Kashin — the City of the Russian Heart

“Autumn is a beau­ti­ful woman … In some ways, an aris­to­crat.

Like an actress who gave her all with­out a trace.

Provin­cial scene, cry­ing and yearn­ing.

It is not known what…”

This week­end gave me a lot of pos­i­tive emo­tions. I, like Alexan­der Sergee­vich Pushkin, love the autumn sea­son, but, unfor­tu­nate­ly, in Moscow there is no way to admire it, because you are in some kind of crazy rhythm in which the sea­sons fly by. So we poi­soned our­selves on the week­end to admire the autumn in the Tver region. The day was sun­ny and warm, illu­mi­nat­ing the lux­u­ri­ous forests, dressed in smart clothes.

And so we arrived in the city — the resort of Kashin.

Here, a health resort with min­er­al waters was opened in 1884. And in 1892 Emper­or Alexan­der III issued a decree on the pro­tec­tion of Kashin springs. At the moment, there is a sana­to­ri­um where you can heal. There is also a pump room with min­er­al water, from which those who wish can drink the famous water. The attrac­tion is a very beau­ti­ful foun­tain — a sculp­ture of a bronze cupid sit­ting on an ampho­ra, from which min­er­al water flows.

The city itself was first men­tioned in 1238 in the annals. The name of the city was giv­en by the riv­er Kashin­ka, a trib­u­tary of the Vol­ga. The amaz­ing loca­tion of the city is giv­en by the riv­er, bend­ing around the whole city, form­ing a sil­hou­ette of the heart, which is why it is called the city of the Russ­ian heart.

The cen­ter of Kashin is a hill sur­round­ed by a riv­er, once there was a fortress on it. The remains of huge ram­parts can be seen in the city park. And also Sovi­et chil­dren’s enter­tain­ments were pre­served there. Cute fig­urines from fairy tales are very touch­ing and sin­cere.

Of the build­ings on the ter­ri­to­ry of the fortress, only the rebuilt Res­ur­rec­tion Cathe­dral remained. It ris­es like a crown over the city, and around it, beyond the riv­er, mag­nif­i­cent church­es and monas­ter­ies spread out like a neck­lace.

A won­der­ful walk around the city, you see the pearls of archi­tec­ture, you try to get to them, and the Kashin­ka Riv­er puts up obsta­cles and you are again in search of anoth­er bridge. Like in Venice.

Beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture, but, unfor­tu­nate­ly, mer­ci­less­ly destroyed.

The city hon­ors its Saint Anna of Kashin­skaya. A mon­u­ment was erect­ed to her near the Res­ur­rec­tion Cathe­dral on Cathe­dral Square. She was the wife of Prince Yaroslavich of Tver. But soon the hus­band and son died in the Horde. The leg­end says that the heal­ing water is Anna’s tears, wept in the dif­fi­cult times of the Tatar-Mon­gol yoke.

I real­ly liked Kashin, it seems that it froze in the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry and is slow­ly decay­ing. We had a cozy room in the only hotel in this city. Beau­ti­ful view from the win­dow opened on the main sights. And the night trans­formed the city, the moon rose into a dark sky dot­ted with stars. Here I invol­un­tar­i­ly recalled Gogol’s sto­ry “On a farm near Dikan­ka.” In a warm hotel, I stood at the win­dow and looked at this heav­en­ly grandeur and the most beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture, it is amaz­ing how nat­ur­al rich­es merge with human art.

The warmest mem­o­ries of autumn Kashin warm me in gloomy autumn days.

On the way back, we decid­ed to stop by Kalyazin, the main attrac­tion of which is the flood­ed bell tow­er. Dur­ing the con­struc­tion of the reser­voir in 1940, it was decid­ed to flood the entire old part of the city. And now it is Kalyaz­in’s call­ing card.

I am attract­ed to those places where I once vis­it­ed, and when you come back to the same place, you are seized by a pleas­ant thrill of mem­o­ries. I expe­ri­enced the same now in Kalyazin …