- Church of the Sign in Dubrovitsy
- Tesla coil in Istra
- Desert in Sychevo
- Ball under Dubna
- Kudykina mountain
- Ghost town near Firsanovka
- Lake Bottom
Residents of Moscow are lucky: in the vicinity of the capital there are many beautiful cities and villages where you can get out on weekends with your family or alone for amazing impressions and incredible pictures. In addition to well-promoted settlements with traditional natural or architectural sights, there are also completely unique chapels, technical objects, mountains, etc. Tourists are still little aware of such unusual places in the Moscow region.
These interesting objects are usually talked about on special travel forums or on social networks. There are no crowds of people arriving on vacation near such places. It is possible that you will be the only visitor to a strange but enticing attraction, which will allow you to easily find the best angle for your photo without fear of someone ruining your valuable shot.
It is very convenient to visit interesting places in the Moscow region: almost everyone can be reached by public transport, which means that the trip will not be expensive.
What can you find unusual and mysterious in the Moscow region? For example, a huge concrete ball, about the origin of which experts are still arguing, or the real Kudykina Mountain with an antique-styled plate.
Church of the Sign in Dubrovitsy
Dubrovitsy is an old noble estate located in the village of the same name near Podolsk. The estate used to belong to the princes Golitsyn, one of whom began the construction of the main local attraction - the Church of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos.
This temple is notable for its strange shape, completely unconventional for Orthodox sacred buildings. The building was erected in the form of an equilateral cross, over which a slender tower topped with a magnificent crown rises.
History has not preserved for us the names of architects who built a kind of Catholic church in the Russian outback, whose facades are decorated with carvings and sculptures. It is assumed that the construction work was carried out by craftsmen from the Italian and German lands.
Look among the statues on the temple for the one that depicts the phoenix, which is known to be one of the symbols of the Knights Templar. Find the inscriptions in Latin letters and listen to the legend that this church houses the weapons of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar Jacques de Molay.
Today, services are held daily in the Church of the Sign.
How to get there: drive along the Simferopol highway to Podolsk for about 40 minutes. In Podolsk, follow Kirov Street until the turn to Oktyabrsky Prospect, which will lead to the Dubrovitsy estate. From Moscow, from the Yuzhnaya metro station, regular buses No. 147 go to Dubrovitsy. The journey will take about an hour. Buses to Podolsk also depart from there. In Podolsk, on Lenin Square, tourists are picked up by buses to Dubrovitsy. Finally, you can get to Podolsk by train, and then, right at the station, change to bus # 65, which goes to Dubrovitsy.
Tesla coil in Istra
A huge open-air testing ground producing impressive lightning is located on the territory of the Istra Research Center, owned by the All-Russian Electrotechnical Institute. All those wishing to see this technical miracle with their own eyes are allowed to the checkpoint for a small fee. It is not worth looking for loopholes in the fence to get to the landfill on your own, because it can be life-threatening. An unlucky tourist may be near the device during the test and be seriously injured.
The Tesla coil, as ordinary tourists call the Arkadyev-Marx generator, is a structure the size of a ten-story building. There are two more not so large-scale technical objects nearby. The Istra test site was built in the 1970s and was intended for scientific research of electromagnetic fields. For example, here they tried to understand whether a flying plane could withstand a lightning strike.
Immediately after the construction of the test site in Istra, rumors spread that a new weapon was being developed here - a laser cannon. Currently, tests at the proving ground are rare. A huge electric current is generated in the tall tower, which is then dumped onto a fixture on a nearby platform.
How to get there: Volokolamskoe highway leads to Istra from Moscow. In the city, to get to the Tesla coil, you need to find Pochtovaya Street. Istra is also easily accessible by public transport. You need to go to the Rizhsky or Kursk railway station, from where the electric trains heading to Istra start.
Desert in Sychevo
Surprisingly, in the vicinity of Moscow you can find a real desert. It is located in the vicinity of the village of Sychevo in the Volokolamsk region. These sand dunes, on which fearless young people love to snowboard, are not of natural origin. They were formed as a result of the development of sand quarries. Here, huge machines are still digging sand and gravel, and people are resting next to them, imagining that they are somewhere in the Sahara or in the Maldives.
In addition to descending from sandy mountains on a special board, Sychevo offers several more entertainments:
- swimming in lakes with cool water, which formed in deep pits after the production of sand stopped. The shores of these lakes have been transformed into wild beaches with fine white sand;
- diving lessons. Diving enthusiasts come here to dive with scuba diving;
- fishing. Various small fish are caught in the lakes of the quarry;
- ATV walks on the dunes;
- excursions to the nursery where rare animals are bred. Since 2017, visitors have been allowed here.
How to get there: by car it is easy to reach Sychevo along the Novorizhskoe highway. This village is 98 km away from Moscow. True, to drive up to the quarries, you need an SUV. By rail, you will have to get to Sychevo with transfers. You can go by train through Volokolamsk, from where bus number 24 departs for Sychevo, or through Tuchkovo, which is connected by bus with Ruza. From Ruza by bus # 30 you can easily get to Sychevo. Bus number 307 will take you directly from Moscow to Sychevo, which departs from the Tushinskaya metro station in the direction of Volokolamsk.
