Solotcha- an urban district within the Soviet administrative district of the city of Ryazan.
Geography
Located 11 kilometers from the left bank of Ryazan at the entrance to Meshchera on the banks of the Oka oxbow. Near the territory of the district, the Solotcha River of the same name flows into the oxbow lake. The area is surrounded on all sides by the Meshchera National Park; The forests located on the territory of the district are protected areas - multi-storey buildings are prohibited here.
Story
Village Solotcha grew up around the men's, founded in 1390 by the Ryazan Grand Duke Oleg Ivanovich - according to legend, at the meeting place of the prince and his wife with two hermits, Vasily and Euphemia. The conversation with the hermits sank deeply into the prince’s soul; Having founded the monastery, he took monastic vows and ruled for the last 12 years as a prince-monk. At the same time, he lived for a long time in the monastery, on the territory of which he was buried in 1402.
In 1939-1959, the village was the administrative center of the Solotchinsky district of the Ryazan region.
By Decree of the Head of Administration of the Ryazan Region No. 128 of March 3, 1994 “On approval of the administrative boundaries of the city of Ryazan and the Solotchinsky District,” the Solotchinsky resort village was included in the Soviet District of the city of Ryazan. By Decree of the Governor of the Ryazan Region No. 799-III dated September 22, 2004, the resort village of Solotcha was excluded from the registration data of the administrative-territorial structure of the Ryazan Region.
Attractions
In Solotch there are many old wooden houses with carved porches and stained glass windows. On one of the streets there is a house that belonged at the end of the 19th century to the famous engraver, academician I. P. Pozhalostin. V.V. Veresaev, K.G. Paustovsky, A.P. Gaidar, A.A. Fadeev, K.M. Simonov, V.S. Grossman, F.I. lived, worked and visited this house at different times Panferov, A. I. Solzhenitsyn, V. T. Shalamov and others.
An outstanding architectural monument in the area is the Church of John the Baptist above the Holy Gate of the Solotchinsky Nativity of the Virgin Mary Monastery, built in 1696-1698 by the supposedly famous Russian architect Ya. G. Bukhvostov.
The Ryazan-Vladimir narrow-gauge railway, glorified by K. G. Paustovsky, passed through the territory of the region. Here was the Solodcha station, which retained its ancient spelling with a “d”.
On the territory of the district there is a specially protected natural area - a natural monument of regional significance “Solotchinskaya Staritsa”.
Photo gallery
Solotchinsky Christmas convent.jpg
Panorama of the Solotchinsky Monastery
Kazan Church in Solotch.jpg
Kazan Church
Solotcha-Pozhalostin.jpg
House of I. P. Pozhalostin
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Excerpt characterizing Solotch
- That’s not the point, my soul.- This is your protegee, [favorite,] your dear princess Drubetskaya, Anna Mikhailovna, whom I would not want to have as a maid, this vile, disgusting woman.
– Ne perdons point de temps. [Let's not waste time.]
- Ax, don't talk! Last winter she infiltrated here and said such nasty things, such nasty things to the Count about all of us, especially Sophie - I cannot repeat it - that the Count became ill and did not want to see us for two weeks. At this time, I know that he wrote this vile, vile paper; but I thought that this paper meant nothing.
– Nous y voila, [That’s the point.] why didn’t you tell me anything before?
– In the mosaic briefcase that he keeps under his pillow. “Now I know,” said the princess without answering. “Yes, if there is a sin behind me, a great sin, then it is hatred of this scoundrel,” the princess almost shouted, completely changed. - And why is she rubbing herself in here? But I will tell her everything, everything. The time will come!
While such conversations took place in the reception room and in the princess's rooms, the carriage with Pierre (who was sent for) and with Anna Mikhailovna (who found it necessary to go with him) drove into the courtyard of Count Bezukhy. When the wheels of the carriage sounded softly on the straw spread under the windows, Anna Mikhailovna, turning to her companion with comforting words, was convinced that he was sleeping in the corner of the carriage, and woke him up. Having woken up, Pierre followed Anna Mikhailovna out of the carriage and then only thought about the meeting with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they drove up not to the front entrance, but to the back entrance. While he was getting off the step, two people in bourgeois clothes hurriedly ran away from the entrance into the shadow of the wall. Pausing, Pierre saw several more similar people in the shadows of the house on both sides. But neither Anna Mikhailovna, nor the footman, nor the coachman, who could not help but see these people, paid no attention to them. Therefore, this is so necessary, Pierre decided to himself and followed Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna walked with hasty steps up the dimly lit narrow stone staircase, calling Pierre, who was lagging behind her, who, although he did not understand why he had to go to the count at all, and even less why he had to go up the back stairs, but , judging by the confidence and haste of Anna Mikhailovna, he decided to himself that this was necessary. Halfway up the stairs, they were almost knocked down by some people with buckets, who, clattering with their boots, ran towards them. These people pressed against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna through, and did not show the slightest surprise at the sight of them.
