Day 6 – Wednesday: Goritsky and Kirillov

After seeing the impressive town of Rybinsk with its neoclassical buildings lining the river and watching a lovely sunset over Lake Rybinsk, we woke to yet more river travel on the way to the village of Goritsky and the town of Kirillov. On the bank south of Goritsky is a large convent, which at the moment houses 5 nuns and lay sisters.

We've so far had perfect weather and the lake was glassily still

Goritsky I think mainly subsists on souvenir sales. We took a bus to the nearby town of Kirillov. I think the name Goritsky refers to the hills around the area – there actually are hills here, a rarity, as well as thousands of lakes formed by the movements of glaciers. We were treated to a display of children’s handicrafts, including hand lace-making, and a musical and poetry recital.

Next was a local museum where a house was set up as it would have been in the nineteenth century, then to a building restoration centre, accessed over a rocking pontoon bridge. Traditional houses are log construction, many covered by wooden planks, gingerbread carving and painted. People were able to take their homes with them if they moved, disassembling and reassembling the parts. A huge two-storey house was undergoing restoration on-site. Once the work is done, it will be disassembled and placed back on its original site.

Some backyards in Kirillov

The house being rebuilt on-site

Kirillov is named after St Cyril who established the monastery when he came looking for a bit of solitude away from Moscow. He didn’t come far enough, as other monks joined him and they developed the monastery over several hundred years from the 14^th century. In the 17^th century, Peter the Great paid for huge fortifications as he was worried about invasion. The new walls never had to repel attackers, though an earlier siege in the 16^th century on their old walls was unsuccessful. I guess the monks were pretty tough.