Makariev - The City of Pensioners

Greetings, friends.
Ten days ago, I told you about the Makaryevsky-Unzhensky monastery. Judging by its name, it can be assumed that it is somehow connected with the words "Makariev" and "Unzha". The first word comes from the name of the monk, and the second word means the name of the river. I've come to the main point - I want to take a short walk around the old Russian town of Makaryev today.
This city is located on the federal highway about 180 km from the regional center of Kostroma, if you drive from Kirov.

The center of the city is the Cathedral of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. All the streets of the city are linked to this cathedral. The streets are located diametrically and radially. This street layout is common in the old Russian cities of the central European part of the country. It always seems very inconvenient to me, especially on streets located radially away from the city center.
The cathedral is currently being restored. I got to know this city in 1989, and at that time, there was a cinema in this building. In the 90s of the last century, the ban on Religion was lifted in Russia, and all worship buildings began to come under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. Since then, the Cathedral has been under restoration. The city's population is slightly more than 10,000 inhabitants, and there are not enough funds for the restoration of the Cathedral.

I hope that I will see all the beauty of this Cathedral inside and out when it becomes functional, but so far I have never even heard its bells ring.

Most of the houses in the city are wooden. In my homeland, they try to build new modern houses from bricks or similar materials, but here even new houses are built from wood.
Every time I visit the city, I walk through its streets, and often my route passes through this house. Looking at it somehow immediately becomes more fun, especially on wet spring or autumn days.
Platbands are a necessary attribute of old Russian wooden houses, in the old days they were made by real craftsmen; this is painstaking work. Currently, few people decorate their homes with such things. I admit, my house does not have such beauty.

Unfortunately, there are many old abandoned houses in the city. There are even two-storey houses. Looking at them, thoughts of the people who used to live in these houses come to my mind. For example, this house is located 200 meters from the first ring street, i.e., almost in the very center of the city. What could have happened that such a house was decaying from old age without tenants in the city center? The main reason is the lack of industry in the city and the lack of jobs. Young people have no incentive to stay in this city. In this city, it's good to live a quiet life in retirement or come to relax in the bosom of nature. This is facilitated by forests and swamps rich in berries and mushrooms, a beautiful river rich in fish that comes here from the Volga.
By the way, in this city you can always buy fresh natural dairy and meat products produced in the villages of this area or imported from the Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, or Vologda regions.

This house is located next door, across the street.
My wife's cousin now lives alone in a similar house. Once upon a time, the city Administration gave her family an apartment. In the 90s, the grandchildren of the owner of the house came from the USA, looked at their historical homeland, and left back. They had no claims to the real estate they had once lost.
These houses were all built back in the 19th century, and during the 1917 Revolution, the owners emigrated from Russia to save their lives.

In the city center, along the first circular street, there are old brick houses. Once they belonged to the leading city officials, rich merchants, and the Church.
These buildings now house shops or municipal organizations. This is a secondary city school; previously, this building belonged to the Church. My wife studied here.

Lenin, standing in the center of the city, next to the Cathedral, points to the monastery I told you about last time.






Friends, do you know what it is? People come here to do laundry.
I thought it was a thing of the past, but during my walk, I met a woman walking to this place with laundry in a basin.
Not all houses in the city have running water, so there are water pumps on the streets.












I also finished my last walk around the monastery at this staircase. Let me finish it in the same place this time.