Cities

Of the five monasteries on northern Beloe Ozero (White Lake), the most prosperous is Kirillo-Belozersky, there is a museum and some flow of tourists, even foreign ones. Ferapontov is famous for it’s frescoes of Dionysius, and also tourists, but there is only one inhabitant: Father Joasaph. In Goritsy, where Ivan the Terrible exiled his wives — devastation and several nuns. Kirillo-Novoezersky Monastery on the Fire island is inaccessible: there is a prison for life prisoners, a notorious place in the criminal world. Nilo-Sorsky monastery until recent years hosted insane people. There is a rhyme in this, because both monks and madmen are in some way life prisoners. There are still beds and bedside tables in the cells. Three monks converge, ring one bell (more like a rynda) — and serve in the temple, where there used to be a cinema for psychos. Antique Soviet movie cameras still stand. Due to hospital reconstructions of the temple, the altar is forced to be oriented to the south and the living sky is visible in the windows above the plywood iconostasis. This is the best iconostasis I've ever seen. That is how legendary Northern Thebaid, completely emptying with the end of navigation, survives these days.