– Are there half princesses here? – Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them...
“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if now everything was possible, “the door is on the left, mother.”
“Maybe the count didn’t call me,” Pierre said as he walked out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.”
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
- Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as in the morning with her son, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer no less than you, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? - asked Pierre, looking affectionately through his glasses at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu"on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c"est votre pere... peut etre a l"agonie. - She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n"oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wronged against you. Remember that this is your father... Maybe in agony. I immediately loved you like a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]
Pierre did not understand anything; again it seemed to him even more strongly that all this should be so, and he obediently followed Anna Mikhailovna, who was already opening the door.
The door opened into the front and back. An old servant of the princesses sat in the corner and knitted a stocking. Pierre had never been to this half, did not even imagine the existence of such chambers. Anna Mikhailovna asked the girl who was ahead of them, with a decanter on a tray (calling her sweet and darling) about the health of the princesses and dragged Pierre further along the stone corridor. From the corridor, the first door to the left led to the princesses' living rooms. The maid, with the decanter, in a hurry (as everything was done in a hurry at that moment in this house) did not close the door, and Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna, passing by, involuntarily looked into the room where the eldest princess and Prince Vasily. Seeing those passing by, Prince Vasily made an impatient movement and leaned back; The princess jumped up and with a desperate gesture slammed the door with all her might, closing it.
This gesture was so unlike the princess’s usual calmness, the fear expressed on Prince Vasily’s face was so uncharacteristic of his importance that Pierre stopped, questioningly, through his glasses, looked at his leader.
Anna Mikhailovna did not express surprise, she only smiled slightly and sighed, as if showing that she had expected all this.
“Soyez homme, mon ami, c"est moi qui veillerai a vos interets, [Be a man, my friend, I will look after your interests.] - she said in response to his gaze and walked even faster down the corridor.
The evergreen essence of the Solotchinsky forest lures crowds of locals in order to curb the need for leisure. Traditional summer barbecues, winter skiing in Monastyrsky Bor, sledding from Bald Mountain, spring and autumn contemplation of unobtrusive living creatures - for Ryazan residents they are almost within walking distance, if you think in terms of personal vehicles. Because here they are - the gate to Meshchera, only twenty kilometers from Ryazan. The resort theme is relevant for both capital and provincial cities. Peredelkino in the Moscow region, the village of Chertovitskoye near Voronezh, Krivets near Lipetsk, as well as Solotcha near the residents of Ryazan - perhaps these are places that for many evoke an irresistible desire to own a house here at any cost, and for others - envy that someone already has a house like this. Geographically, Solotcha is a Ryazan district, although administratively the resort village is an external part of Ryazan and is formally included in its Sovetsky district.
Here, under the canopy of gigantic pines or among fragrant hayfields, you can look for the way to your personal nirvana. This is a historical place in all available senses of the word, where Grand Duke Oleg Ryazansky found his rest within the walls of the Solotchinsky Monastery. Here, in Central Russia, in the land of long-destroyed forests, for unknown reasons, an untouched island of nature has survived, where the pine trees are more than two hundred years old.
Narrow gauge railway
Not so long ago, Ryazan and Solotcha were connected by a railway with closely spaced rails. The narrow-gauge railway was the only means of reliable delivery of tourists and free-walkers to the Meshchera Lowland. The writer Konstantin Paustovsky called the narrow-gauge railway in the Meshchera forests the slowest railway in the Soviet Union. “The Train of Stephenson's Time” reminded him, when he first met him, of a samovar that “whistled in a child’s falsetto.” The locomotive, as it turned out, already had an offensive nickname - “gelding”. The little train was also called the “cuckoo”.
They began construction of the railway in 1892 - the country demanded timber and lumber. The idea of straightening the Pra riverbed for timber rafting remained on paper. Only the railway could provide a reliable supply of the required volumes of wood. It was laid from the Oka coast to the Penkino cordon on the outskirts of Solotcha. Within a year they managed it and began to operate it. Four years later, the Moscow Association of Access Roads acquired permission to extend the railways from Solotcha through Spas-Klepiki to Tuma and allow the transport of not only timber, but also people. Temporary traffic to Klepikov was opened in December 1897, and on October 31, 1899, trains from Ryazan to Tuma were officially launched. While the Tuma part was being built, they also took care of extending the tracks - so, by the beginning of the 20th century, it became possible to leave Ryazan for Vladimir. A little later, the Vladimir part was converted into a wide one, but the narrow one worked stably for the benefit of transporting wood. Moving slowly, the locomotives hauled timber, peat and cotton wool.
