In early May I got on a plane to head to the Balkans for a wedding. The cheapest way to get to the Balkans from Moscow is to fly with Wizz Air to Budapest and take a train.

I could have just taken a direct train from Budapest to Belgrade. It’s fast, cheap and comfortable. But being the adventurer that I am, I decided to make a trip out of it and visit some smaller cities in Hungary.

I was also a little selfish and wanted to save money by going the cheapest route.

So I took a train to Hungary’s third largest city in the south of the country. Here’s what I found.

The train station is an old modest historical building. There’s a few things I judge a city by – biking, trams, pedestrian streets – and train stations are one of those.

A historic train station means a historic city. And thankfully, Szeged’s train station is beautiful.

The entrance to Szeged’s train station. Szeged was connected to Budapest by railway in 1854.

When a tourist arrives into a city by train, the most important impression a city can leave on its visitor are those first few steps outside of the train station.

If they see cars, traffic, a parking lot, chaos, then that’s likely how the city will be.

But if a tourist steps out and sees public transport, cycle lanes, walking paths, parks, trees, trams, then the impression is completely different.

In this case, Szeged did everything right. Public transport and pedestrians have priority, no cars were in sight.

A few steps further from the train station I saw the third thing that made me love this city. Bike lanes. And bike lanes that didn’t involve just painting a few lines on a sidewalk.

These were bike lanes separated from the street, clearly marked differently from the sidewalk which is reserved for pedestrians. And clear signage.

And then we get to the fourth thing I loved about this city. Old buildings! And really beautiful ones too.

The whole city was awash with old, one-story houses from the 19th century.

In the United States, these kind of buildings would have been torn down long ago. The same happens to many other buildings in Russia and Eastern Europe. Developers come in and destroy everything that is good about a city.

The fifth thing that was great about Szeged were the old windows and door frames on the buildings. Often owners of houses assume that they can just replace windows with modern ones because its their property. In this way, they destroy the historic look of the building. Here in Szeged many of the buildings still had their old windows.

Could be my favorite building in the city.

Another nice building across the street.

Szeged had its fair share of trees and greenery. While it was nothing compared to Subotica, it’s Serbian sister city just across the border, Szeged was still full of trees.

I think we can agree that red-tiled rooftops make any building look ten times better.

Our first cyclist. It was early in the morning and not many people were out yet.

Of course, not everything is perfect in Szeged. Here was the first shopping mall in the city I saw. And what a coincidence, the ugliest building in Szeged happens to be its newest.

Such development should be banned in most cities and restricted to areas of the periphery.

The buildings start looking more impressive the closer you get to the city center. Instead of one-two story buildings, you get these beautiful five-story buildings.

Not sure what the purpose of these rocks were, but I like the design.

A food market in the center. Southern Hungary and Northern Serbia have some of the best agricultural land in Europe. Few people know that Serbia produces a third of the world’s raspberries, and Hungary is right up there with Serbia.

For anyone who wants cheap, healthy, naturally-produced vegetables and fruits, visiting this part of Europe is a must.

The more bikes I saw, the more I fell in love with Szeged. They were everywhere.

For a city the size of Szeged, there really is no need for any other type of transport.

The terrain is flat. The population is 160,000, which isn’t too big.

Bikes are the cheapest, healthiest and fastest way to get around. People obviously realize that here.

Let’s talk balconies. In Szeged you rarely see balconies glassed over and closed off, as is the case in a lot of Russian cities.

When I was living in Russia, I heard all types of arguments as to why it was necessary to glass over your balconies.

The weather is too cold.

The apartments are too small.

Where are you going to store your stuff?

All these arguments fall apart as soon as you step foot into any reasonably organized European city.

Balconies here are used the way balconies are supposed to be.

They are a place to relax, breathe some fresh air, read a book or drink some coffee.

And at the end of the day, they just look good.

More beauties. These small, two-story buildings are well-maintained and should be preserved at all costs.

I would even argue the EU should institute preservation of historical architecture as a requirement of all its members. Each member state should commit to preserving the legacy of their cities, and those that do not should be sanctioned.

Developers should be banned from touching any building that was built before WWII, and many after WWII as well.

In this way, we can be sure these buildings will stand for another 100 years and not be destroyed by greedy developers.

Hungary’s favorable climate means trees and flowers are already in full bloom in late April.

More bikes.

This area of Hungary is famous for its brutalist architecture, just like Subotica on the other side of the border in Serbia. Here’s a good example.

Lots of outdoor cafes and patios to eat at.

This was probably the widest intersection I saw in the city. Szeged clearly prioritized public transport, pedestrians and cyclists over cars.

The center of Szeged is absolutely stunning. Beautifully preserved historic buildings are everywhere with no modern construction in sight.

Near the center of the city is a huge park called Szechenyi Square where lots of people were walking and riding their bikes.

Sprinkled throughout the park are statues of the city’s former rulers.

Szeged’s Town Hall is the yellow building in the distance. It was originally built in 1728, before being expanded in 1804 and then again in 1883. The building in its current form is from 1883.

At one time, there was a castle in Szeged whose western walls were located right in this park where the town hall is.

After the Turks conquered this area, the castle served as a fort for the new rulers. But in the 19th century when Hungary regained this territory, newer buildings began to be constructed, such as the Town Hall.

In 1879 a massive flood destroyed many buildings in the city. A decision was then taken to tear down the castle that had dominated the city for centuries. In their place this park was built.

The Statue to Kuno Klebelsberg (1875-1932), a Hungarian politician who served as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Culture for the Kingdom of Hungary in the interwar period.

Of course, what is a European city without a pedestrian street.

American cities have yet to grasp this most basic concept of pedestrianizing the main streets of a city downtown. They don’t understand that it’s good for business. That it increases tourism. That it makes the city more attractive.

Szeged’s pedestrian street is called Karasz Utca and it was just as good as any other European pedestrian street I had seen.

Two interesting statues welcome you at its entrance.

It was early morning, so not many people were out and about.

But you could feel the city beginning to wake up.

The sun was rising and people were heading to work.

As it was morning, I decided to try a delicious croissant and cappuccino.

It’s interesting how different the food is in Hungary and Serbia and Croatia. In Hungary you do not have this obsession with meat that is characteristic of Balkan countries.

In Hungary, the food seemed to have a more central European character to it, more akin to Slovakia, Austria, the Czech Republic and their neighbors up north.

There were also some neat courtyards hidden behind the buildings on the main square.

More people walking in the center.

Szeged clearly implemented a design code in its streets. There were almost no large advertisements.

The store signs more or less complemented the buildings. They did not overpower them.

Take a look at this McDonalds. There is little that distinguishes it from the other buildings surrounding it. In this way, visitors and locals can enjoy the the natural look of the buildings.

One drawback of Szeged’s pedestrian center compared to Subotica’s was the lack of trees.

Whereas in Subotica you had enormous, 100-year old trees towering over the entire city, here there were very few of them.

At the end of the street you had another neat statue.

What a beautiful building.

And another one.

Szeged is a university town, which means there are a ton of young people there that study from surrounding villages. Established in 1821, the University of Szeged is one of the oldest universities in Hungary.

In front of the university Auchan was handing out free apples.

Another look at the university from afar.

A beautiful statue nearby.

More bikes.

More statues.

Two cyclists having a friendly chat.

When you step out a few blocks from the pedestrianized center the trees appear again. Here you can see how nicely they complement the old building behind them.

I love these kind of statues.

An interesting church in the center, looks to be a protestant church.

Some slightly more modernistic looking architecture.

Another park in the center with some older folks relaxing.

Fast food, Hungarian style.

The Gate of Heroes, homage to Hungarian soldiers who died in WWI. There are two huge statues outside and inside the arch there is a mural all around. It includes all the names of locals who died in WWI from Szeged.

The National Pantheon is another must see in Szeged. It is part of the wider Dom Square shaped in a long U with the votive church in the center.

