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Sviyazhsk, angels
Today we took a trip to Sviyazhsk, the island from which Ivan the Terrible launched his third (and finally successfully) invasion of Kazan. The area is stunningly beautiful, which of course makes a grim contrast to what the invasion meant to the Tatars.
I'll include a few pictures and comments that entirely lack historical context.
First, here is me in front of a cathedral on the island.
Among my occasional historical puzzles is the effort to try to visualize the angels described in Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10. Here are some frescoes from a 16th century church that try to capture them. First we have a view of an angel typical in Western representation.
And here are a couple of less typical ones.