Nerekhta - the city of benedictions
Blue sky and an angel, soaring in the sky. Beautiful clear sky, and under it, sunk in the nature, apparently, in a continuous prayer, - a monastery. Bells, melodically calling the soul up, to touch God. Here, behind the walls of Trinity Monastery of Saint Pakhomiy, a secret life is hidden, a spiritually strained life, that passes on in deep prayers, fasts, work. There is a well with spring water under the hill. This water is said to be healing. Talking to a young nun, feels like being blissed. Sinking in the crystal clear eyes, pure and blue, like the sky, you could forget for a moment all the fuss of everyday life. Unearthly felicity is somewhere close, and if you taste it once, every earthly thing will appear savourless.
For all people, tired of wild life of the capitals and big cities, to plunge into the old testament-like silence of this provincial town is a kind of therapy, a soul spa.
Nerekhta, in Kostroma region, Russia, is a provincial Russian town that has preserved ancient traits. It is the town of seven churches, and it is attractive, most of all, because of its architecture. A prayer, incarnated in the stone - such is the way to describe the architectural, church Nerekhta. To the admirers of the beauty of cathedrals it will tell its own story - the story of the search of God by engraving beauty and harmony in the stone. It will also tell the story of the saint people who by their presence blessed this small county town. Saints - Barbara, Pakhomiy and Nikola - who worked theirs wonders here, made this town benedicted forever.
You can hardly taste the same kind of bread anywhere in Russia and in the whole world as you can in Nerekhta. Soft and fragrant, like Lord's Supper, it not only appeases hunger, it nourishes your soul.
The measured provincial life has bred its talents. It is difficult to call ordinary the local writer Elizabeth Diakonov. Her original, not from this world worldview, suggested by the landscapes of the region, her refusal from the philistine traditions of her family, her life, full of spiritual aspiration and her early death keep biographers interested. Tragic death in Swiss mountains - maybe an accident, maybe a suicide. The dairies of the writer, embedded with solitude, are the witnesses of her near and dear misunderstanding her. Probably, our world has not learned to keep these people safe so far. The irrecoverable loss is being reminded by the black, like in a mourning gown, old, worn-out peasant's house next to the Museum of Diakonov. Some people may be surprised by the strange destiny of this woman, others may feel compassion.
What are the places to visit in Nerekhta? Trinity Monastery of Saint Pakhomiy, the church of the miraculous icon of Mather of God of Vladimir, the Church of the Cross, The Museum of Elizabeth Diakonov, Nikola's Church, Barbara's Church, Trade Rows, The Museum of the Local History.