Along the wall you see statues to famous Hungarian patriots, kings, scientists and artists.

The square was laregely empty, but it did leave an impression of grandeur because of its size.

A lot of students were studying in this area, as it was nearby the university.

Another view of the walls.

Bike lanes within the walls.

University buildings on the left.

Some more biking.

Back in the center.

And a tram for the end.

Overall, what can I say about Szeged?

It’s a beautiful city in the south of Hungary that probably rarely gets as much tourists as it deserves.

It was my first stop from Budapest before heading to Belgrade, and it was interesting to compare Szeged with Subotica.

Szeged is clearly in much better shape. The streets are cleaner, there is less graffiti, more biking infrastructure.

The contrast when you cross the border between Hungary and Serbia is striking.

But there are things both cities could learn from each other. Subotica should follow Szeged’s example in building more bike lanes and cleaning up the center.

While Szeged could learn from Subotica’s example and plant more trees in the center.

Overall, Szeged is a great day trip for anyone looking to see something outside of Budapest.

And instead of taking a direct train from Budapest to Belgrade and missing out on all these cities, I’d suggest taking a local train to Szeged and then Subotica or Novi Sad and then Belgrade. That way you see much more of this beautiful land.

Kitai Gorod is one of the most beautiful parts of Moscow. Located in the heart of the city next to Red Square, the area used to boast dozens of churches and a plethora of small businesses before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

The distinguishing feature of the area were the walls of Kitai Gorod built by Italian architects in 1536-1539 and which formed a mini Kremlin surrounding the area.

The name Kitai Gorod used to signify the part of Moscow located within the walls of Kitai Gorod. The walls of Kitai Gorod made up a mini Kremlin surrounding the area on the other city of Red Square opposite of where the Kremlin stands today. They were built in 1536-1539 by Italian architects and over the centuries became a defining symbol of the city. In the 1930’s Stalin decided to demolish the walls.

In their attempt to erase all aspects of Russian and Czarist history, the communists tore down churches across the entire Soviet Union, as well as old architectual monuments like the walls of Kitai Gorod. They did this to erase all memory of the old order. In many ways this is not much different to how ISIS has been destroying ancient architecture in Iraq and Syria to build their new order of an Islamic State.

This is what the entrance to Kitai Gorod looked before the walls were torn down in the 1930’s.

And here is that same area today. While Kitai Gorod remains one of Moscow’s most attractive areas, much has been lost in seventy years of communist rule.

In particular what’s been lost were the cozy narrow cobble-stoned streets, the trams and the pedestrians. Take a look at a panorama of Kitai Gorod in 1887.

And here is the street that used to run parallel to the walls of Kitai Gorod in the 1930’s a little further away around Lubyanskaya Ploshad. Take note of the trams and the pedestrians and how beautiful the wall was.

Here’s that same street in 2018 a little further down. The walls are gone. The trams are gone. And the people are gone. What we get today is just concrete and cars.

One of the biggest problems in Moscow is that the historical core of the city has four to five lane highways running through it. These wide roads were built by the communists. Often they razed down smaller historical buildings to expand the streets. Regular crosswalks are few and far between. Pedestrians are forced to cross the street using underground passageways that go underneath the big roads.

This makes walking around the center extremely difficult for older folks, women with babies and don’t even think about going for a walk if you are disabled or in a wheelchair. It also discourages the development of a robust cycling culture, since in many places the only way for a cyclist to cross the street is to get off their bike and use an underground passage.

Much of the center looks like this. Simply a four lane highway.

Before the Bolshevik Revolution Moscow was like any other European city with small narrow cobble-stoned streets and trams. After the revolution the communists tore down old buildings, widened the roads and destroyed the picturesque nature of the city.

There are few areas of Moscow that retain the atmosphere of what the old Moscow was like before the revolution. But one of those places is Kitai Gorod. Here is Ilitsa Street in Kitai Gorod. The streets here are narrow, there is little traffic and the buildings retain their old 19th century neoclassical style that one can find in the rest of Europe.

This area would be a perfect part of Moscow for the city to completely pedestrianize and turn into a full-fledged pedestrian zone. Here’s what walking down the street was like in the early 20th century.

And here’s that area now. Gone are the pedestrians. It’s just an empty area in the heart of Moscow right next to Red Square.

Just imagine if the street below were to be completely pedestrianized. Just as neighboring Nikolskaya Street has been pedestrianized leading to the Kremlin, Ilitsa street could be pedestrianized in the same way. Countless examples around the world have shown how pedestrianized central streets in a city lead to business flourishing and a revival in activity. We have seen Bucharest pedestrianize its center and bars and cafes move in to create a bustling vibrant center. Perhaps the best example of a city pedestrianizing its center is Ljubljana which has been deemed the green capital of Europe because it shut off its entire historic center to cars.

Take a look at Ilitsa Street in Kitai Gorod in 1909. A beautiful cobble-stoned street, small local shops, pedestrians walking around. A true vibrant European city.

That same street in 2018. The beautiful buildings still remain. Unfortunately the cobble-stones were taken out sometime during the 20th century and replaced with modern pavement.

The best European cities today are those that have banned cars from their centers cut off for cars and where people can walk freely without worrying listening to the constant sound of cars driving by and where the buildings are all old from the 19th or 18th centuries or even earlier. Lvov is a perfect example of such a city in Ukraine. There are countless others.

Although Moscow has lost much over the course of the 20th century, there is still hope to save the city. The government should embark on turning all of Kitai Gorod into a pedestrian zone. The area between Red Square and where today’s Kitai Gorod Metro Station lies is a perfect area that could be pedestrianized. There is little traffic, the streets are narrow, and in many places the area has simply been turned into a parking lot.

The city is already making some good progress in pedestrianizing this area. They have turned the street that leads to the newly built Zaryade Park into a pedestrian zone. And as mentioned earlier, Nikolskaya Street has been turned into a full-fledged pedestrian street.

The rest of Kitai Gorod could easily follow.

The building of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, built in 1873-1875.

Here’s the building in 1902.

Another famous building on Ilitsa Street is Gostiny Dvor, built in 1905. Gostiny Dvor served as an exhibition hall when it was initially built. But during Soviet times the building was turned into an administrative building, which distinguished it from the neighboring GUM building which remained a shopping mall. From 1995-2000 the building went through a massive reconstruction which saw much of its interior significantly changed. An additional floor was constructed on top of the building while the southern wing of the building had two floors added to it which blocked the view to St. Basil’s Cathedral. There were plans to turn the building into a hotel after the building’s reconstruction, but they were never implemented. Today the building is used as an exhibition hall.

Another look back on Ilitsa Street. This is the street which should be pedestrianized.

Fortunately, the city is moving in this direction. Here is a recently pedestrianized square where you can see the Russian Chamber of Commerce on the left and Gostiny Dvor on the right. But in order to make this pedestrian street truly work, the city will have to add more benches, a fountain and open the buildings up for cafes and restaurants.

The same square in 1886. Much of these buildings have been lost.

Another one of the side streets which should be pedestrianized. Right now this is simply a dead street in the middle of the city. All it serves for is a narrow alley where you can park your car and then visit the Kremlin. Instead what the city should do is simply turn it into a pedestrian street and allow the buildings on the left to be turned into cafes or restaurants.

Moscow has thankfully already started doing so. Here is recently pedestrianized Bogoyavlensky Pereulok, which connects Ilitsa Street to Nikolskaya Street. The work obviously hasn’t yet finished. The side buildings still need to be renovated and park benches added. And then hopefully this will become another vibrant part of the city center.

This is an old picture of Bogoyavlensky Pereulok in the early 20th century. It’s a shame Moscow didn’t bring back the cobblestones, but at least this is a step in the right direction.