1972 was the first blow for the Ryazan narrow-gauge railway - a road bridge was built across the Oka. A decade was enough to completely abandon the leisurely train, exchanging the piece of iron for asphalt. The remains of the rails were dismantled back in the 1990s for metal; only a sandy embankment remained, which stretches to the right of the asphalt in the section from Davydovo to Solotcha. And yet, a small fragment of the Meshchera highway survived: when laying a road to bypass Solotchi, ten meters of iron sheet were rolled into asphalt. Over time, the wheels of the cars have worn down the stone and every motorist, choosing a right turn at the Solotchinsky intersection, slows down, and then hears a characteristic “boom-boom” under the wheels.
Solodcha
Another modern thing that we have received for reflection and searching for truths is the very origin of the name of the village. We know him as Solotcha. Only both the railway station and the settlement are called Solodcha on the maps of Mende compiled in the mid-19th century. Either the cartographers overlooked it, or for the sake of ease of pronunciation, the voiced one was replaced by a voiceless and completely unpronounceable one. They also tried to unravel the mystery through salt: supposedly historical documents mention salt springs in the area. But geologists have proven that there are no salts in the local sands. So toponymic research is just guesswork.
From older villagers I heard a legend from the times of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. As if Batu, having defeated Ryazan and moving up the Oka, noticed a blue forest in the distance. The Horde, ready for battle, sent their horses there: “The Tatar horses ran for a long time until they were stopped by the banks of an unfamiliar river. An immense expanse stretched all around, and beyond the river rose a steep, steep bank, overgrown with copper-trunked pine trees. And this forest was so beautiful in its winter attire that even the Tatars could not restrain themselves from involuntarily bursting out screams of delight. The centurion, who led the detachment, expressing the general opinion, exclaimed: “Oh, solodcha!”, which in Tatar supposedly meant a wonderful, beautiful place.”
Solotchinsky Monastery
Be that as it may, the high steep bank, from where the Oka floodplain is clearly visible, prompted the founding of a fortress. This fortress became the Solotchinsky Monastery, built at the end of the 14th century. The monastery was founded by the Ryazan prince Oleg Ivanovich. It is not known exactly, of course, but according to legend, Oleg and his wife Euphrosyne once found themselves at the Solotchi River. They talked on the other side with two hermits Vasily and Efimy, who inspired the prince with the idea of a monastery. Oleg founded it in 1390, perhaps planning it as a country residence. During that period, after the Battle of Kulikovo, relations between Ryazan and Moscow sharply worsened. Probably, Prince Oleg sought to hide behind the monastery walls from possible retribution from the Moscow princes, who considered him a traitor for his non-participation in the battle on the Kulikovo Field. There is a legend that a certain underground passage led from the monastery to the Palace of Prince Oleg in the Kremlin of Pereyaslavl-Ryazan. Perhaps the monastery more than once rescued the prince, who accepted the schema under the name Iokima, and ruled the Ryazan region in the monastic rank for another 12 years. Probably, having not survived the imprisonment of his son Rodoslav by the Lithuanians at the beginning of 1402, on July 5 of that year, a funeral service was held in the Solotchinsky Monastery for the schema-monk Jokim - in the world of the Grand Duke Oleg Ivanovich of Ryazan. His wife did not survive him much either. The prince and princess were buried in the Church of the Intercession, which stood at the very slope.
In subsequent years, the monastery was involved in some important historical events. In 1552, the troops of Ivan the Terrible were in a hurry to take Kazan: the monastery army also did not stand aside and took part in the campaign. In memory of that event, the tented Alekseevskaya Church was built in Solotch. The monastery experienced a complete restructuring of its economy under Archimandrite Ignatius. He became abbot in 1688: through his efforts, the appearance of the Solotchinsky monastery was created as we see it today. Then the Church of the Holy Spirit and the refectory were erected. In 1768, under Empress Catherine II, a natural disaster occurred in Solotch. The unstable slope stretching from the Solotchinsky Monastery to Bald Mountain, apparently, after a snowy winter and high floods, set off. A powerful landslide brought down the wall of the monastery and carried the Intercession Church into the abyss, where the relics of probably the most far-sighted and successful of the Ryazan rulers of the ancient era rested. It is known that while clearing out the rubble, the people of Ryazan found the relics of Prince Oleg and his wife and carefully moved them to a new place. Today they rest in the cathedral church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Solotchinsk monastery.
Before the October Revolution of 1917, a special relic was kept in the Solotchinsky Monastery - the chain mail of Oleg Ryazansky. It is woven from iron rings and weighs almost half a pound. Oleg wore this armor for 12 years under his clothes instead of chains. After the death of the prince, the armor began to serve other people - believers flocked to the relics. Putting the chain mail on themselves, the sick asked for help from epilepsy, and drunkards - from drunkenness. Nowadays the chain mail is in the Ryazan Kremlin.
