In the house with a carved fence ✨

I had dreamed of visiting Vologda since I was 18, when I first heard the song of the same name by the band "Pesnyary" (it was at a cleanup event in Alexander Park). And now, 8 years later, I sang that song at a local karaoke bar (though the karaoke itself horrified us, but let's skip that 🙈), walked around Kremlin Square, and saw the carved fence in all its glory.

Interesting facts:
✔️Vologda is a literary city. Here was born and spent the last years of his life the renowned 18th-century writer K. N. Batyushkov; the famous 20th-century poet N. Rubtsov, whose work is largely comparable to the poems of S. Yesenin, lived here (with interruptions) for several years; the leader of the "village prose" movement V. I. Belov lived and worked here; and the poet A. Ya. Yashin created his works.
✔️Vologda is a religious center. Here is the largest and oldest monastery of the Russian North — the Spaso-Prilutsky Dimitriev Monastery, founded in 1371 by the disciple of Sergius of Radonezh, Saint Demetrius of Priluki. It is believed that Demetrius of Priluki possessed incredible beauty during his lifetime and hid his face so as not to tempt others.
✔️Vologda is a potential capital of Russia. Tsar Ivan the Terrible stayed here during the oprichnina period and in 1565 began the large-scale construction of the Vologda Kremlin. It was an architectural ensemble intended to serve as the tsar's residence and become the center of governance of the Russian state.

I note that Vologda is still a center of attraction for interesting personalities. And I'm not just talking about myself 😃 At a local restaurant, we met the great-great-granddaughter of L. N. Tolstoy, journalist and director Fekla Tolstaya.

Such an enlightening and multifaceted January trip it was)