The Epiphany Monastery, the oldest male monastery in Moscow. Legend has it that a church has existed in this spot since 1296. The first stone church was built here in 1342. In subsequent centuries the monastery survived several fires. The building took the shape it holds today in 1696 and is a classic example of Russian Baroque Style. When the Bolsheviks came to power they shut the church down and the church’s bells were torn down at the end of the 1920’s. The building was damaged in a German bombing raid during WWII. After the war during Soviet times the area around the main church building was used to house students. It was not until the mid 1980’s that reconstruction efforts began.

More photos of Bogoyavlensky Pereulok.

You can enter into one of the side streets and you end up in what could be a beautiful square in the center of the city. Most likely this is what it used to be in the early 19th century, but decades of misuse has left it abandoned.

Some of the buildings in the center of Moscow are still completely abandoned.

Staropansky Pereulok would be a perfect narrow street that could be pedestrianized, with shops and cafes open on the left side.

This street would then connect with Bolshoy Cherkassky Pereulok which already has a fair amount of restaurants and cafes and business activity on the street. This street would actually be the easiest to pedestrianize, since the businesses are already there.

Most of the street is used for parking anyway.

The streets are very narrow and the architecture is beautiful. If this street were pedestrianized it would lead right to Nikolskaya Street and go a long way in turning this area of Moscow into a beautiful pedestrian area.

Just imagine if this area was devoted to cafes and bars instead of cars. It would be one of the best parts of Moscow to visit.

As things currently stand, this is just wasted urban space in the center.

There’s a group of Moscow activists who have lobbied for several years to have the walls of Kitai Gorod restored. Moscow has been able to restore other monuments that were destroyed by the communists, such as the Cathedral of Christ the Savoir. So the same could technically be done for the walls of Kitai Gorod, which used to run along this sidewalk.

Moscow is not for the faint of heart. I love this city. But it pains me to see how the people in charge are destroying it. Every few months news comes out about another historic building the government has declared too old to save and needs to be razed to the ground.

As a result, the historic core of Moscow is slowly disappearing.

Few efforts are made to restore and renovate old buildings. When old buildings do receive historic status all too often they are left as they are until they deteriorate and collapse on their own. A recent example of this occurred in the city of Tver, three hours northwest of Moscow. The city’s historic river port which was once the pride and symbol of the city was left abandoned for years with no efforts made to restore it. In late summer 2017 the roof collapsed.

Often this tactic is done on purpose. When a historic building collapses on its own or deteriorates to the point that it is impossible for anyone to use, this then frees up land in the center of the city for developers to come in and build something new.

But sometimes it’s even worse when the government does decide to renovate buildings. Instead of performing a proper restoration and trying to save as much of the old historic appearance as possible, the government does a cheap paint job. They paint over the crumbling exterior and deem that they restored the building. In actual fact, they turned a historic building into a version of Disneyland.

Here is how columns to the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg were recently ‘renovated’. The old stones were simply painted over with white paint, the kind you would use to paint the inside of your house. The stone columns which showcased just how old the building was, were simply covered over.

As a result, the Winter Palace, arguably Russia’s most important and historic building after the Kremlin in Moscow, now looks more like a building you would find in Disneyland as opposed to a historic monument.

Here is how the entrance to the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg built in 1740 is being ‘renovated.’

Cheap imitation bricks were simply laid over the old bricks that make up the entrance.

So another one of the country’s most famous landmarks now looks no different from a modern day building built with cheap imitation brick.

This isn’t just happening in Saint Petersburg. Here is the most famous building in the Kitai Gorod area of Moscow. The building stood empty and abandoned for many years. Recently the city decided it was time to renovate it in time for the World Cup in June 2018. A proper renovation is a long, complex and expensive process. It can sometimes take several years. In Moscow this took a few months with simply a cheap paint job. Another historic building in Moscow will now look like Disneyland when it’s done.

Worse still is Moscow’s Kremlin. Imagine, the country’s most important symbol. It may be hard to tell from the photo, but the bricks are simply drawn on.

If this is happening to the country’s most famous and important landmarks, imagine what is happening to lesser known buildings around the country.

The short answer is nothing good.

They are massively being torn down by developers. It would not be an understatement to say there is an architectual genocide going on in Russia. All across the country, old buildings that make up the European heritage of Russia are disappearing.

One such example recently came up in the Krasnoselsky Region of Moscow near Sokolniki in the Northeastern part of Moscow on Rusakovskaya Street.

The area in question is a small set of buildings built in the 1920’s. They are examples of Soviet constructivist architecture, a form of modern avant-garde architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920’s and 1930’s. In other words, it is a unique form of Russian architecture that cannot be found in other parts of the world.

Not much constructivist architecture is left in Moscow and Russia. Unfortunately such architecture is not deemed to have historical significance as people tend to assume anything built by the communists had no historic value.

The buildings on Rusakovskaya Street have stood empty for many years. The buildings are being torn down in order to build apartment blocks where residents of Moscow’s controversial renovation program will be moved to.

Since the buildings will in all likelihood be torn down, I decided I would go on a walk and explore the area to take some final photos of these buildings before they disappear into the pages of history forever.

This is Rusakovskaya Street looking in the direction of Sokolniki and away from the city center. Rusakovskaya is one of the few major streets in Moscow where trams continue to operate.

The building on the left is one of the buildings slated for destruction. The building has stood empty for several years. The building on the right still has people living in it and will not be torn down. Despite the fact that both buildings were built by the same architect and are identical and people continue to living in the building on the right, the government says that it is impossible to save the building on the left.

The other two buildings slated for destruction. They have stood covered like that for several months. Both of those buildings are empty and nobody lives in them. These buildings are slated for destruction. They were built in the early 1920’s and are a form of Soviet constructivist architecture. There is still a lot of construvist architecture in Moscow that has been preserved, but these buildings are unique in the fact that they were some of the first buildings built by the Soviets using the new architectural style.

Despite standing abandoned for several years, there are beautiful doors on the empty buildings.

The sidewalk right outside the building. These set of buildings are located just a short walk away from Krasnoselsky Metro Station.

In the 1990’s and 2000’s Moscow built the Third Interchange Road which essentially built a highway cutting through several districts that used to form the outer edges of Moscow’s center. During Soviet times, this highway did not exist.

The courtyard within the apartments. Older apartment buildings in Moscow have courtyards which make the areas a much more attractive for families to live in. The courtyards block the noise from the main road and shield kids from the dangers of moving traffic. They also create mini parks with playgrounds and benches for people allowing people to walk outside and enjoy their neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the buildings around the courtyard on Rusakovskaya are in a terrible state. Nobody has lived here for several years.

Since nobody lives in the buildings, few efforts are made to clear the snow in the winter.

It’s hard to imagine any new construction in Moscow being built with the same amount of trees and a similar courtyard.

The balconies to one of the buildings where in the complex where people still live.

The courtyard even has its own basketball court.

Covers on the trash. This is surprisingly well maintained. Most areas for garbage outside Russian apartments don’t have protection against the rain.

More examples of the buildings inside. This is an example of the infamous “Pyatetashki” or five story buildings that Moscow has decided need to be razed to the ground. All across the city more than a million people will be moved from these buildings which will then be torn down. Whereas in other countries in Western Europe, such buildings are simply renovated, in Moscow they are being torn down.

The entire neighborhood is the ideal place you want to live in Moscow. Buildings that are only five floors high and lots of trees outside on the street.

A beautiful basketball court hidden among trees. In the summer when the leaves are green this are is probably wonderful.

An outdoor workout station.

The playground for kids in front of the building the city authorities want to tear down.

It blows my mind that the city would want to destroy these buildings. Some have argued that the because the building on the left is an identical copy of the building on the right which the city plans to tear down, the architecture will be saved, because at least one building will remain standing and offer a testament to how the buildings looked. But the problem is that the complex as a whole will disappear. The constructivist complex as a whole has historical value, not just the building.

