This article is about a lovely small town in the northeast of the Moscow region - in Sergiev Posad. This unspoken cultural and spiritual capital of the region is located on one of the once largest rivers of the Moscow region, the Konchura. Now the river has become shallow, but in my memory it will forever remain a large navigable vein, which, with its predatory waters, more than once saved both the inhabitants of the city and tired travelers from the heat.
The history of the formation of this city goes back to the distant 1782, when several small settlements located around the already erected Sergius Lavra merged into one and formed a large, by those standards, commercial and industrial hub, which was called the settlement.
However, few people remember that during the revolution, namely in 1919, the then settlement received the status of a city, and was named Zagorsk, in honor of a famous revolutionary, as it was then popular. Already at the beginning of our century, the city was returned to its former name.
Climate and ecology of Sergiev Posad
Having lived for some time in this city, and returning back to your native places, most of all you miss, perhaps, the suburban winters. They are somehow special, soft, enveloping. Not too cold and not too hot. However, like summer with its rainy, some kind of autumn, July. The time when it seems that life in the city completely imperceptibly freezes, and the people around, immersed in their thoughts, are intertwined by them in the unity of the unlike.
Of course, not without a drop of tar in a barrel of honey. There are areas where it is quite difficult to be even in winter, and not because there are a lot of people or cars, but because production is located very close, because of which it is sometimes difficult to breathe in the adjacent territories.
This city, in fact, is an industrial center and the share of industrial enterprises in such a small area is perhaps too high. Take the same machine-building plant on the Moscow Highway, which has been operating for more than 20 years. For all these years, so much burning was thrown into the air that the inhabitants of the nearest settlements preferred to leave the place and go away from this place.
Population
You involuntarily think about the people living in the city. They are all so different, but something in common unites them quite invisibly. And this is not even the area to which they belong, but something else.
Although the population of Sergiev Posad is relatively small (about 107 thousand inhabitants, not counting visitors), it is diverse. Here you will meet friendly old women selling flowers and all sorts of food on the outskirts, and teenage rebels with bright hair and leather jackets, and serious office clerks, and big bosses who importantly sit in local expensive restaurants, and football fans and many, many other people, ordinary, strange, thoughtful and friendly.
Alas, it can not do without hooligans who scream at night under the windows and beat the windows of cars. But this is more the exception than the rule. In general, people here are quite peaceful and cultured. Most of the population has a higher education, many graduated from prestigious universities in the capital. Remarkably, against the background of all this diversity, you rarely see homeless people or beggars, although with such architecture and huge crowds of people at central points, this layer of the population suggests itself to complete the picture. Perhaps the only thing that brings sad thoughts is that in recent years, passing through the yards, you notice that the playgrounds, which a few years ago were packed full of little ones, are now empty for some reason. Yes, and mothers with babies and strollers are much less common.
This trend makes us think about the state of the people and the city as a whole. Another observation is that there are a little more spruce branches on the streets. You sigh as you pass by them and think: “Someone was buried again…” But, despite this, more and more visitors from big cities want to settle with us. After all - the spiritual heart of the Moscow region!
Districts and real estate Sergiev Posad
Despite the fact that our city seems small relative to Moscow, it still covers a large area, and some of its districts, such as Uglich, for example, are much more valuable historical sites than some districts of Moscow.
Of the large districts, Grazhdansky, Klementevsky, Northern and Eastern can be distinguished. They are the main sleeping areas of the city, where most of the population lives (not counting the Civil), but that's another story.
After all, one might think that having general information about Sergiev Posad, one might think that the famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra is its heart. In addition, an inexperienced look of a person who has visited this glorious city for the first time, it may seem that the whole life of the city is concentrated in the center, which creates the impression of a microcapital within this microstate. However, not everyone knows that the real life and face of Sergiev Posad are not in the center, but a little further from it in the Pafnut area, as the locals affectionately call it, that is, Pafnutevsky Garden at the intersection of Ilyinskaya Street and Red Army Avenue.
There is no greater joy for a resident of a long-suffering city than after work he will go to the park, to the river and relax there in a pleasant environment, admiring nature. And our nature, even in the city itself, is somehow “wild”, the way it should be. Here you no longer feel like the master of the situation, and despite the fact that these places are so dear that you want to come there again and again, you still feel like a guest who must reckon with the owner.
