Get thee to a nunnery!

Magnet #318 - Yaroslavl

Some friends of mine rescued this magnet from their friends who were going to throw it out, because they couldn't remember where it was from. And it's such a pretty magnet, too!

Since the label looked like Russian, I forwarded a pic to my sister and her fiance - both of whom are somewhat conversant in Russian. Handy that they joined the Peace Corps, huh.

They totally came through for me, with emails like: "it's ya-something. i can't read the second letter. ya-something-oh-sla-vle?" Together, the two of them figured out the magnet reads Yaroslavl, and what we've found (or so I think) is that the church is the superpretty Tolga Monastery, which is on the Volga River.

Dudes, it's like 700 years old! Well, the monastery is. These buildings only date back to like 1670. Whoa. Supposedly, back in the 1300s, there was a bishop in the area who spent the night out outside, saw a pillar of fire that led him to an icon of the Virgin, and that's where they set up shop.

Over the years it's been opened and closed, and used for several different purposes. Nowadays...it's a nunnery.

Yay, mystery solved! Well, it takes a village to find a village, I guess. Thanks, you guys - for the magnet, and for the detective work!