Towns of Moscow Region - Serpukhov

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I have planned to go Novi Sad, Serbia, for the Exit Festival this year, as usual. But it so happened that I got all stupid thinking about spending much money and finally cancelled the Serbian trip. Instead, however, I found the Helsinki Summersound Festival, and a two-day dance music festival in Moscow (this all in July 2014).

One thought breeds another, and I chose (reluctantly) to apply for Schengen visa and come to Helsinki for three days. I supposed it would be excellent to have a multiple entry visa and thus visit several places in the neighbouring countries, and perhaps to have the visa ready for a winter Alpine Skiing somewhere in Austria.

Two weeks before application, I registered on the visa centre website for the 26^th of July, 9 AM. I wanted to visit any of the following three towns in the Moscow Region: Serpuhov, Kolomna, Aleksandrov. Though I’m currently in St. Petersburg, the local visa centre receives applications from the locals (you need to have the so-called propiska, temporary registration, or a statement of employment from a local employer). I had neither.

On June 26, I arrived in Moscow at 5-30 in the morning (all the trains arriving later are rather expensive) and stayed at Yaroslavsky Station for two hours, then went to the nearby Sbarro for breakfast and finally found myself in front of the Finland Visa Centre (located very close to the Three Stations Square, so I could conveniently board any commuter train to Moscow Region).

The visa centre demanded almost an hour of my time, though, of course, it all might have been much faster, but my insurance policy turned out to be incorrect, and I had it revised, and wait for my turn again. The good thing is that they do not require many documents, only the hotel booking, the insurance, a photo, and an application form. They said my visa (if approved) would be ready by the 7^th of July; I also paid for DHL delivery service.

My thoughts being somewhat confused after the visa centre and the train schedule mixed up in my mind, I went to the Kazansky Railway Station and bought a ticket to Kolomna, thus losing about 10 Euros. The train would leave in almost two hours, which was not quite good for me. They said I might not reimburse the ticket. I went to the nearby Kalanchevskaya Train Station and from there, in about twenty minutes, departed to Serpukhov, a regional town 99 kilometers away from Moscow; officially dating back to 1339.

I do not like arriving in cities where the sights do not start right here, at the railway station, and you have to walk a lot or take a bus to the historic centre. I bought a map and saw there was rather a long way, but soon I began seeing objects of interest.

In ancient times, the Serpukhov fortress was a reliable outpost of the Moscow Princedom in the struggle against Mongol-Tatar and Lithuanian-Polishaggressors. The town’s history is related to the names of Tsar Ivan IV, Boris Godunov, Vasily Shuisky and Ivan Bolotnikov. In the middle of the XVI century, Serpukhov was an important strategic, administrative, and economic centre; it consisted of a Kremlin, a trading quarter (Rus. ‘posad’), and settlements. Unfortunately, the Serpukhov Kremlin came to our times in the form of several stones, so to speak, with neither walls nor towers remaining.

Following the town’s main street, Volodarskogo, I saw modern buildings, gradually superseded by several single-storey timber buildings, and finally found myself in the town’s historic centre. The majority of notable buildings pertain to the XVIII and XIX centuries. We can also see the unavoidable Lenin Square with the statue – I must confess I like Lenin statues, and I like any Soviet monuments (specifically those related to the Great Patriotic War (World War II), because they remind us of our history, and should not be demolished or removed. I wonder whether, in several decades, monuments of Mr. Putin will spring up throughout the country – I think it rather probable, but of course not on such a large scale, and of course the events of contemporary times will perhaps be reassessed differently in future.

After the Lenin Square, I approached the town’s oldest part, preceded by Nikolsky Cathedral (1833), and sat for a while in its small patio, studying the map and resting my muscles. From there, I circled the high Sobornaya hill to reach the town’s most enjoyable location: the ancient centre with four churches (dating back to 1714, 1747, 1696). The Kremlin’s remains are also here, but I did not see them. As I went past the hill and ascended it, I thought that it must have been for enemies a difficulty to capture it. From the high point, three churches were perfectly seen on the left, while Troitsky Cathedral dominated the overall view; Vysotsky Monastery (1374) was visible in the far distance, while the houses on the other river bank were barely visible in the richness of green foliage. The panorama reminded me of Kursk.

I approached each church and took photos, and then began the return journey. Being tired, I decided to catch a bus directly to the train station. I was very sleepy, bought a coffee and a chocolate, and emerged on the platform two minutes before the train arrived. It was luck.

I Moscow, I had three hours before the return to Petersburg and decided to visit the House of Foreign Book on Kuznetsky Val Street. The choice of English, French, and German books and textbooks there is good, but the prices are awfully high. For the price of a single new English book (say, ten euros) you can purchase six or seven good English novels published in the Soviet Union (in hard cover! while almost everything now is in paperback). I have purchased many excellent books in Petersburg second-hand bookshops. Here I bought a textbook of Vietnamese language and a collection of folk tales at a nearby bookstall.

I haven’t previously been on Kuznetsky Val. It is an excellent pedestrian street and I think I must return to Moscow and spend there a couple of weeks. Today I’m going to Tula, for a booze and to see my friends.

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