Since there is no clear zoning in the city, residents have to secretly name their "microdistricts" by the names of the main streets or by the nearest railway stations (this is due to the fact that the city is almost ringed by the railway). For example, the eastern district is the “Kilometer 76 District”, since one stop from the city is the “Kilometer 76” platform, where many residents of the city have dachas and small cottages, the prices for which are sometimes very low.
It will be interesting for an inexperienced tourist to look at the door to the past, which is located in the area of Fabricnaya Street, which is located in the south-west of the city. This microdistrict, as the name of the central street implies, was built for the workers of a factory that was once located near the city. When you get to the “factory”, you feel like a native of the Soviet Union - although the atmosphere of this place is not too friendly, and the architecture of the buildings has been pretty shabby over the years, but the locals find some charm in this and believe that their area is one of the most sincere in the city .
Another local “attraction” is the so-called “Grazhdanka”, or Grazhdansky Avenue. It is distinguished by the fact that, in fact, it is the most sparsely populated area of the city. It is located just south of the central cemetery in the west of the city. It is noteworthy that on Grazhdanka you can walk the streets for hours and not meet anyone. The architecture of the place is reminiscent of old Soviet post-war films at its best. But despite this, for some reason, no one is in a hurry to move into Grazhdanka, even though realtors have already lowered real estate prices in this area many times, sometimes reaching the point of absurdity - a good two-room apartment with repairs would cost only 2 million.
Compared to the same Moscow, this is the lower limit of a one-room apartment, and then in rare cases. Nevertheless, despite the gloom of the image, people love the Citizen because it gives them the opportunity to be alone with themselves and just think without looking back at anything. For this we appreciate and respect her.
In general, when visiting the areas of Sergiev Posad, you come across a bizarre combination of old frame houses, those that residents of a big city most often use as summer cottages, and multi-storey panel buildings. These corners of the centuries-old history of our country in the middle of civilization are probably the most expensive things in every part of the city. After all, they allow us not to forget about our roots and that, in essence, our present was built on the past, which is still there today.
The most striking example of such a contrast is directly in the center of the city, where very close to the so-called civilization, tourists and new beautiful houses, just down the road in any direction from the Lavra, small wooden one-story houses meekly stand. Many of them have already worn out, but still firmly hold on to the foundation laid by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Such structures stand strong and long, because our ancestors were from a time where it was customary to repair broken things, and not throw them away.
City infrastructure
As for the everyday way of life in the city, everything is quite complicated here. Probably the most pressing problem has always been and will be this endless traffic jam on the outskirts of the city, which most motorists already dream of in terrible nightmares. It would seem that there are no problems, there are detours, but every day, motorists working in the capital are forced to get up early in the morning so as not to get into the midst of this personal hell.
And, remarkably, the authorities have not yet paid attention to this problem, even though it has been hanging in the air for several years. Of course, it is very logical to advise people to turn to railway transport, with which there are no problems in the city, since Sergiev Posad is a major transport hub for Russian Railways. And even though electric trains run frequently, the transport problem is relevant not only for the residents of the city, but also for those who enter it, and this, you see, is another story.
However, the problem of transport, to be honest, is far from the only one. The lack of leisure centers, as well as the sluggishness of housing and communal services on certain issues, do not add to the attractiveness of the city, but only exacerbate an already difficult situation. For example, electricity, gas and water prices have risen significantly in recent years, while most homes in the western region are in need of major repairs or at least replacement or repair of leaking pipes. The authorities, on the other hand, prefer to keep silent about it.
Returning to leisure centers - modern youth wanders around courtyards and porches without finding where to put themselves and what to do. While the youth in my youth always knew where to settle down, for example, in a construction team or in the field - and earn money and spend time usefully. We are not talking about football yard matches and hobby groups that worked even in the summer. Now this is not the case, and young people have no choice but to sit at home or snoop around the area in search of who knows what. But they could get a job, fortunately, the city has great opportunities in this regard.
Businesses and work in Sergiev Posad
Interestingly, often out of the corner of your ear you can hear the conversations of old women sitting on benches in the warm season. They were always sincerely surprised at the influx of visitors to this small town and apparently could not find an answer to the question: “Why is this happening?” Although the answer is simple and obvious, one has only to skim through the outskirts of Sergiev Posad. As mentioned earlier, the city is a large industrial center, so no one has ever suffered from a lack of jobs here.
