The city of Vladimir got a tactile model of the Assumption Cathedral

  • 29 September 2022
Audio description: photo in color. On the concrete pedestal there is a metallic tactile model of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. The monumental five-head Cathedral with helmet-shaped domes and the four-level bell tower with a spire are unified via the two-story temple part. The façade is lavishly decorated with narrow arched windows and semicircular ledges. There are no crosses on the domes of the tactile model. On the pedestal there are also metal plates with white texts, providing info about the object, as well in Braille.

The tactile model of the Assumption Cathedral was opened in Vladimir on September 29. It was produced as part of the “Special View at the Golden Ring” project, established by Alisher Usmanov’s charity foundation “Art, Science and Sport” and the Russian Ministry of Culture, with the information support of the TASS new agency.

The Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir was built in 1158-1160 to be the main city cathedral. This is the only cathedral where you can find the original fresco paintings by icon painter Andrey Rublev.

The tactile model was placed near the Cathedral, accompanied by the information plate with texts in Russian, English and Braille. The model was created in the workshop of tactile models of Olga and Mikhail Shu. It is made of bronze, 52 cm in height, and it weights around 450 kg.

“The Foundation aims to make our cultural legacy accessible for everybody. The new project ‘Special View at the Golden Ring’ provides the country’s most famous tourist route with tactile models, that allows more people to touch the great heritage. Not only that we place the bronze replicas of well-known monuments, but we create truly unique objects, that are worked out to the smallest detail, to be able to convey the most detailed architectural appearance”, Fatima Muhomedzan, the director of the “Art, Science and Sport” Charity Foundation, highlights.

The tactile model of the the Assumption Cathedral is already the 4th model, created as part of the “Special View at the Golden Ring” project, and the 1st one in Vladimir. Previously, the miniature copies of the architectural landmarks appeared in Uglich and Suzdal.

Here are some of the architectural symbols of Russia planned to be adapted next: the Fire Tower in Kostroma, Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad, the Church of St. Elijah in Yaroslavl. Each model will come with information plates in Braille to tell about the spot.

The Golden Ring is one of the most popular routes in Russia. Every year around 2 million tourists come to explore it. That is exactly the reason why it is so important to make this route accessible for people with visual impairments. There are around 300 thousand people with visual disability registered in Russia, and 20% of them are of active age.