Bedtime Facts (8/365) - Lake Ladoga Is the Largest Lake in Europe
Lake Ladoga (Laatokka in Finnish) is the largest freshwater lake by surface area that is entirely in Europe. It has been entirely within Russia since the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. Its northwestern shoreline used to be part of Finland's territory until then. Ladoga is not very deep. Its average surface area is about 17,890 m2 and its average depth is only 51 m. The most notable place worth seeing is the Valaam Monastery. The Orthodox Christian monastery is on an island going by the same name.
Valaam Monastery
The Finnish monks left the island and the New Valaam Monastery was re-established in Heinävesi, Finland.
Is Finland a Catholic dominated country? The monastry drew my curiousity.
Finland is about 80% protestant (nominally), Evangelical Lutheran to be exact, and about 1% Orthodox Christian. Russia is predominantly Orthodox Christian. Catholicism is even smaller than Orthodox Christianity here. In the 16th century Finland was part of the Realm of Sweden. The king, Gustav Vasa I backed the Reformation like many other monarchs in Northern Europe.
Our Reformation was doctrinally based on the work of Martin Luther of Germany. The state seized the opportunity to take control of the large property of the Catholic Church. In Britain, for example, the treasures of hundreds of monasteries found their way into state coffers. In Evangelic Lutheranism, austerity in ornamentation was gradually introduced into houses of worship. Save for the painting in the back of the altar, there is nothing at all left these days. If there weren't a cross outside, you wouldn't even recognize many of the modern churches as churches. Protestantism meant, on the other hand, the democratization of religion in the sense that it was considered important that the entire adult population learn to read and interpret the Bible themselves. The language of the people would be the language of worship and the language of worship would move from imagery to words. Interestingly, the Church of England has retained more of the ornamentation of the Catholic era.
I think Reformation had clear and long-lasting implications in aesthetics in protestant countries. In the Nordic countries, it was quite extreme, and quite obvious in architecture and furniture design of our time, for example.
This is a comprehensive breakdown. I really learnt from your wealth of knowledge on this. In my view and experience, I see that there is a dichotomy between protestant, orthodox and Catholics. In my relationship witt people I decide to stay or leave religion out of the picture.
Well, as you know, these religions are foreign to us. Africans had their religion before the indoctrination of Churches and religion. This helped and enlightened us in many ways, and many could read not only the bible but other things that were useful.
Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism. There were a number of larger and smaller religions in the Mediterranean basin before Christianity was made state religion in the Roman Empire in the 4th century. In Scandinavia, the Vikings had their religion and the Finns had theirs. Christianity was formally adopted as state religion in the Nordic countries in stages beginning the 10th century (first in Denmark).
That Ladoga lake shot is something! And monastery cannot but catch your eyes.
In the meantime we have a little snowy moon here :)
That photo follows the rule of thirds. The sky is 2/3 of the vertical. The forest on the right edge is about 1/3 of the horizontal. It is a very beautiful photo.
Oh, I didn't even know that this rule existed lol!)
I have accidentally followed it, too. :)
That is a very nice photo
The sky on the first photo is quite cool! :) It's not your own photo though, or? Have you visited Valaam?
No, it isn't. And no, I haven't, unfortunately.
When I use other people's photos, I search by usage rights and only use photos under Creative Commons or some other license allowing even commercial use.
Yes, I saw the link but I couldn't be sure. It's stupid but for a moment I thought that maybe @markkujantunen has added a link to pixabay to his own photo and he is the photographer falco. Jeez, I should go to bed.. it is late for my brain. :D
It's ok. You're making perfect sense.
I believe Markku has linked to the original photo on Pixabay.
i agree your comment
I never really thought of what would be the biggest lake in Europe! I guess you learn something new everyday :). Crazy that it isn't really that deep on average.
Valaam Monastery is truly a beautiful place to visit.
I think my friends were there a couple of years ago.
There was a cruise from Saint-Petersburg (maybe I'm wrong).
The southwestern corner of Lake Ladoga is not very far from the exurbs of St. Petersburg. My wife's uncle lives in that direction from St. Petersburg. He once took us to the shore where the Road of Life ended on the Leningrad side. The Road of Life was an ice road used to transport people out of and supplies into Leningrad during the Siege of Leningrad between September 1941 and January 1944. There is a large monument there.
Leningrad was surrounded by German troops in the southwest, the south and the southeast. The Gulf of Finland was in the west. Lake Ladoga was in the east. To the north and northwest were Finnish troops. The Soviet Union wanted to invade, occupy and annex Finland in order to prevent this very scenario. By leaving us alone and not starting the Winter War the Soviet Union could have had neutral Finland in the northwest to trade with and help supply the city. But Stalin couldn't have been able to count on Finland being able and willing to maintain neutrality in the war.
Image Credit
What a beautiful image, seeing the photo of Lake Ladoga. Remember me where I come from,
Puete in the Orinoco River
Saludos desde Venezuela
nice post
I loved the photo of the lake so much beautiful, the sky is so reddish at what time you took that picture, remember by chance?
Not my photo. Took it from Pixabay. Labeled for reuse.