Sergiev Posad (Russian: Сергиев Посад) is a city in North Moscow Oblast, which is famous for its Troitse-Sergiev Monastery, the spiritual home of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is often visited as a part of the Golden Ring around Moscow.
Understand
Get in
Trains leave every 30 minutes between Sergiev Posad and Moscow's Yaroslavsky train station. The station is located at Komsomolskaya metro station (red line). A ticket to Sergiev Posad costs 164 руб (1.5 h, prices in 2017) and 210-260 руб on express (5-6 times a day, 1 h). It is an easy day trip from Moscow.
Bus 388 is available at VDNKh (VVTs) for 200 (160 with "Strelka", an universal travelcard) rubles every 15 minutes. However, be aware of jams about from MKAD to Pushkino almost always in rather extended rush hours.
To get to the town by car take Yaroslavskoe highvay from Rizhski Vokzal (Rizhski train station) or VVTs (VDNKh) - it takes approximately 2 hours to get to Posad: distance is 70 km (40 miles), however see above about jams. Construction of new intersection between Korolyov and Mytishchi simplified things with the jam a little, but parts of M8 highway before and after intersection are still crowded because of bottlenecks closer to MKAD and in Klyaz'ma village.
Get around
The main tourist spot is the monastery. It can be seen from station and can be reached by foot in about 10 minutes.
See
The reason why one should see the city is the world heritage listed combination of fortress and monastery. The 1 Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is one of the most beautiful monasteries in Russia, and one of the principal spiritual centers of the Russian Orthodox Church; its main seminary is housed in the buildings of this complex. There are several churches to see, a holy source and in general the whole complex with its massive walls and gates is very picturesque. There are no admission price to pay except for the museum, which shows old religious objects and woven pictures of saints. At the weekend the monastery can get very crowded, as it hosts some very important icons (at least copies of them). In return it can be very interesting to observe the believers kissing the icons and praying for hours.
In the monastery's grounds are buried controversial tsar Boris Godunov, who reigned 1598-1605 and is the theme and title of Pushkin's play and Mussorgsky's opera, and some of his family members.
Do
Buy
In the shops "House of Books" and "Read the city"
Eat
- 1 Rusky Dvorik (Русский дворик, Russian courtier) (in front of the entry of the monastery). quite good, but also expensive taking into consideration the general price level of Russian province.
Inside the monastery (entering through the main gate and going to the left) there is a really good bakery-pastry, with local products that seem to be very popular among Russian visitors.
There is also a McDonald's restaurant on the modern part of the town.
Drink
Sleep
Go next
- Moscow — about 2 h by train or 2-3 by bus 388, which arrives to VVTs (VDNKh)for around 145 руб, as of 12 June 2011.
- Pushkino — 1 h by train or bus (halfway to Moscow)
- Mytishchi and Korolyov — 1.5 h (between Pushkino and Moscow)
- Alexandrov is further 50 min by elektrichka and 40 min by express trains (about 5 a day).
- Torbeevo Lake - a picturesque recreation place on crossing M8 with A108 (second betonka) not far from the town. Not much in sense of infrastructure there, and there may be a lot of people in a good day, including those passing by the highway, but the views may be nice. Took local buses in direction to Bereznyaki (№№ 28,81,120, 15 minutes walk from Bereznyaki, or if you're lucky - even closer from the next stop).
- Pereslavl Zalessky can be reached by bus (about 10 a day, some of them running rather late at night. Most of them are bound further to Yaroslavl, Kostroma or Rybinsk or by hitchhike - for hitchhike start either with local buses №26 to Krasnozavodsk up to the turn from the highway, every 10-15 min, or to Torbeevo lake, than to M8, or by train to Buzhaninovo station.
- A pearl in the "Savelovskii ends of the earth", Kalyazin is also reachable by bus in 2.5 h, 4 times a day, you can also try buses going to Uglich, also 3-4 a day, but you'll have to walk about 3 km, as buses pass town. Also easily hitchhikable, just get out of town or in the direction of Remmash (bus 42 or 49 to the Iudino stop).