One evening I was surfing on Pikabu (the equivalent of Reddit), and I came across a post with a photo, which really interested me. The author of the post was sharing his experiences of looking for a job and going for an interview, in his story was something like this (in short paraphrase): "I walked for a long time and then drove and then sailed and walked again, I travelled by steamer, locomotive and even ferry and ended up on a country road near an ancient red-brick castle. It was in this house that my employer was waiting for me."
Both the road and the red-brick house were present in the picture. I would not say that this house could be confused with a Gothic castle. The building is rather a typical representative of the so-called "brick style" popular in the 19th century. I had not expected to see such a building on the northern edge of the city, in an area that had been developed in the late 20th century with typical panel-built houses. I immediately did an Internet search, and learned about the existence of Rzhevskaya Sloboda, a complex of buildings erected in the early to mid-19th century for the employees of a gunpowder factory and an artillery range.
I researched ways to get to the area by different modes of transport, and found that there are even a few of them. One of them really includes travel by steam locomotive... that is by electric train, of course:) But there's a simpler and more convenient way; you can take a tram from a metro station.
I invited my friend to keep me company on this trip. The walk was to take place on the very edge of the town, near a forest park, which was gradually turning into a forest. The maps didn't give us any exact route, so I decided that the two of us would find it easier to navigate and have more fun looking for old houses.
This is what the street looked like where we started our walk. On the right is a forest park and on the left are just trees. The street looked more like a country road than a city street.
Soon we found the first object of urban infrastructure: a car-recycling centre. The furry security guard behaved in a friendly manner.
The road turns off into a field of beautiful flowers. The lupines are poisonous, but very pretty looking. After a few minutes we came to some residential houses.
The bulk of buildings in this street were of no interest to researchers: low-rise panel houses, workshops, hangars and warehouses... but some time later interesting objects appeared. The first old brick house we saw was dilapidated and surrounded by dense thickets. But gradually old buildings became more common.
We crossed a bridge over a small stream. According to the memories of the old residents, this brook used to be a full-flowing river suitable for bathing and fishing. They may be right, but now it is just a small stream. We lingered on the bridge to take pictures of each other against the backdrop of the scenery.
Beyond the bridge, the buildings of the old village "Rzhevskaya Sloboda", for which we came to the area, finally began. A "sloboda" is a village whose inhabitants are not engaged in agriculture, but work in a factory.
The brick dwellings were built to the same design and look like twin buildings, they differ from each other only in minor details. The other buildings were probably not intended for housing: they may have been built to house offices or various service needs.
We walked down a street lined only with the old houses of Rzhevskaya Sloboda. One cannot say that the street has not changed its image since the XIX century: fences, greenhouses and cars look too modern. But the overall impression of the street is exactly the same, as if you suddenly get to the past.
Gradually we began to approach the area of modern urban development. The street became wider, pavements appeared, and soon we crossed the invisible border of the old settlement and returned to the modern city to catch the tram again and return home to the twenty-first century.
| ā | ā |
|---|---|
| Smartphone | Google Pixel 3a |
| Location | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by 