旅人る - Tabibito

 

Plyos

 

Beautiful yet weird town in Ivanovo oblast on the Volga river.

 

In 2008 Milovka country estate on the western edge of Plyos became a residence for then president of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev. The sleepy town on the banks of the Volga turned into a gathering place for people craving to enter the circle of Medvedev's close associates. So don't wonder why the hotels here are so freaking expensive and why the lunch in the restaurant would cost 3000 or 5000 rubles ($50-100). Otherwise the town is picturesque and somehow cozy.

 

One of the streets with small houses is converted to a hotel. Still no one could explain why one should stay in Plyos more than for a few hours.

 

Plyos is probably the only town in Russia where in 2022 you could freely fly the white-blue-white flag which became a symbol for anti-Putin movement. On the coat of arms and the flag of Plyos, a blue stripe denotes the Volga.

 

River shipping.

 

Someone painted his boat, and at the same time the Shokhonka River, a tributary of the Volga.

 

The wooden Church of the Resurrection, built in 1669, is perhaps the main attraction of Plyos. Previously, in its place stood another wooden church, Peter and Paul, known from the paintings of the Russian landscape painter Isaac Levitan. But in 1903, the old church burned down from a lightning strike, and in 1982 a Church of the Resurrection was moved to its place from one of the villages in the Ivanovo region, where otherwise it would have disappeared.

 

An old cemetery nearby.

 

A stone church named after Peter and Paul, which surviving part is now used as a transformer box.

 

In front of the latter stands a lonely ancient monument. "The wife of a merchant's son" was buried underneath in 1865. The girl was married at the age of 15, had two children and died at the age of 18.

 

A central square.

 

The square's boss.

 

Getting in (as of September 2022): Plyos can be a simple one day car trip from Yaroslavl, Kostroma or Ivanovo. During weekdays you can drive right into the town center but on weekends even those who stay in the hotels must leave their cars on the parking lot at the town edge and take a 10 minutes walk. Getting here by public transit is possible but would be painful.

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