I just can’t imagine how anyone would want to destroy such beautiful buildings. This region is similar to the best apartment buildings you can find in Western Europe, with small buildings just a few stories high, lots of green space and trees.

Another look at the building.

This is the building next to it where people continue to live and which will not be torn down.

The buildings are everything you could ask for in Moscow. Not only is Krasnoselskaya Metro practically in the center of Moscow, you are also just a few tram stops away from Komsomolskaya Metro Station where you you have the Yaroslavsky, Leningradsky and Kazansky Train stations with trains headed north to St. Petersburg, northeast to Yaroslavl and west to Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.

In other words, you can simply walk to train stations that take you direction to Saint Petersburg from Moscow, which are only a 20 minute walk away.

Rusakovskaya is also one of the streets that still operates trolleybuses, which the city is also unfortunately gradually getting rid of.

And most importantly, there is a tram stop right outside of the building. There are only a few places left in Moscow where you can take a tram, and this region is one of them.

In a recent livejournal post, local activist Alexandra Andreeva summarized the problem of Rusakovskaya in a brilliant post.

“At the moment, three buildings in the Rusakovka housing complex – large multistory buildings, each of which includes several dozens of apartments – have been cleared of their inhabitants and stand empty. And in a few other buildings in Rusakovka there live extremely remarkable citizens. These citizens don’t like the apartments in which they live. And this is of course their own personal matter. Anyone has the right to either like or dislike the place where they live.” 

“However, for some unknown reasons, these remarkable citizens believe that instead of their own apartments which they do not like, the city of Moscow should give them ownership of other apartments with more space. On top of that, these new apartments should be built for them using taxpayer’s money. Stranger still, these ridiculous citizens are requiring the government provide them with new free apartments, built on the money of other taxpayers as quick as possible, and also close to where they live now.  

The government is destroying these buildings despite the fact that across the street is a beautiful example of how old buildings were renovated properly a few years back. These buildings are three story buildings that are similar to all

Fall was always my favorite season growing up.

Something about the air turning crisper, the weather getting colder. The leaves turning yellow and brown and orange. And of course Halloween.

It’s that back-to-school weather that any person growing up in the United States loves.

So it was a special treat to be able to experience what fall was like in a different country on a different continent, in a country so unknown in the west. To experience fall in Russia.

Maybe it’s because the season is so short here, but autumn in Russia is truly special.

For starters, it only lasts one month. Fall rolls in during the second half of September and ends in the first half of October. After that winter is already in the air.

But during that brief four-week period, when the country transitions from summer to winter, the Russian countryside explodes into the most beautiful mosaic of red and orange and brown and yellow.

They call it ‘zolotaja osenj’ here, or ‘golden fall.’

It was during this time of year I decided to head outside of Moscow and visit Tula, a city located three hours south of Moscow.

The year was 2017. I was living in Moscow working for a Russian newspaper. October had just arrived.

I was living with another American at the time working in Moscow. We both didn’t want to waste a beautiful crisp sunny autumn day cooped up in Moscow in the apartment.

So we took out a map and looked at what cities nearby we could visit.

We looked North, East, West and finally South. And there she was. Tula.

We’d read a lot of good things about Tula before. How Tula was the birthplace of Leo Tolstoy. That it was where a traditional Russian desert called pryaniki, or ‘gingerbread’ originated.

How for centuries Tula supplied the Russian empire with weapons and arms. And that samovars, what Russians used to make tea and keep water hot, originated from there.

Throw in a Kremlin too, which the city had, and the choice was obvious. We should visit Tula.

And off we went. To enjoy the Russian autumn in the Russian provinces.

How to get to Tula

There are two ways to get to Tula from Moscow. You can take a suburban train, known as elektrichkas, or you can take a regular train. The regular train costs more, and will take you there directly. In this case, Tula is usually the first stop of a longer train ride headed south toward Voronezh and Ukraine.

The other option, which we opted for, was the elektrichka. Elektrichkas are suburban trains that connect surrounding cities to Moscow. The elektrichka takes longer, three hours as opposed to an hour and a half. But the benefit is it is cheap. And you get to see all the smaller cities the train stops in.

When we went, the train was packed full of Russians heading to their dachas for the weekend.

Three hours later and we found ourselves hopping off the train at Tula’s main train station.

There were a few military vehicles on display nearby. Tula was traditionally a major arms manufacturer in the Russian Empire, fueled by the Tula Arms Plant founded by Peter The Great in 1712.

But what Tula is really famous for is Russian gingerbread, a traditional Russian desert known as Pryaniki.

It comes with jam, honey or sweetened condensed milk inside, while the outside has cool drawings depicting traditional aspects of Russian culture. They were selling these right outside the train station and all over the city.

When we got to the center we saw a huge black and white photo of what Tula looked like before the communists took power in 1917.

As you can see the center was dominated by a Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Like most Russian cities, Tula suffered a tragic fate after the Bolshevik revolution. The church in the photo above was located in the central square of the city and stood as a historical symbol of the town for generations. It was torn down in the 1920s, just like the majority of the surrounding buildings in the photo. Stalin wanted to implemented his vision of a communist future at all costs, and any symbols of the previous Czarist order were to be erased.

Churches all across the Soviet Union were declared to have ‘no historic value’ and torn down. Churches that were several centuries old. Comunist style administration buildings were put in their place. Monuments to Russian czars were also destroyed and replaced by statues of Lenin.

Tula didn’t escape this fate. Here is Tula’s central square in 2017. All of those old buildings in the black and white photo above showing Tula before the revolution are gone.

The enormous grey building behind Lenin is where Tula’s church used to stand. Today it is the administrative building of Tula and the Tula Oblast.

Of course, not all of Tula was destroyed during the Soviet period. Nearby the statue to Lenin is the Uspensky Sobor, one of the few churches that survived the destruction of the 1920s.

The Uspensky Sobor was built between 1898-1902. The Soviet authorities actually tried to blow up the church in the 1930s, but miraculously the church withstood the blast. A decision was then taken to empty it of all its religious artifacts and close it down. The domes were removed and the building was used as storage for the city’s archives.

In the 1980s under Gorbachev an effort was made to restore churches that had been neglected for decades under communism. The domes were put back in place and religious services began once more.

In 2006 the building was finally returned back to the Russian Orthodox Church. Somehow, Tula’s Uspensky Sobor managed to survive 80 years of neglect under Soviet rule. Let’s hope the 21st century treats it better.

Next to the Uspensky Sobor is Tula’s Preobrazhensky church. Built in 1842 in the Russian classical style, it is another building from the first half of the 19th century that still stands in the city.

It too faced threats of disappearing forever under the communists. In the 1920s the dome was torn down but the remainder of the building was left untouched. For a while it functioned as a school, and then in 1960 the building was deemed to be part of the city’s architectural heritage and received protected status.

But of course, Tula’s main attraction is its Kremlin. Behind that nice building in purple from the 19th century is the city’s Kremlin, the heart of the city.

Kremlin means ‘fortress’ in Russian. And you can find Kremlins all over Russia in the country’s historic cities. In fact, the best way to know what cities to visit in Russia is to check whether they have a Kremlin. If there is a Kremlin, that means the city has existed for centuries and is worth visiting.

Tula’s Kremlin was built in 1514-1520 by the order of Vasili III of Russia. Vasili III was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1505-1533. In 1507 he gave the order to construct the Kremlin on the Upa River to protect the city from ongoing raids from the east.

It’s interesting to compare Kremlins in Russia and when they were built. As far as Tula is concerned, it’s Kremlin isn’t the oldest, but neither is it the youngest.

