Volokolamsk Kremlin with the 15th-century Ascension Cathedral and an unfriendly reception at the museum

Visited the town of Volokolamsk, one of the oldest in the Moscow Region, with its ancient kremlin on a 17-metre rise on the left bank of the little River Gorodnya, where the year of foundation (in fact, of first mention) is laid out on the slope: 1136. Inside the rather small Kremlin there are only two churches: the red-brick Cathedral of St Nicholas of the mid-19th century and the white-stone, four-pillared, cross-domed Cathedral of the Ascension of the late 15th century. The bell tower dates from the 18th century. The Cathedral of the Ascension of Christ is considered one of the most valuable monuments of early Muscovite architecture. Curiously, here in the Volokolamsk Kremlin I also encountered a rare specimen of what is, perhaps, already neo-Muscovite boorishness. I cannot recall such a reception in museums for a long time, but here a furious old woman simply barked at me, roughly to the effect of WE ARE CLOSED, CLEAR OFF. Before long we left the antiquities of Volokolamsk on the port side of the car and set off for other, more hospitable museums