The monastery itself was closed after the revolution, and soon a colony for juvenile delinquents was located within its walls, a warehouse was located in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and a club with a cinema hall was located in the Church of the Holy Spirit. And only in 1993 the Solotchinsky monastery was revived, but as a women’s monastery. And Lenin Square in the center of Solotchi was renamed Monastyrskaya. The monastery is always full of parishioners and tourists. The patronal holiday - the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - is celebrated on September 21. Here you can always buy monastery bread and honey, and go down to the base of the Oka slope and move a kilometer to the south, taking on the left hand from the spreading ancient willow, and collect spring water from a source at the groundwater discharge site on the banks of the Staritsa. Continuing the path to the south along the base of the slope, after another half a kilometer the foot of Bald Mountain will appear.
Bald Mountain
The steep slope of Bald Mountain is a mute witness to the disturbance of the ancient slope of the Oka valley, the landslide of which destroyed the ancient temple. According to geologists, the sand that makes up the loose body of Bald Mountain was once brought by a glacier, and then repeatedly washed and redeposited by Praoka streams. The water washed away particles of dust and clay and carried them downstream, leaving heavier sand in place. And where today, on a canopy along the cliff of Bald Mountain, Ryazan residents grill kebabs, there once was the bottom of the harbinger of the modern Oka. That was more than 100 thousand years ago. And then the river, gnawing into its sediments, eroding the sands, went down, creating the steep sides of the trough of its valley. The steep left side is the very place over which the St. John the Theologian Monastery rises in Poshchupovo, the steep right side is Bald Mountain. And her bald spot was caused by poor sand, on which nothing but pine grows, and also by the love of Ryazan residents for winter holidays. Over the years, sleds and sleds have done their job, creating a sandy bald patch.
The slope is steep and currently continues to bare its teeth. The steep coast maintains its dangerous degree of steepness due to the flow of water and the action of the wind. It is retreating parallel to itself at a rate of up to two meters per century, as evidenced by the bare roots of centuries-old pines hanging over the edge of the steep slope. Collapses sometimes take unexpected turns. In April 2012, melt water washed out a deep ravine on the right side of Bald Mountain for two weeks. By now, its sheer slopes had barely risen. Today, for many Ryazan residents, Bald Mountain near Solotcha is the largest natural hill on Ryazan soil.
Kazan Church
To the north of the monastery, almost on the border of Solotcha and Zaborye, there is a sky-blue temple. In the park near the temple there is a figure of St. Nicholas. Under the feet of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra is a globe of inordinately small size. At this place, at one time, the wife of Oleg Ryazansky founded the Conception Convent, which served for no more than two hundred years. The reason for the closure was the same slope of the Oka, washed away by the river. The nuns were transferred to Agrafenina Pustyn (now Agro-Pustyn), and the Conception Church remained on the site of the monastery, which subsequently fell into disrepair. In its place, in 1843, a stone church was built in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. During Soviet times, a wooden extension to the abandoned church was the local secondary school No. 32, which moved to a new standard building in 1982. In the temple there was a warehouse and a diesel engine, which heated the school. The church was restored at the beginning of the two thousandth.
Now it is closely adjacent to an overgrown cemetery, on the site of which thirty years ago there was a full-fledged schoolyard, where lines were held, and local children played lapta and gorodki.
Monastery Forest
The resort village lies on the outskirts of a sandy plateau, which, with a twenty-meter ledge, abruptly drops to the water meadows of the Oka River. Solotcha, like a horseshoe, covers the monastery pine forest, perhaps the oldest forest on Ryazan soil. The local pines celebrated their bicentennial anniversary in 2011-2012 - they grew from seeds that sprouted in the year of the Battle of Borodino. It is noteworthy that in the Ryazan forests individual trees may be older, but there is a whole forest of two-hundred-year-old giants - this can only be found in Solotch. Perhaps the monastery forest is much older, and it was never completely cut down, which means that it has existed not for two hundred, but maybe for five hundred or even a thousand years. Perhaps individual trunks were cut down for construction, but the entire forest as an ecosystem was never completely destroyed. Monastyrsky Bor today is the first candidate on the list of expanding the nature protection zone in the Ryazan region.
By the way, as for the Oka Biosphere Reserve, let us recall that it was created in 1935 to protect the muskrat that lives on the Pre and in its floodplain oxbow lakes. In the pre-war years, according to eyewitnesses, the entire area of the reserve from the hills near Brykina Bor to the north was a vast clearing, so that one could see the domes of the church in the distant village of Lubyaniki. Therefore, the forest of the Oksky Reserve is much younger than the forests of Solotchi. Biologists have established that the ancient pine forest, growing for centuries on poor river sands, gradually enriched the soil, bringing valuable minerals from deep layers to the surface. And today, on this sand, under the canopy of two-century-old pines, a carpet of soil-demanding lily of the valley spreads, and oaks are even trying to grow.