• Veliky Novgorod – 1490
• Moscow – 1495
• Nizhny Novgorod – 1515
• Tula – 1520
• Zaraisk – 1531
• Kolomna – 1531
• Astrakhan – 1581
• Smolensk – 1602
• Rostov – 1680

There’s actually a lot more kremlins in Russia, depending on how you define a Kremlin. Technically many monetarists could be considered Kremlins, but are classified as religious objects, such as Sergiev Posad or Zvenigorod. Some have only been partly preserved, such as Kolomna. In any case, Tula gets the honor of being one of a handful of Russian cities with a Kremlin that’s been fully preserved.

I was surprised at how clean it was inside of Tula’s Kremlin. It was a beautiful place to walk around and relax in. We went in the fall when it was cold outside so there were few people around, but in the summer the inside of the Kremlin fills up with people and even holds concerts inside.

Within the Kremlin there are a few historic buildings.

The towers are beautifully preserved. These arches served as lookout posts to shoot at invading armies from the south and east in the 16th century. The Kremlin protected the city’s religious and political elite.

There are two cathedrals located within Tula’s Kremlin. The Assumption Cathedral (1762-1766) and the Epiphany Cathedral (1855-1863).

The grass and walls of the Kremlin were impeccably clean. What I loved about the Kremlin in Tula was that it was open to the public. Anyone could walk inside and enjoy the city’s main historical landmark. The same is true of the Kremlins in Nizhny Novgorod and Veliky Novgorod.

In Moscow, the Kremlin is closed to the public. In order to visit, you have to pay. And as a result, nobody gets to enjoy the Kremlin. Tourists will pay and go inside when they visit the city. But the actual residents of Moscow, the people that live in the city, never get to enjoy it. It feels separated from the city, not like an integral part of it.

It wasn’t always like this. Up until the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Moscow’s Kremlin was open to the public and anybody could walk in and out of it. It functioned just like the Kremlins in Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Veliky Novgorod and so forth.

Moscow should learn from these cities and open their own Kremlin up to the public. The city would become much more attractive.

Outside of the Kremlin looking at one of the Kremlin’s towers and observation posts.

Of course, there is more to Tula than just the Kremlin. Despite significant damage the city faced in WWII and attempts by the Soviets to raze down historical buildings, a number of streets in the city were filled with architecture from the 19th and early 20th century.

It’s buildings like these that make it especially enjoyable for me to visit smaller Russian cities. They are a testament to the fundamentally European nature of Russia. There really is nothing distinguishing these kind of buildings from any others you find in Europe.

The only difference is that they were in slightly worse shape in Tula. One problem I noticed in the city was the huge amount of advertisements that covered up many buildings. The city clearly needed a design code, so that store signs and advertisements would not cover up the facades of buildings. Tula could learn from other cities in Eastern Europe like Szeged, Hungary that have successfully managed to implement a design code.

Despite the advertising, the historic nature of Tula’s center shined through. You could tell this was a city that had stood here for a long time, with history to it.

Without the old buildings, Tula would lose its character. It’s these kind of buildings that need to be preserved at all costs. All over Russia, unfortunately, provincial cities are seeing their historical centers torn down. There are a lot of reasons for this – corruption, poor laws, education – but the net result is that these towns lose any tourist potential they still have. Let’s hope that Tula does not follow the same path and preserves the architectural heritage it has left.

As things stand right now, the city is in a great position to set itself up as a major tourist attraction for foreigners who visit Moscow and want to do a day trip to a city nearby.

There is already talk of Russia lifting tourist restrictions for Europeans in 2021. After that, any EU citizen will be able to come to Russia without going through the complicated process of obtaining a visa. When this takes place, tourism to Russian cities will skyrocket. By preserving these buildings, Tula will ensure that foreigners will actually have something to see when they visit.

One of Tula’s main streets downtown.

A half-finished balcony.

A smaller side street in Tula. If these buildings were renovated properly, they could form great places for small cafes, bookshops, coworking spaces and so forth.

A lot of areas in the city had an abandoned feeling to them. The historic gates here used to open up to a cafe. It was empty and overgrown with trees now.

A look down toward the center of Tula. The tall church in the background is where Tula’s Kremlin is located.

One problem in Tula were the wide streets that favored cars. Tula’s main street in the city that went through the center of the city had three lanes for cars going in each direction.

It was no wonder, therefore that cars drove very fast. In fact, I was quite surprised at just how loud Tula was for a city of only half a million people. It felt like on every street there was the constant noise of cars rushing by.

What should Tula do instead? Streets like these should be reduced in size and preference given to pedestrians and cyclists. Two lanes in the middle should go toward a tram line, the other two narrowed in size to make way for a bike lane going in both directions.

Tula in fact, had tram lines operating on its main streets up until WWII, before the government decided to get rid of them.

Giving the streets back to the people would make the city a more comfortable place to live.

Another beautiful building from the 19th century. It was early October and many trees had already lost most of their leaves.

I love Tula.

What a beauty.

These kind of buildings are a testament to Tula’s European past.

No different from any others you can find in Europe. At the top of the building it says: “I obey the law, I obey the people.”

However, there is one form of architecture completely unique to Russia that you won’t find in Europe. And those are traditional Russian wooden buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

When I first came to Russia, these kind of wooden buildings completely surprised me. I had never seen anything like them in any countries I had visited before in my life. I loved them.

They were completely unique to Russia. We don’t have these kind of buildings in Serbia or in the Balkans. I’ve never seen them in other countries in Eastern Europe I’ve been to, like Hungary or Slovakia.

The majority of Russians actually lived precisely in these kinds of wooden homes before the revolution in 1917. Many people continue to live in them to this today.

Unfortunately this kind of architecture is disappearing at alarming rates all cross Russia. The homes fall into disrepair because young people move away from cities. Developers offer to buy the homes from poor residents. Instead of reconstructing them, they tear them down and build modern apartments.

It doesn’t help that cities rarely afford these kind of homes historical status. More often than not, they sit abandoned in cities as eyesores until they collapse.

Other times they are put up for sale my view, Russia should take all possible measures to

This one was up for sale.

Here was one that was in a terrible state, even though you could tell that not long ago it was a beautiful building. I took this picture in 2017, when it still could have been renovated.

But I took a look at Google Maps in 2020 and it was gone. Whoever decided to buy the property figured it was too expensive to renovate the existing building. Instead they tore it down completely and a piece of Tula’s history is lost forever.

If nothing is done to intervene, this is going to be the fate of every building on this street. Here’s another one in bad shape. Nothing stops someone from buying this property and tearing it down to build a new modern building in its place.

The beauty of these buildings is that they preserve what Tula looked like 100 years ago. You could be in Tula in 1905 and this street would have looked exactly the same.

A look down Pirogova Street.

Given proper care, these buildings could be converted into hostels or mini hotels, cafes, bookshops, souvenir shops, coworking spaces. There’s tons of businesses that work better using traditional architecture and you don’t need a modern equivalent.

What I love most about these buildings is how colorful they are. They are all painted in different colors.

Unfortunately many of them were in bad shape. Traditional wooden buildings in Russia are in danger of disappearing forever. All across the country these buildings are being torn down as people move to cities and forget about the buildings where their grandparents grew up and came from. I wrote an entire separate post about the topic here about a street in Tula that was filled with these wooden buildings.

Tula is mostly a flat city, but there is a slight hill at the top of which the Всехсвятский кафедральный собор (Vsehsvyatski kafederalni sobor) is located.

This is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city. Built in 1772, it contained some of the oldest graveyards and tombs in the city from over 100 years ago.

A few notes about Russian graveyards. As a rule cemeteries in Russia are located in the woods. This is something I find unique specifically to Russia, and is not the case in Serbia or the Balkans where my family is from and is definitely different from the United States.

An old building in the cemetery.

The cemetery had a distinctly creepy feeling in the October weather. It was a perfect fall day. But the cemetery felt abandoned with many of the graveyards falling apart. You can read a separate post on the topic here.

The church and the graveyard at the top of the hill in the distance. This was probably my favorite street in Tula.

Another old building.

