting the place.