Pyatnitsky Poogost–2023

It has already become a tradition to visit one magical place every five years or so – Pyatnitsky Poogost. I was here in 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019 and now in 2023 I found myself here again more spontaneously than according to plan.

This place is not far from the village of Koshovo, which is located in the Velikoustyugsky district of the Vologda region. The road here is not easy: even in hot weather there is mud here in places, and if the mud dries up, then even a four-wheel drive car can't afford a track half a meter deep.

Well, a walking path on a hot day will present other "pleasures" in the form of an attack by a swarm of horseflies mixed with mosquitoes, that professional sprays will not help even.

It is necessary to come here in autumn or early spring. You can protect yourself from a tick, but there are no elk fleas here.

In general, everything is even more overgrown here! The church is not visible at all, and the chapel will soon disappear into the thickets.

Fortunately, pilgrims and local parishioners take care of the trails to the temple and to the spring.

There were once villages here, but only a stone church remains.

Young birches grow tightly to each other. I wonder how they will share a place under the sky when they become adults?

The holy spring had some updates since my last visit.

The water from the spring now flows not through wooden gutters, but through metal ones.

The house with the font is askew.

But one thing has not changed over the years: the magic of the place and the fulfillment of desires.

Now I know how to make them right: you need to pray in the temple, write on a wish sheet and leave them in the chapel, then wash with water from the holy spring. Contact with water is mandatory!