There is no power in their appearance, but rather the stamp of a long struggle for life with an attempt to grow on sands barely enriched with pine trees is felt. In the gnarled and bent squat trunks of crooked Solotchino oaks, hollows are multiplying to the delight of those species of birds that do not know how to build hanging nests. And also colonies of bats. Due to the unusually high flow of tourists, the vegetation cover of the monastery forest is cut by crossroads of paths and trampled down to bare ground. The decrepit pines are in big trouble. Tourists break up the soil and destroy the undergrowth, depriving the forest of a chance for normal growth.
It is not difficult to see the monastery forest. It starts from the public transport stop “Davydovo” and stretches through the central square of Solotchi to the north to Grachina Roshcha. From the road, the landscape of the same type that Shishkin captured on the canvas with three bears is especially clearly visible. The pines soar 35 meters into the air, their trunks are devoid of branches, and only on the tops, bent under the influence of the prevailing wind direction, are the shocks of living branches covered with pine needles preserved. But if Shishkin’s ship timber fell under the ax long ago, Solotchi’s forest is still holding out.
The condition of the monastery forest causes concern among both foresters and scientists. Heavy winds in summer and snowstorms in winter knock down multi-ton tree trunks. At the Department of Physical Geography of the Ryazan State University named after Yesenin, a weighty pancake is kept - a cut of a pine tree that fell in 2010. In the intricacy of tree rings, which, as if in the archives of the Hydrometeorological Center, contains a record of the climate of the hot and dry years of the pre-war era, 1936-1940, the great drought of 1891, the ring of the year of the abolition of serfdom and the capture of Paris by Russian troops in 1814.
Paustovsky
Many people know Konstantin Paustovsky as a writer who visited the area around Solotcha and left a series of stories, which were later compiled into the story “The Meshcherskaya Side”. He was actually here in the second half of the 1930s of the 20th century. He fished in the Oka channels and oxbow lakes, and together with the writer Arkady Gaidar - the author of “Timur and His Team” - wandered in the forests in search of Poganoe Lake, caught golden tench, made friends with village children, one of whom managed to catch the legendary red-haired thief - cat, captured the story of his grandfather, nicknamed “Ten Percent.”
The writer's artistic works today serve as the subject of scientific research. Thus, in the story “Hare's Paws,” the Nobel Prize nominee (who lost the fight for the title to the author of “Quiet Don”) reflected the details of the events of 1936, the hot and dry summer of which resulted in fires in the Red Swamp. According to the book, grandfather Larion went into the forest to hunt and almost burned out when caught in a barrage of forest fire. Getting out of the thicket, the grandfather tried to run after the hare, believing that the forest dweller would lead him to the lake. And so it happened. Later, the old man will take the hare with burnt paws to Ryazan to the children's doctor on Pochtovaya Street, and will beg the retired doctor to cure the hare as his savior. The story about the Solotchinsky hare will reach Moscow, and the capital’s journalist will want to buy the long-eared poor fellow, to which Larion Malyavin will answer: “The hare is not for sale, a living soul, let him live against his will.”
In Paustovsky's stories, Solotcha and its inhabitants are a whole world. Here is a boy who comes from a neighboring village to look through the magazines “Around the World” and look at pictures of strange countries. Here are the girls in the haymaking of the Oka fields, diligently making fun of the unlucky fishermen. And the same grandfather, nicknamed “Ten Percent,” who was mauled almost to death by a pig, subsequently killed by an explosive bullet (“the other one didn’t take it”), suddenly appears as the keeper of village wisdom. According to the old man, the birch tree brought to the hut dropped its leaves after its forest companions only because friendship is not given only to people. “And with what eyes will she look into the eyes of her friends in the spring, who have been freezing on the street all winter, and she was warming herself by the stove?”
Paustovsky noticed the subtleties of Solotchin toponymy. Especially in the names of rivers and lakes. He writes that Meshchera is “the remnant of the forest ocean”, that the local forests are “majestic, like cathedrals.” I noticed that each body of water has its own nature. In Lake Tish “there is always a calm”, in Bobrovka there were once beavers, “Promoina is a deep lake with such capricious fish that only a person with very good nerves can catch it”, in Kanava “there are amazing golden tenches: each such tench bites for half an hour” . Paustovsky also writes about Solotch as the birthplace of talents: “In Solotch there is almost no hut where there are no paintings,” “Pozhalostin, one of the best Russian engravers, was born here, whose works have found a worthy assessment from the lips of Western Europeans spoiled by art " It is believed that Paustovsky lived in the house of Ivan Pozhalostin, located on Revolution Street (now Poryadok Street), where his writing friends Arkady Gaidar and Reuben Fraerman came to visit the writers, who actively used the small courtyard bathhouse for relaxation and creativity. In the last Soviet years, the Pozhalostin estate was a collapsed, burned-out building with an abandoned cherry orchard - here the surrounding children loved to hide from their annoying parents. But the authentic bathhouse lived longer than the house, since it went to the neighbor’s property, although it was not used for its intended purpose, but as a barn. The current museum-estate of Pozhalostin is a complete reconstruction, completed in the recent post-Soviet years.
