旅人る - Tabibito

 

Ustye, Sokol

 

Ustye

A once wealthy merchant village in Vologda oblast at the confluence of the Kubena River into Lake Kubenskoye, on the old waterway from the Volga to the White Sea. The village is not very large, but there is a well-defined historical center with two-storied merchant mansions.

 

There is one pedestrian street.

 

Ustye merchants had different tastes. The merchant Nikulichev preffered Gothic.

 

And the merchants Tsukkerman, Smolkin and Izbushkins preffered Eclecticism.

 

It’s not easy to find any decay right away. All the old mansions are either intact or being renovated.

 

Temples are another matter. Only the main (new) Resurrection Cathedral (1820-1836) is in good condition. In Soviet times, it lost only the side domes and the fence, which have already been restored.

 

All other churches are either abandoned or lost all their splendor.

 

Apparently, a former school or college.

 

Petrovka River.

 

From Ustye, orthodox believers usually sail on motorboats to the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery on an island in Lake Kubenskoye, but almost nothing old has been preserved on this island, so we’ll skip it.

 

Sokol

An industrial town on the road from M8 highway to Ustye. There's not much to see here except for the frankensteinish local art school.

 

Getting in (as of August 2023): About one hour drive north from Vologda

 

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