Ball under Dubna
In the vicinity of Dubna, in the village of Ignatovo, there is an original landmark that amazes everyone who comes to see it. This is a huge ball made of fiberglass. Fierce controversy continues until now about its origin. The most correct version seems to be that the balloon is a part of the antenna that was accidentally dropped during transportation by helicopter. This happened in the 1970s. Then the authorities decided that it would be too expensive to take out the balloon, and they left it here - near the village of Ignatovo.
The sphere is hollow inside. Initially, there was no way to get inside the ball, but later an inlet was made. There is a semblance of gender in the sphere.
Most tourists try to visit the inside of the balloon in order to appreciate its amazing, unusual acoustics. Every sound, even the slightest rustle, is repeatedly reflected from the ball shell. A person who finds himself in a sphere experiences not very pleasant sensations: it seems to him that someone invisible is walking nearby, rustling with something, whispering something. A musical concert was even held here a few years ago.
How to get there: the easiest way to get to the mysterious ball is by car. Dubna is located 116 km from Moscow. You can reach it along the Dmitrovskoe highway. After Dubna, you should turn to the village of Fedorovka, then drive through 2 more settlements and get to Ignatovo.
Kudykina mountain
Our country is unique, because here, among ordinary Russian villages, it is quite normal to come across a terrain from a fairy tale. There is just such a corner in the Moscow region. This is Kudykina Mountain. And so that no one gets confused that he got exactly to the address, there is a pillar with the name on it. Moreover, the plate is stylized as inscriptions in cartoons and fairy tales.
Kudykina Gora is located between two villages - Kudykino and Gora. Basically, this is an empty hill overgrown with meadow grasses. It offers a wonderful view of the 19th century Nativity Church, which is the adornment of the Gora village. Right next to Kudykina, the city flows the river Lyutikha, along which the border between the two villages passes. Also, more than a kilometer from the mountain, there is the Golden Sands Lake.
After taking a photo at the pillar with the name of the legendary area, you can go for a walk through two villages.
It is interesting that in the Lipetsk region there is an amusement park called "Kudykina Gora". On the territory of 500 hectares there is a zoo, a huge playground, a copy of an old fortress, where various master classes are constantly held.
How to get there: Kudykina Gora in the Moscow region is located quite far from the capital. The road to it will take about 3 hours. In this case, it is also better to have your own vehicles than to rely on public ones. First you need to get to the city of Likino-Dulyovo, behind which there will be two villages - Kudykino and Gora. From the city to them - only 4 km.
Ghost town near Firsanovka
The proud name "ghost town" hides the scenery of the medieval settlement left by the filmmakers, which was built in 2010 for the filming of the historical film "Notes of the Forwarder of the Secret Chancery". Narrow stone-paved streets, ancient buildings, an old square seem to transport guests to the fictional European city of Pilgrim Porto of the 18th century.
When filming was completed, the well-built city was left untouched. Now it has become a significant tourist attraction. There is even a fee to enter the ghost town.
In the town you can see:
- creaking wooden entrance bridge;
- a ship standing on the ground and available for inspection. Climb to the captain's bridge, inspect the cabins, visit the deck;
- city prison with open gates. All the bars are up and the prisoners have escaped;
- the central square with the scaffold, where those who did not escape were executed;
- the neighboring square, over which the town hall rises. A small belfry was installed above it;
- several medieval taverns;
- stables with live horses, which you can ride;
- performances of fencers.
How to get there: drive along Novovoskhodnenskoe highway to the village of Skhodnaya, cross it and exit to the road that leads to the Mtsyri sanatorium. The desired object will be next to the road just 5 minutes from Skhodnaya. You can get to Firsanovka by train, which leaves at the Leningradsky railway station. In Firsanovka, take bus # 40, which goes to Mtsyri.
Lake Bottom
There are many lakes in the world that are said to have no bottom. One such reservoir is located in the Moscow region, in the Solnechnogorsk region, near the villages of Sergeevka and Vertlino. It is believed that this lake was formed many millennia ago during the passage of the glacier.
Local residents actively support the legend that the lake communicates with the waters of the World Ocean. There are records of Alexander Blok, who lived in the nearby Shakhmatovo estate, about Lake Bezdonnoye. The poet once got into a conversation with a forester, who said that details of ships crashed in the ocean are often found near the lake. These elements of the courts were taken away by peasants from neighboring villages as a keepsake. It seems that even some specific person in those days could confirm these words by presenting a piece of the hull of the ship, on which was written "Santa Maria".
It is also known that the father of Blok's wife, Dmitry Mendeleev, became interested in the mystery of the Bottomless Lake, and sought to find out its depth. To do this, he lowered a weight tied to an almost hundred-meter string into the water. The cargo never sank to the bottom.
How to get there: electric trains run from Moscow to Solnechnogorsk. You need to get off at the Podsolnechnaya station. On the way, tourists spend about 1 hour and 10 minutes. You can get from Solnechnogorsk to Sergeevka by regular bus number 24. The journey will take about 15 minutes.
