Wednesday Walk around the "mysterious ancient tower"

I had been meaning to visit this small village ever since I first saw the photo of the mysterious buildings. I already knew that the word "mysterious" should have been put in quotation marks in the description of these buildings, but the appearance of these buildings was so romantic that knowing exactly what they were for did not diminish the desire to see everything with my own eyes.

As for the history of these buildings, there is some incomprehensible paradox. All these buildings were erected in the early XX century with purely utilitarian purposes. In historical archives there were preserved blueprints, construction estimates and other documents - but for some reason for a long time historians did not seek to clarify the history of this place. Therefore, the old buildings grew legends at a truly breathtaking rate.

The story behind these buildings is actually quite simple. The tallest building that looks like an ancient tower is really a tower, but not a fortress tower, but a water tower. At the beginning of the XX century the question of water supply of this settlement with clean drinking water became acute, and a water line was built from the nearby springs.

The silhouette of the tower has not changed too much, except that the dome that crowned the structure is missing. Now the first floor of this building is occupied by a chain grocery store, which painted the walls of the first floor and thus broke the visual integrity of the ensemble. However, the combination of the store's logo and elements of the tower's architectural design looks unusual and original in its own way.

The yellow building to the right of the tower was rebuilt quite extensively, and only the architectural elements in Old Russian style allow us to relate this structure to the neighboring buildings and understand that they formed a single architectural ensemble.

The best preserved are the gate and the brick building of the former boiler house. The building of the former boiler house now houses a house of culture. The landscape on the opposite side of the street is an ordinary rural landscape. There are towers there too, but their outlines are recognizable and they look little like ancient castles.

I walked around the buildings to look at them from the opposite side - and found a very pleasant square with comfortable benches. This was very welcome - especially the fact that the benches were hidden under a roof. The morning was sunny, but the wind was carrying a heavy rain cloud from the west.

After the rain, I walked around the village some more. This village is located close to the border of the city, and housing in such places is very much in demand now. Especially if there are convenient access roads and infrastructure nearby. Therefore, there are few old houses left in the village, and new apartment buildings have appeared instead. But I did find one old hut - it is quite old, perhaps as old as a water tower.

If you go right, you lose your horse, if you go left, you lose yourself, if you go straight, you fall into a fairy tale:

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay and for the #MakeMeSmile challenge by @elizacheng.