Beautiful Sunday: the old Sergievo railway station and two churches

Just a few years ago Sergievo was a backwater suburb. But the city was being built, occupied new territories, and now the former backwater with wooden houses and dachas is rapidly becoming a new urban neighbourhood. I arrived in Sergievo on a city bus. I travelled along a new street, recently mapped out, past newly built high-rise buildings. The bus terminus is near the suburban railway station, and on the other side of the railway tracks there is still a bit of old Sergievo.

There are several historic buildings in Sergievo, and I was going to tour them all during my short walk. The main architectural landmark of this village is the railway station building. The station building was built in 1847, designed by architect Nikolai Benois. The station was built for pilgrims travelling to the nearby monastery. The style of the building echoes the architecture of the monastery.

A horse-rail line was built between the station and the monastery for the convenience of travellers, but no artefacts from this line have survived. Fortunately, the station building survived, although its condition cannot be considered satisfactory. I walked around the station building, scrutinising the architectural details.

As the station building is closed and mothballed, a small pavilion on the opposite platform has been set up to sell tickets. You can buy a train ticket at the ticket office from the cashier or from a vending machine located nearby. Before continuing my walk I bought a train ticket, it's a quicker way to get to the city centre than the bus.

Near the station is the Orthodox Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow. This church was built in 1902-1905, it is a wooden building on a stone foundation. Around the church there is a cosy garden with benches where you can relax. I did not immediately find an angle from which I could photograph the church building so that the view would not be blocked by trees.

I knew that there were two churches in Sergievo. Besides the small wooden church near the station, there is another church in the village. I was going to walk to this church, but on the way to see the usual residential development. The autumn colours made the scenery quite picturesque, but I didn't see many interesting buildings.

I noticed an old wooden house in an apple orchard and a building of complex architecture behind a high fence. Compared to the typical modern cottages, they seemed to be masterpieces of architecture - though of course they were not. Nevertheless, one of the buildings stood out very much from the background. It is an old wooden cottage with complex glazing of windows, which is more than 100 years old.

After a walk through the streets of the village, I came to the building of the almshouse of the Charitable Society of Faith and Charity with the church of St Andrew of Crete. This building was built in 1901-1903. During the Soviet period of history this building was a club, but in modern times the building returned its historical purpose. Now it houses a church and a boarding house for the elderly.

The whole walk took me a little over an hour, all of old Sergievo is a few rather short streets. I had to go back to the station to catch the next suburban train. At the end of the walk I took some more pictures of the station building.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is my entry for the #BeautifulSunday challenge by @ace108 and the #SublimeSunday challenge by @c0ff33a.