Andrei Rublev: From Moscow to Suzdal

Tarkovsky opens with a stunt: a man named Yefim is strapped into a harness under a hot air balloon tethered to the spire of a church beside a river. A mob arrives from the water, the balloon is released, and he soars, delighted by the view, before a crash-landing. The film never names the place. The scene was shot at the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, which stands where the Nerl meets the Klyazma in Bogolyubovo.

Visitor guidance: In Bogolyubovo; the pin marks the church.

Andrei, Daniil and Kirill have lived here for many years when the story begins in summer 1400, and they leave for Moscow as wandering icon painters. Andrei returns in winter 1412, in a country gripped by famine and war, no longer painting and never speaking. Scenes were filmed on the monastery grounds. It was founded in 1357, and since 1985 it has housed the Andrei Rublev Central Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art.

Visitor guidance: In Moscow; the grounds hold the Andrei Rublev museum.

In summer 1408 Andrei and Daniil are decorating a church in Vladimir, but the work has stalled. Tarkovsky filmed the church's burning in the Dormition Cathedral, and during the shoot a real fire broke out. In reality the cathedral's interior was repainted by Rublev and Daniil in 1408, and you can visit the cathedral in Vladimir today.

Visitor guidance: In Vladimir.

In autumn 1408 a raid on Vladimir ends in carnage and the burning of the city. Tarkovsky shot it far away, in the Pskov region. Near Izborsk his crew built a massive wall mock-up and a temple entrance for the invasion scene, and one scene was filmed against the Izborsk Fortress itself. The fortress still stands in Izborsk today.

In the final episode, young Boriska claims to know his dead father's secret of bell casting. The Grand Prince orders a bell for the church of ruined Suzdal, and Boriska bullies his crew through the pit, clay and furnaces. When the bell rings true he collapses and admits his father never told him the secret. Tarkovsky filmed in Suzdal near the Euthymius Monastery, on the bank of the Kamenka, where the bell scenes were shot in 1965.

Location precision: The film never names the exact site; the pin marks the Euthymius Monastery, next to the shooting location on the Kamenka.

Visitor guidance: In Suzdal's north, on the Kamenka; the Euthymius Monastery is next to the filming spot.

Tarkovsky shoots the whole film in black and white, then ends in colour with details of Rublev's real icons, climaxing in The Trinity. The icon was commissioned to honour Saint Sergius at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, near Moscow. It was moved back there in 2022. No scene was filmed here: the pin marks the icon's home.

Location precision: The epilogue shows only the icon, not the Lavra; the pin marks the monastery the icon was commissioned for.

Visitor guidance: In Sergiyev Posad, near Moscow.