One reason we chose to visit Tula was because the city hosts the brewery to a relatively famous Russian beer called Salden’s. Although we didn’t have time to visit the brewery, we decide to try some in the city in a small store selling it.

Back near the Kremlin. The fall weather was just perfect. It was a crisp, cold October day, with Halloween just around the corner, and the Kremlin looked amazing with the leaves turning brown and falling to the ground.

A statue dedicated to the Tulski Pryanik, or Tula Gingerbread, a desert that has existed since 1685. The Uspensky Sobor is in the distance.

Fall in Russia is my favorite season. Unfortunately it is really short. It lasts for just one month, typically from the second half of September to the first half of October. After that the weather gets significantly colder.

In these photos you can see the Russian autumn in all its beauty.

Incredible.

Tula’s Kremlin is one of my favorites in Russia. One reason is that it is actually open to the public, unlike the Moscow Kremlin. Moscow should learn from Tula and open up theirs to the public as well instead of charging people 700 rubles to go inside. Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the Moscow Kremlin was open to the public and anyone could visit it.

The back entrance to the Kremlin.

A monument to the fallen soldiers in WWII.

There was an eternal flame at this monument, just like most Soviet monuments dedicated to WWII.

Fall in Tula is so picturesque with the Kremlin in the background.

Kids playing.

Looking back out at the city.

A final look at Tula’s administrative building before the sun set. This was definitely the ugliest building in the city. In my opinion, they should do bring back the church that used to stand there.

We finished the day by visiting Tula’s Samovar museum. It was a modest little exhibition that displayed some of the oldest samovar’s that were once made in the city.

Samovars were used by Russians in czarist times to keep water hot for tea and soup. A flame in the bottom of the Samovar would be lit that would warm up the water in the container. The handle could then be turned so that the hot water pours out.

Tula was the city where the majority of Russian samovars were produced in the 19th century. You could find them all over Europe and chance are if you live in an old house and look in the attic, you will find a samovar that was made in the city of Tula.

Conclusion

Tula was an amazing city to visit in the fall. Russia can have extreme weather. Most of the year is covered in snow, but you have brief glimpses of fall, spring and summer that can be enjoyed.

These photos capture what fall in Russia is like. We happened to spend them in Tula, but really, any Russian city will look this beautiful in the fall.

When it comes t othe city of Tula itself, it is a great day trip outside of Moscow. The city is beaming with history. The armaments factory, the Kremlin, the wooden buildings in the center of the city, the beautiful cemetery atop the hill and the delicious Russian pryaniki all combine to make this worth the trek outside of Moscow.

Be sure to add it to your itinerary when you visit Russia and Moscow.

Sergiev Posad is the next destination on our tour exploring historical towns around Moscow you can visit in a day.

Sergiev Posad is one of Russia’s oldest cities founded in the 14th century. It is also a Golden Ring city in Russia, which are a series of towns northeast of Moscow which form the ancient core of medieval Russia and which have seen a lot of their historic architecture preserved to this day.

You would think that the further west you go in Russia toward Europe, the more European the towns get, but that isn’t quite the case. In fact, because Russia suffered numerous invasions from Europe over the course of the centuries, beginning with the Poles and Swedes, the French in the 19th century and the Germans in the 20th century, most of the cities that lie west of Moscow suffered repeated destruction.

In contrast, towns east of Moscow have largely been preserved. The last true invader to attack Russia from the east were the Mongolians under Genghis Khan. Since then, these cities have remained untouched and miraculously survived Soviet attempts to wipe out religion in Russia in the 1930’s.

Sergiev Posad is one of those cities.

The easiest way to get to Sergiev Posad is to take a train from Moscow’s Yaroslavsky Station. Trains leave every 10-20 minutes. The ride costs 176 rubles in one direction, or about $3. The city is located 67 kilometers away and it takes 1.5 hours to get there.

I always like to judge cities based on how easily accessible their centers are from the train station. Sergiev Posad’s train station had a decent location. The city center was only a 15 minute walk away and there were some historical buildings on the way.

Of course like a lot of Russian cities, the city decided to locate its bus station right next to its train station. So despite having nice buildings, they were ruined by the ‘marshutkas’, or shuttle buses, that dominate smaller Russian cities. Sooner or later, Russian cities should get rid of these marshutkas and invest in proper buses or trams.

Walking toward Sergiev Posad’s city center.

March is a wildcard month in Russia in terms of weather. Whereas in most other countries March signifies the start of spring, in Russia March is completely inconsistent. Often you will get a week of warm spring weather followed by a week of cold brutal winter and then back to spring. This kind of see-sawing usually continues for all of April and even in May.

A panoramic view approaching Sergiev Posad. The city is most famous for the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius Monastery, one of the oldest and biggest monasteries in all of Russia, founded in 1337 by St. Sergei of Radonezh.

Near the entrance to the town is a monument celebrating the 700th anniversary of Sergiev Posad. The city got its name Sergiev Posad only in 1782 following a decree by Russian Empress Catherin II to name the city after the man who founded the monastery, St. Sergei of Radonezh. From 1930 to 1991 the city was renamed to Zagorsk after a famous communist leader. The city reverted back to its old name after the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991.

The best time to visit Sergiev Posad is in the summer. There are a number of lakes and small ponds sprinkled throughout the city around the monastery which were frozen over in March.

The Pyatnitsky Well Chapel, one of the early churches in the city built in the 1600’s.

An other side of the street on the opposite side of the chapel is the Vvedenskaya Church, built in 1547. In was reconstructed in 1621 and again in 1740. In 1928 the Bolsheviks closed it down and it did not reopen as a church until after 1991.

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, Sergiev Posad’s main tourist attraction. One of the towers was being reconstructed when we visited.

St. Sergius who founded the monastery was one of the most respected religious leaders in Russia during his time. He had over 4oo followers in Russia who would go on to found many other monasteries in northeastern Russia in the 14th century, including the Solovetsky, Kirillov and Simonov monasteries. St. Sergius was also an avid supporter of Dmitry Donskoi in his struggle with the Tatars, sending his monks to fight alongside the Russian leader during the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.

The square in front of the monastery. The red brick building was a famous merchant house built in the 1902-1903. Initially it was rented by the church to local tradesmen. When the Bolsheviks took over following WWI, the local administration was placed in the building. In 1920 a portion of the building burned down and its outward appearance was altered significantly when it was reconstructed.

The walls of the monastery. Throughout the centuries these walls helped protect the monastery from repeated attacks from invaders. In 1408 the monastery was devastated by a fire after a Tatar unit attacked it. The biggest threat to the monastery would appear two centuries later during during a 16-month Polish-Lithuanian siege from 1608-1610. A Polish army of 15,000 attacked the monastery in the winter of 1908. Despite significantly outnumbering the Russian army of around 2,000, the Russians managed to hold back the Polish army which retreated to the town of Dmitriev afterward.

The entrance to the monastery.

Beautiful murals line the walls of the entrance.

Inside the monastery.

The entrance from the back. The monastery gets hundreds of visitors every day from people all over Russia.

The Predtechensky Church built on top of the entrance to the monastery between 1693-1699.

The first stone cathedral in the monastery, the Troitsky Sobor. It was built in 1422 by Serbian monks who had fled to the monastery after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The frescoes in the walls were painted by the greatest icon painters in Medieval Russia at the time, Andrei Rublev and Danil Chyorny. Muscovite Royalty was traditionally baptized in the church over the centuries.

People lining up to enter the church.

The Sergiev Posad Bell Tower, built between 1741 and 1770. At 88 meters high, it is a fine example of Russian Baroque architecture and at one point had 50 different bells. In 1930 the Bolsheviks destroyed 25 of them, including the largest weighed over 64 tonnes. New bells were added to the tower in 2002-2004.

The Uspensky Sobor built in 1585. The church’s layout and design is very similar to the Uspensky Sobor in Moscow’s Kremlin that goes by the same name. The Uspensky Sobor is the biggest church in the monastery. The smaller church in front of the Uspensky Sobor is called the ‘Chapel Over the Well’ church. It was built later in 1700.