Moreover, the city provides jobs for all nearby neighborhoods and a greater number of visitors, both from the capital and regions. Such an abundance of work sites is provided by several large factories outside the city, such as the Electromechanical Plant, a furniture factory, as well as meat and bakeries. Not to mention the candy factory and the ice cream factory. These enterprises provide not only a good working base, but also a stable income, as well as high-quality local products. Thus, the local economic structure is always at a high level. In other words, the people do not suffer from poverty. After all, the average salary of a worker at the same electromechanical is about 20 thousand rubles, and this is the amount even without taking into account bonuses and career opportunities.
The leadership of the city also took care that people have somewhere to spend this very salary, and every year in the city you can find an increasing number of shopping centers that have grown out of nowhere: both large and small. But before, everything was simple: the largest trading point was the Klementievsky market, where the settlers of nearby villages, as well as merchants from Belarus, Ukraine and neighboring countries, brought their goods. And in maneuvering between the counters in the narrow streets there was some kind of its own, special romance. People were happy to communicate with sellers and each other, everything reminded the atmosphere of some kind of fair at the end of the 15th century. Unfortunately, all this has receded into the background, although it has not yet completely outlived its usefulness.
Every weekend the market is again teeming with people scurrying from one counter to another. In fact, shopping centers such as the popular Zvezdochka have their advantages. For example, the fact that people at least have something to entertain themselves with. In our city, unfortunately, there is a small problem with this).
The atmosphere of a real market - and talk and bargain!
The criminal side of life
And, as it is not regrettable to admit, it is the small number of entertainment centers and youth houses that has caused the fact that in recent years cases of vandalism, robbery and hooliganism have become more frequent in the city. It is difficult for old-timers of the cultural microcapital of the Moscow region to understand why in a city where for decades the crime rate was one of the lowest, problems suddenly arise with thieves, scammers and other outlaws.
And the murder of the head of the city in 2011 generally shocked the public. Many residents of Sergiev Posad could not understand how such things could happen in their quiet and peaceful city. You should not think that people are not used to the fact that the modern world is a dangerous thing, but it has historically developed that Sergiev Posad has always bypassed the criminal side of life. It is difficult to understand what caused this. The locals either jokingly or seriously say: “God has mercy!” referring to the Sergius Lavra. Be that as it may, in my opinion, and I think many will agree, since such a problem arises not only in this small town, but everywhere, the increase in the level of crime is due to the fact that teenagers have nothing to do corny, so they have fun as they can .
As for major criminal events, they are not observed in the city. Either the mentality of the locals does not allow this to happen, or the well-known church is really protecting the city. But something we all casually and inadvertently mention about it, it would be time to tell more about this, in truth, a magical place.
Sights of the city of Sergiev Posad
Perhaps even those who are not closely familiar with the city know or have heard of such a monastery as the Trinity-Segius Lavra. It is the largest male monastery in all of Russia! This monastery, in addition to magnificent decoration, also has a rich history. This monastery, which only in 1742 acquired the status of a Lavra, played a big role in the political life of our country and was a kind of support for the rulers of the capital in the times of ancient Russia. There are many legends and rumors about the miraculous properties of this place, but if you do not go into details or urban mythology, then when you get to the territory of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, you already feel somehow especially calm.
Perhaps the reason for this is the way of life of the monastery's servants or just the local atmosphere, but the fact remains that the range of feelings that you will experience after visiting this monastery is difficult to put into words. In addition, the territory of the monastery is not limited, in fact, to buildings. The museum-reserve located around the Lavra is also a valuable monument of culture and history. Walking along the alleys in the shade of branchy trees, you involuntarily move away from the bustle of the world and get the opportunity to immerse yourself in your inner world in peace and quiet.
However, Lavra is far from the only place worth seeing in the city. Another rather large attraction is the toy museum, which is located very close to the monastery. It has preserved the history of the traditional craft of these places, namely the production of dolls. At the moment, several expositions are open in the museum. The most interesting, in my opinion, is the exhibition of New Year and Christmas toys. Interestingly, both children and adults visit the museum with great pleasure. After all, toys are not only entertainment, but also art.
Be that as it may, visit this city and make sure that this place can rightfully be considered one of those places whose memory remains for a long time.
