Exploring the ancient Russian city of Makaryev

apnigrich (73)Member 🔷 DLin CCS • 5 days ago

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Greetings friends

I want to tell you about a place I've been visiting several times a year since 1989. This is a small ancient town of Makaryev, located in the Kostroma region. It is located on the banks of the Unzha River. The Vladivostok-Saint Petersburg highway runs near the city. From my house to this city on the highway is about 450 km.
This is the hometown of my wife's parents. Only my mother-in-law lives here now.
I like coming here.
There has always been good fishing in this area. This is our favorite family activity.
In previous years, we used to bring mushrooms and berries from the local forests: blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries, and blueberries. But our guide to the forest was my wife's father, who had not been with us for 3 years.

The Tikhvin Cathedral (Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) is located in the center of the city, the construction of which began in the mid-1890s and it was consecrated in 1906.
After the revolution of 1917, this Church, like all churches in Russia, fell into disrepair, because the Bolsheviks fought the Church and destroyed all the clergy.
When I first saw this Cathedral, there was a cinema located in it. In 2002, the building was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church and the gradual restoration of the Cathedral began. But this process is very slow. But I hope that I will see it in all its pristine beauty. It already looks beautiful.

Why is the restoration of the Cathedral slow? Maybe because there is a convent in the city not far from the center on a high bank. In the 80s of the last century, a local museum of local lore was located on the territory of the monastery. It was a very common story in Soviet times to create museums in large church buildings.
It seems to me that currently ordinary curious people are not allowed on the monastery's territory, but organized excursions and church services are held here.

This staircase leads from the monastery walls to a water source, of course, holy water.

I know people who have bought houses in the villages of this area and come to live here in the summer from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kirov, my hometown. Now they are already elderly people, pensioners. They come to stock up on mushrooms and berries for the winter, grow vegetables and fruits and just breathe fresh air and live in the bosom of nature.
Makariev is really a small town, with a population of less than 10,000 people. There are many cyclists in the city, even those who are no longer young. There is no public transport inside the city, which is why cycling is so well-developed.