In Paustovsky's stories, Meshchera appears in the long-forgotten appearance of the era before the start of drainage reclamation. The laying of canals began under Alexander II, but large-scale work was carried out only in the post-war years. The writer, in his works of 1936-1939, reflected the moment when the forests and marshes in the vicinity of Solotcha had not yet undergone large-scale drainage. And today, landscape geographers use the texts of “The Meshchera Side” as a guide to identify changes in nature. And it turns out that Paustovsky’s Meshchera is not at all what it is now. There was an impenetrable forest around the Black Lake, and on its shores wolves were raising wolf cubs. And the path to Black Lake was woven from trials, where only an experienced guide, jumping from bump to bump, could lead the traveler through the quagmire.
Paustovsky's stories are a good guide for the modern tourist. Today, modern tents can be set up in just a few minutes. In the pre-war years, the writer, apparently not even suspecting how terrible the time was coming for the country, spent every autumn on the Prorva, the former channel of the Oka. At a sharp turn he set up a heavy canvas tent. I pulled it so tight that it hummed like a drum, otherwise it would get wet in the rain. I dug around the ring with a shovel and tightened the loops tighter to keep mosquitoes away. And here I fished. Exactly the way the locals do it now when driving to the Oka meadows. Here I cursed the boys who could stand behind me all day long, looking at the treacherously motionless float. And here I learned a cruel lesson from fate, when an expensive English fishing line without the proper skill and luck in the pursuit of a pike can miserably lose to an ordinary rope with an iron hook at the end.
***
The unique nature of the surroundings of Solotchi requires full protection, which formed the basis for the project to create a new specially protected area - the Solotchinsky Natural Park. The project was developed at the Yesenin Russian State University in 2009 by order of the government of the Ryazan region. If the idea can be realized, then the old-growth pine forest, mossy swamps, oxbow lakes and water meadows of the Oka will be forever removed from trade in favor of nature conservation and tourism development.
Solotcha is an urban microdistrict within the Sovetsky district of the city of Ryazan.
Located 11 kilometers from the left bank of Ryazan at the entrance to Meshchera on the banks of the Oka oxbow. Near the territory of the district, the Solotcha River of the same name flows into the oxbow lake. The area is surrounded on all sides by the Meshchera National Park; The forests located on the territory of the district are protected areas - multi-storey buildings are prohibited here.
Story
The village of Solotcha grew up around the Solotchinsky Nativity of the Virgin Mary monastery, founded in 1390 by the Ryazan Grand Duke Oleg Ivanovich - according to legend, at the meeting place of the prince and his wife with two hermits, Vasily and Euphemia. The conversation with the hermits sank deeply into the prince’s soul; Having founded the monastery, he took monastic vows and ruled for the last 12 years as a prince-monk. At the same time, he lived for a long time in the monastery, on the territory of which he was buried in 1402. The origin of Solotchi is from the Old Russian word (solot - swampy, swampy)
After 1917, the Solotchinsky Monastery was closed; later, a colony for juvenile delinquents was located on its territory (in 1993, the Solotchinsky Monastery was revived - but as a women's monastery).
In 1939-1959, the village was the administrative center of the Solotchinsky district of the Ryazan region.
In 1954, by decision of the Ryazan Regional Executive Committee, the village of Solotcha was classified as a dacha village. In 1958, the holiday village of Solotcha was transformed into a resort village; Thus, from a rural-type settlement, it moved into the category of urban-type settlements.
By Decree of the Head of Administration of the Ryazan Region No. 128 of March 3, 1994 “On approval of the administrative boundaries of the city of Ryazan and the Solotchinsky District,” the Solotchinsky resort village was included in the Soviet District of the city of Ryazan. By Decree of the Governor of the Ryazan Region No. 799-III dated September 22, 2004, the resort village of Solotcha was excluded from the registration data of the administrative-territorial structure of the Ryazan Region.
Attractions
In Solotch there are many old wooden houses with carved porches and stained glass windows. On one of the streets there is a house that belonged at the end of the 19th century to the famous engraver, academician I. P. Pozhalostin. V.V. Veresaev, K.G. Paustovsky, A.P. Gaidar, A.A. Fadeev, K.M. Simonov, V.S. Grossman, F.I. lived, worked and visited this house at different times Panferov, A. I. Solzhenitsyn, V. T. Shalamov and others.