The Uspensky Sobor and the Chapel Over the Well Church on the left and on the right is a church named after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, built in 1476.

People lining up to enter the Chapel Over The Well Church.

More buildings in the monastery.

Exiting the monastery.

Back outside near the walls.

The square in front of the monastery. In the early 20th century the area square was filled with traders and shopkeepers who sold their goods and services to locals. The Soviet Union closed down the shops in the latter half of the 20th century because it viewed them as engaging in ‘profiteering’ which was against the Soviet Union’s communist ideology.

Beside the monastery is a beautiful park with several historical buildings, including the Old Monastery Inn built in the neoclassical style in 1825 and partially rebuilt in the same style after a fire in 1838. After the 1917 revolution the building was nationalized and became the property of the state. In 2000 it was returned to the monastery and renovated in 2005-2007.

Sergiev Posad also has its fair share of historical buildings. The main street in Sergiev Posad is Red Army Prospect which runs parallel to the monastery. These buildings were built in the 1880’s. At the start of the 20th century the yellow building on the corner hosted Sergiev Posad’s women’s gymnasium.

Sergiev Posad’s Museum of History and Art.

The park outside the monastery.

The Y. Gagarin Palace of Culture, built in 1954 and an example of Soviet neoclassical architecture.

Some old buildings on our way back to the train station.

Before catching the train we decided to stop by a local store to buy our favorite Russian beer ‘Mohnaty Shmel’, which translates into English as ‘furry bumblebee’. The beer is named after a famous Soviet song and it is by far the best Russian beer I have found so far. Highly recommend trying it.

Zvenigorod is a small Russian city located 45 kilometers west of Moscow on the Moskva River. According to the last census in 2010, the town had a population of just 16,395, which makes it astronomically tiny by Russian standards.

The city is best known for the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery located on top of a hill overlooking the Moskva River. The city also hosted the famous Russian short story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov after he graduated university in Moscow in the late 19th century. There are stories that Chekhov was such a rowdy character that he got in trouble with the local police who repeatedly fined him for the lavish, drunk parties he threw in the village.

The easiest way to get to Zvenigorod is to take an elektrichka from Moscow’s Belorusskaya Railway Station. The ticket costs 154 rubles, or around $3, and takes an hour and 25 minutes to get there.

Getting off at Zvenigorod station. It was a cold, cloudy and snowy day in early March when we visited.

Zvenigorod was first mentioned in historical records in the late 1300’s. The city’s main tourist attraction is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, located about 1.5 kilometers from the city center. It was founded in 1398 by Savva Storozhevsky and is one of the few remaining artifacts of 14th century Muscovite Russia architecture.

Part of what makes the monastery so special is that it is essentially hidden in a forest, with trees surrounding the monastery from all sides. During the summer and fall when the trees are filled with leaves the monastery is barely visible.

There are also several estates and old homes sprinkled around the woods.

Over the centuries the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery survived several episodes where it could have been completely destroyed. During the Polish invasion of Russia in the early 17th century the Poles captured the area on their way to Moscow. Two hundred years later the French would do the same under Napoleon in 1812.

The biggest threat to the monastery however came when the Bolsheviks took power in Russia following the Russian civil war in 1922. They declared an end to the old tsarist order and called for the destruction of private property and religion across Russia. As such, the regime’s biggest enemies became wealthy landowners, peasants and the church. In the 1930’s Stalin began demolishing churches across all of Russia. In 1936 there were plans to raze the monastery entirely and build a stadium in its place. Thankfully it was spared after prominent cultural figures lobbied for its rescue.

Part of what makes the monastery so attractive is its location on top of a hill overlooking the Moskva River. The view is even prettier in the summer and fall when the river is visible.

Historically the monastery had a total of seven bell towers, but only six have survived.

A final threat to the monastery arose during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in WWII. The German army reached the outskirts of Moscow but never captured the city. Although Moscow was bombed by the Germans and hundreds of other cities to the west of Moscow were destroyed, Zvenigorod was skipped over. Many Russian cities that lie west of Moscow were significantly damaged during WWII, with some seeing more than 70% of their historic centers destroyed, such as Voronezh and Belgorod. Zvenigorod managed to escape this fate.

The entrance to the monastery.

The monastery gets a steady stream of tourists from Moscow and Russia year round. Even in the dead of winter there were tons of visitors.

One reason people visit is because the monastery is known to make some of the best bread, pastries and cakes in the region. People often commute all the way from Moscow to buy the deserts baked by the monastery’s monks and to then sit and chat in the cafe above drinking tea.

The interior of the cafe retains the same old wooden architecture that was there a hundred years ago.

After leaving the cafe, visitors are free to roam around the walls of the monastery and take in the beautiful views.

The central area of the monastery. When the Bolsheviks captured the monastery in 1918 they pillaged the frescoes and artifacts in the buildings, including the tomb of the monastery’s founder, St. Savva. It was shut down in 1919 and remained in an abysmal state for the remainder of the 20th century until the mid 1980’s when restoration efforts began.

The Nativity of Mary Sobor, originally built in 1405. Further sections were added on in subsequent centuries.

Zvenigorod began to decline in significance as a political and religious center following the 15th century. But in the mid 17th century the city experienced a revival in importance after the Russian Tsar Alexis decided set up his residence in the walls of the monastery.

Tsar Alexis ruled Russia from 1645-1676. His reign oversaw wars with Poland and Sweden, the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church between Old Believers and church reforms initiated in 1653 to bring Russian Orthodox Church practices in line with Greek practices. He also ruled during a major Cossack revolt in southern Russia in 1670-1671. He spent most his time responding to these events in the walls of this monastery.

After Tsar Alexis died he was succeeded by his eldest son Feodor III who continued to use the monastery as his primary residence. Feodor III ruled Russia from 1676 to 1682 and assumed the throne when he was just 15 years old. He would rule Russia for only five years, dying in 1682 at the age of 20. After Feodor III’s death, the monastery declined in importance, especially when Peter the Great moved Russia’s capital to St. Petersburg in 1703.

A group of three 17th century churches originally built to be the chamber for the Tsar Alexis’ wife. The clock tower in the upper left is the tallest building in the monastery.

A beautiful doorway into the orthodox cathedral.

Back in the city center of Zvenigorod.

Overall, the monastery is a perfect day trip from Moscow and offers a unique chance to explore the ancient churches located within its walls and warm up inside with tea and deserts known to be some of the best in the region. While we did not have time to explore the town of Zvenigorod itself, there are also several things to see and do there, not the least of which is to visit Anton Chekhov’s old house where the famous Russian writer lived after graduating university in Moscow. Even though the best time to visit Zvenigorod is in the summer and fall, for those that can brave the elements, a visit in the winter is no less rewarding.

Kolomna is one of Russia’s oldest cities. Located 114 kilometers south of Moscow where the Moskva and Oka rivers meet, it is a typical example of a city in Russia’s provincial countryside, seeped with rich history and cultural wonders. Founded in 1177, it has a population of only 144,589 according to the latest census from 2010. But what the city lacks in size, it makes up for in history.

How to get there:

The best way to get to Kolomna is to take an “elektrichka”, the Russian word for suburban train. They leave every half hour from the Kazan Railway Station in Moscow. The ticket costs 250 rubles, or about $4.50 one-way, and the ride takes 2 hours and 20 minutes. Most elektrichkas are old and few have been updated since Soviet times. But they are fast and reliable and never late. Riding one is a blast from the past. Some things in Russia never change, and the electrichkas are one of them. You feel like you have traveled back in time to the Soviet Union with the Russian countryside whizzing past you.

There is nothing much to see at Kolomna’s train station when you arrive. But the historic core of the city is just a short tram ride away.

