Ples. City on the Volga

On the first day of autumn, I ended up in a beautiful city on the Volga. This is the city of Ples.

The city of Ples is a very famous place on the Volga. One of the main reasons for this was the natural beauty of these places. Here the beautiful Volga flows and hills rise around.

On these hills the city is located. On one of the hills in is a beautiful wooden church. It was the view of this church that once influenced the fact that the famous Russian painter Isak Levitan came to this city.

I read a book which contained letters from friends of Levitan who were traveling with him on a ship along the Volga. All of them were artists and were looking for nature for landscapes. They sailed along the Oka and Volga almost from Ryazan.

For a very long time they kept an eye on the beautiful shores near Nizhny Novgorod, then in Gorodets, then in Kineshma ...

But the most spectacular view for travelers turned out to be in Ples. That wooden church turned out to be so attractive to Levitan that he decided to go ashore in this place.

And we arrived in Ples closer at 12 o’clock in the afternoon. It was cloudy. But even in cloudy weather it was nice to be in this old Russian city.
While we were looking around the city, the weather began to improve. And after a few hours the sky brightened and became azure.

And we just came to that church, or rather, to the place where that church used to be. Today, there is also a wooden church on this place, but this is another building built on the site of an old burned church.

The appearance of that old church influenced the artist Levitan, and afterwards, based on the sketches made in Ples, he painted the painting “Above Eternal Peace”. This work is in the State Tretyakov Gallery and makes a strong impression on the viewer.

By the way, while we were in Ples, it turned out that another famous painting by Levitan, which he painted in Ples, was brought to the local museum. This picture is called "On the Volga". Early morning, autumn, calm, forest, lit by the morning sun, haze above the water. Very stingy in color and very simple in composition, the picture evokes a touching feeling of calm and conciliation.

In Ples, the main streets are built up with stone merchant houses of the 18-19th century. Many houses have been restored or rebuilt from old photographs. The chief architect of the city is trying to preserve the image of the old Russian city and turn it into a museum city. In addition, there are a lot of wooden houses that often look more interesting than stone ones. This place gives a sense of that Russia, which was 100 years ago.

A short trip to Ples is a pleasant opportunity to spend a day off.