An outstanding architectural monument in the area is the Church of John the Baptist above the Holy Gate of the Solotchinsky Nativity of the Virgin Mary monastery, built in 1696-1698 by the supposedly famous Russian architect Ya. G. Bukhvostov.
The Ryazan-Vladimir narrow-gauge railway, glorified by K. G. Paustovsky, passed through the territory of the region. Here was the Solodcha station, which retained its ancient spelling with a “d”.
On the territory of the district there is a specially protected natural area - a natural monument of regional significance “Solotchinskaya Staritsa”.
The town of Solotcha administratively belongs to the Sovetsky district of Ryazan. This fact is especially emphasized by the residents of Solotchi themselves - they say that we do not live in a village, but in the capital of the region. We are not villagers, but city dwellers.
However, Ryazan and Solotcha are separated by 20 km of the M-5 highway, and Solotcha looks exactly like a village. There are no apartment buildings here, only private ones. Even a normally asphalted street is only one. Not because of poverty, but because Solotcha is located in a specially protected natural area. Multi-storey construction and other urbanization are prohibited here, and no one needs them. After all, Ryazan Solotcha is a local resort, and an extremely popular one at that. Ryazan residents are proud that they have their own “Switzerland” in the city: in the winter they come to Solotcha to ski, in the summer they send their offspring here to children’s camps, and the local sanatoriums generally operate all year round.
Solotcha has a rather impressive resort history - it was adapted as a health resort for residents of the Ryazan region almost immediately after the war. Firstly, there is clean, healthy air here: Solotcha is densely surrounded by pine forests. Secondly, clean rivers flow nearby, Solotcha and Staritsa, seven kilometers away is the Oka. There are places to swim and sunbathe in summer. Thirdly, Solotcha is conveniently located, at least from the point of view of Ryazan residents. Solotcha is called the “gate to Meshchera”, and Meshchera is one of the most popular holiday destinations in central Russia. Meshchera forests and rivers are so valuable that for their sake, the Meshchera National Park was formed in 1992.
In addition, Solotcha has its own mountain with the simple name Lysaya. So, in addition to cross-country skiing, which is incredibly popular in Solotch (in winter, the entire surrounding area is dotted with lines of ski routes, there are rentals on every corner), vacationers have the opportunity to slide down an equipped slope. They even built a ski jumping ramp here, although in the 2012/2013 season it was full of holes and had no stairs to the top.
But not only adherents of healthy leisure travel to Solotcha. The village is considered a kind of cultural satellite of Ryazan. First of all, because of the house-museum of Ivan Petrovich Pozhalostin (1837-1909), the famous Russian engraving master, located here. The same one whose name is given to the Ryazan Art Museum.
The Pozhalostin House Museum definitely deserves attention - it seems that this is the only museum in Russia dedicated to the engraver. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum operates an exhibition center, where very high-quality exhibitions are organized monthly, which bring together artists and other creative personalities from all over Russia. Of course, the museum tries to support modern engravers - you can count them on one hand throughout the country. And regular exhibitions of engravings are organized only in two places - in Solotch and Yekaterinburg.
During the Soviet years, Solotcha was made a resort and cultural resort, although before the revolution it was better known as a spiritual center. The heart of Solotcha - historically and geographically - is the Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded in 1390 by Grand Duke Oleg of Ryazan, canonized (his relics are kept in the monastery to this day). For centuries, the Solotchinsky monastery was one of the richest and most influential in Russia, now the monastery is gradually coming to life and being restored through the efforts of nuns - it is a women’s monastery, functioning. Its doors are always open for both pilgrims and ordinary curious people. Those who are curious will be interested to know that the Solotchinsky Monastery is the largest monument of the Naryshkin Baroque in the Ryazan region. This snow-white ensemble transforms the rural resort into a place with an ancient and significant history.
The entire preserved history of Solotcha can be seen on a single historical street - the further you go from it, the more Solotcha resembles an ordinary overgrown holiday village. On this historical street there are a monastery, and the central square (as usual, Lenin), and the house-museum of Pozhalostin, and another church - Kazan, 18th century. This street is the only clear and straight highway, like in the city. It's funny that it's called Order Street. True, they say in Solotch, the whole point is that the houses along it are in order.
On Poryadok Street there are preserved houses from the 19th century, mostly wooden with attics and carved platbands. True, they were quite diluted by Soviet country houses and state-owned houses such as hotels and empty general stores. This piece of historical Solotcha is supported on all sides by modern estates, some, according to available data, even have underground courts. Owning real estate in Solotch is fashionable not only among wealthy Ryazan residents, but also among the ubiquitous Muscovites. Firstly, the status of a resort helps, and secondly, in this way Ryazan residents solve the problem of traffic jams. It is faster to travel by car from Solotcha to the center of Ryazan on a weekday than from one district of the city to another. If you put the old houses in order and invest in infrastructure, Solotcha could turn out not to be a rural, but an almost European mini-resort, pleasant in all respects.