Like their suburban rail counterparts, trams are the second thing in Russia that doesn’t ever seem to change. The trams in Kolomna were particularly old, but they rattled along sturdily toward the center. Each tram comes with a conductor who you buy your ticket from. A tram ticket costs 30 rubles, or around 50 cents.

When you see an enormous church towering high over the rest of Kolomna’s buildings, that is when you’ll know where to get off. Behold Archangel Michael’s Church, the tallest church in Kolomna, located outside the entrance to Kolomna’s Kremlin.

Archangel Michael’s Church was built from 1820-1833 during the reign of Russian Czar Nicolas I (1825-1855). It has the hallmarks of traditional Russian imperial architecture. When the Bolsheviks came to power after WWI they closed the church down, emptied the interior of all its religious artifacts, and turned it into the city’s regional museum. It was renovated and reopened as a church in 2007.

The real beauty of Kolomna is the city’s medieval Kremlin. Kremlin is the Russian word for fortress and there are several cities across Russia that contain these architectural wonders. They were generally built alongside major rivers with their walls sheltering the city’s religious leaders and political elite from outside attackers. Kolomna’s Kremlin was built in 1525-1531 under the reign of Russian Czar Vasily III, who was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1505-1533. Kolomna’s Kremlin once had 17 towers and four gates to enter the city, but only seven have survived today.

The walls are around 18-21 meters high and form a half circle around the entrance to the historic core of the city. Kolomna was first mentioned in 1177 when the area was under the control of Kievian Rus’, the ancient first state of the East Slavs. It would suffer serious setbacks in the centuries to come, especially after the Mongols attacked Kievan Rus’ in 1240. It was not until 1380 that the town would rise up and rebel under the leadership of Moscow’s Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoi. Today Donskoi is a hero around the town and across all of Russia.

The Statue to Dmitry Donskoi in front of Kolomna’s Kremlin.

Unfortunately much of the Kremlin was destroyed in subsequent centuries, but some old entrance gates have survived.

Inside the Kremlin is a beautiful collection of medieval churches and old 19th century buildings. Pictured below is Cathedral Square, the Kremlin’s main square.

The Uspensky Cathedral in the center of the square was originally built in 1379 before being reconstructed a few centuries later in 1672. In 1804 the frescoes within the cathedral were repainted. In 1929 the interior of the church was plundered by the Soviets and the cathedral was closed until 1989. Today it stands as a central symbol of the city.

This square served as the town’s central meeting point for centuries. Traders and merchants would come here to display their goods on Sundays after church service.

To the right of the Cathedral is the Novo-Golutvin Monastery, built in 1799. A church-sponsored renovation program has significantly enhanced the town’s visual appeal by repainting and renovating the exteriors of these buildings.

 Another view of Cathedral Square.

One of the towers to the Novo-Golutvin Monastery.

During Soviet times these churches were completely neglected, left to crumble and disappear to the pages of history. Take a look at how Uspensky Cathedral looked in the late 1980’s.

And here’s that same church today. The improvements are amazing.

There are several other churches dotted throughout the Kremlin, some built later during the 1600’s and 1700’s and later. One example is the Brusensky Monastery. Initially built in 1552 as a wooden structure, it was rebuilt in 1881-1883 in its current form. In 1922 the monastery was closed by the Soviets and its property confiscated with the monks forced to move out. A renovation of the church was finished in 2006.

The gates to enter the Brusensky Monastery.

Another church within the Brusensky Monastery, built in 1552 and renovated in 2006.

Nikolai Gostiny Church. Built originally in 1501, and then again in 1751-1752. In the 1920’s Kolomna received an order from Moscow that the church had to be destroyed. The church used to be much bigger with a bell tower and courtyard. This is all that remains today.

Here’s how it looked in the early 1900’s before the Bolshevik revolution.

Of course, churches are not the only thing you can find within Kolomna’s Kremlin. You also have a beautiful pedestrian street called Lazhechnikova Street with several buildings from the 19th and early 20th century. Here you will find souvenir shops and outdoor cafes serving traditional Kolomna drinks and deserts.

It was March and the weather in Russia was still cold so there weren’t many people. But in the summer these shops open up their cafes and people sit outside.

This building used to house the Kolomna City Duma before the revolution in the early 1900’s.

A small wooden room attached to the side of the brick housing looks like its about to fall off.

A souvenir shop to the side. Most of the buildings in the Kremlin are small one or two story buildings dating back to the 19th century.

Kolomna cats.

To the left on the door you see the words “Pastila” written. Pastila is a traditional Russian fruit candy made of different kinds of light airy paste. Kolomna is famous for producing its own brand sold across Russia.

One of the best aspects of Kolomna are its wooden homes. Russians used to live in such homes in the early 20th century. As Russian cities expanded and modernized these homes were typically razed to the ground to make way for modern high rises. But in small Russian cities the wooden homes remain.

An old water pump. People used to use these to bring water back into their homes. A lot of villages in Russia still have them and some still work.

Wooden constructions were typical across Russia during the 19th and 20th century. It was a cheap form of building material compared with stone and brick and abundant across the country because of the vast woodland and forests.

Another example of an old 19th century wooden home.

Each building is painted in a different color, adding to the liveliness of the place.

A window to one of these traditional homes.

A local girl resting in the shade in Kolomna on a hot summer day in 1916.

That same building in 2017.

More Kolomna cats. In the background you can see the Moskva River.

The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The stone structure was first built in 1764 and then later rebuilt in 1837.

The Pyatnitskie Gates, the last surviving tower of the Kremlin where the gates are still intact.

Lots of people were out and about despite the cold weather, enjoying the sun, walking with their children and pets.

Old fresco paintings on the Pyatniskie Gates which have survived to this day. At one point, all of the towers looked like this.

To the right there is a cute little shop you can order some”Kalachi”, the old Russian word for cake, or bread.

Two Russian woman warming up with tea and biscuits. Despite the sunny weather and the start of spring, it’s still cold in March.

Kalachi Na Vynos = Cakes To Go

Some of the architecture outside of the Kremlin. These are typical 19th century homes in Kolomna. The city looks eerily abandoned in places. Unfortunately, many young people leave Kolomna to live and work in Moscow which is only two hours away. As a result, the city is slowly emptying out and the population dying.

 The Moskva River in Kolomna.

 Walking along the Naberezhnaya, the area beside the Kolomna River.

A statue dedicated to man’s best friend.

There have been many floods in Kolomna throughout history. Here you can see how high the water reached each year, with the highest being in 1970, closely followed by 1994 and 2013.

Another beautiful old wooden Kolomna home overlooking the Moskva river.

More Kolomna streets.

Few of the buildings in Kolomna’s old town are higher than two stories.

Kolomna also has its fair share of beautiful parks, with one located just outside the Kremlin. Enjoy the cold winter sunshine with an ancient Russian fortress casually in the background. 

 The city retains an old European feel, despite being located so far east from Europe’s heartland.

Every Russian city has a statue to Vladimir Lenin and Kolomna is no different.

The Square of Two Revolutions

Lenin with a church in the background. It was this man who ordered the destruction of churches across the country in the 1920’s. The contrast is striking.

Church of the Apostle John-Bogoslov, built in 1756.

Another view of the Square of Two Revolutions. You can see the Kremlin in the background.

October Revolution Street. This is Kolomna’s main street which goes all the way to the train station and to the more modern section of the city.

Some buildings are in need of an upgrade, but overall the European character of the town survives.

Blue seems to be the city’s favorite color.

And sometimes yellow.And finally some more old wooden homes.

Overall Kolomna is a great city to visit. Located just two hours south of Moscow, its small town feel contrasts sharply with the big metropolis to its north. The rich history, ancient churches and small local shops and cafes are enough to fill up the better part of a day or weekend. Take an early train in the morning from Moscow and you can come back in the evening with a rewarding experience of Russia’s provincial heartland.