Thursday, September 9, 2010--Goritsky

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Thursday, September 9--Goritsky

We were in Goritsy right after lunch. The homes in the smallish village of Goritsy were very interesting with cut out, lacey fretwork above and around the windows and along the eaves. Houses were brightly painted and villagers allowed tours of their homes.

The couple whose home we looked in/and through were painfully proud of their home. They had three kinds of heat in the house—radiators, gas heat and wood stove. He had built the home himself and was the local carpenter. She was the town’s vet. The older homes we saw as we walked along had all the same decorations but none of the new paint. Many of the homes had lovely flower gardens—the dahlias were especially nice. Veggie gardens were also abundant. This couple also kept a goat and some sheep in the lot across from their home.

The town is situated on the bank of the Skeksna River and its main fame comes from a convent founded in 1544 by the wife of the youngest son of Ivan the III. She plotted against Ivan the IV wanting her son on the throne and was exiled to the convent she started. 6 years later the family was exterminated and she was drowned in the river. The convent then became the place of imprisonment for spouses and relatives of the noble that fell into disgrace . Following the revolution all the nuns that were left were herded into a hold of a boat on the river and the boat was then deliberately sunk.

We listened to the story of this horror from an very expressive old nun on the steps of the convent. You can see a picture of Polina holding her number “8" tour group sign as she translates the nun’s Russian to English for us. We then toured the very small chapel of the convent. The main church is being restored and the convent is slowly becoming operational. We had tea and sort of cookies in a framed rather open building designed to serve tea to the tourists. The tour companies I am sure pay them for this tour and service and it brings needed income into the convent coffers.

Valerie then toured a freshly painted 2 story high school that she believes is sponsored by Intourist as they had a computer lab plus a smartboard which you rarely see in most US college classrooms. It wouldn’t do to have all the tourists see an ordinary classroom.

In the intersection of two roads Valerie took a picture of two little old ladies waiting for the bus–notice the blue Quonset hut shaped inclement weather protected stop in the background.

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