Every traveler, when planning a trip, creates for himself a list of attractions in Solotcha that are a must-see. Some develop independent routes to explore the city, while others book special sightseeing tours. As a rule, they allow you to visit the main attractions of Solotcha and give an idea of the historical and cultural development of the city.
Art lovers first of all look for sculptural attractions on the Solotchi map. In the main city squares you can often see traditional sculptural compositions with which all tourists take photographs. But in parks beloved by the local population, you can see exhibitions of conceptual sculptures and installations. They can be made from the most unpredictable materials and represent unimaginable variations of different shapes that you will need to think about more.
Among the main attractions of Solotcha, religious buildings play a special role. They are the center of the architectural ensemble of the Russian city; many of them have survived significant religious and historical events. In Solotch and beyond, you can go to monastic monasteries famous throughout the country: the Kazan Convent, the Holy Trinity Monastery, the Solotchinsky Pokrovsky Monastery, admire the elegant appearance of large Orthodox churches: the Church of the Savior on the Yara, or look into the cozy and miniature chapels that are so popular among local.
Traveling around the area, you can also see unusual religious sites. These can be national religious sites, ancient cult associations, or generally mystical places of power. Not far from Solotcha there is the opportunity to meet the following: Church of the Savior on the Yara, St. John the Theologian Monastery, Nikolo-Radovitsky Monastery, Church of the Resurrection in Lovetsy, Solotchinsky Pokrovsky Monastery.
Pedestrian promenades along Solotcha have a special romance. You have a choice: get a map of Solotcha with sights and routes in advance, or simply go wherever your heart desires. Then it's even more exciting. Let yourself get lost in the ancient streets or take a walk in the parks. And if you get tired, you can refresh yourself or drink a cup of coffee in a pleasant cafeteria. By the way, in Solotch there are several popular places at all times that every tourist dreams of.
If you plan to gain in-depth knowledge of the history of the city, come on an excursion to the museum complexes of Solotchi. They contain extensive collections of folk studies, artistic skills, folk art and household items from archaeological excavations. Traditionally, these attractions are located in the center.
At the same time, open thematic museums can often be found in suburban areas. They present entertaining exhibitions dedicated to national life and folk crafts. In addition, it could be a museum reconstruction of historical settlements or defensive forts. Such attractions of Solotcha will be very educational for children: Museum of Pushupov Toys, S. Yesenin Museum-Reserve, Museum of Academician I.P. Pavlova.
For family tourists, the question is always relevant: where to go with children. The most popular option is to go to one of the Solotchi aquatic complexes. There are often discounted rates available when purchasing a full-day family ticket.
If you are planning a trip in the winter or spring season, we recommend that you consider the Solotchi ski resorts for active leisure. There is a lot of entertainment for children and adults: various slopes for skiers and snowboarders, cheesecake skiing, interesting fun parks for experts. Typically, such complexes are located several tens of kilometers from the city, for example: Chulkovo Ski Resort, Borovskaya Kurgan, Alpatyevo. So it is more convenient to arrive at the place by personal transport or rent a car.
An excellent prospect for a family weekend is active nature tourism. These attractions are located near Solotcha. These can be rivers, gorges, famous nature reserves. It’s always up to you to choose where it’s best to go: Meshchera National Park. You can get here either on your own or by public transport. Look in advance at the schedule of intercity buses running from suburban bus stations in the direction you need. In such an adventure you will get a lot of unforgettable emotions from being in the fresh air, replenish your health and good spirits.
If you are visiting the city on business, then you do not have enough free time for long excursion programs. In such a situation, we advise you to find a condensed index of Solotchi attractions with photos and descriptions.
Such a directory can always be found after arriving in a city at railway stations or at the air terminal. There is a list of the most interesting places to go in Solotch, with names and photos of attractions. Agree, this greatly simplifies the question of what to see in Solotch if you are limited in time.
However, if the directory describes the most popular places in Solotchi, then on the Internet you can find a top “unpromoted”, but no less interesting attractions with reviews from experienced travelers. Abandoned adits, mysterious quarries, ancient narrow-gauge railways, bridges - such attractions attract adventure lovers.
When planning a trip to Solotcha, we advise you to obtain information not only about the sights, but also about other significant infrastructure facilities of the city. To move around the city, it is worth understanding the operating scheme of urban transport, the localization of railway and bus stations or ports, and metro stations. At the same time, these important public buildings in Solotchi can become objects of tourist interest. Often they become the calling card of the city.
