Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture by Martina Rúčková
Ivan and I have visited Pskov and seen some of its churches many years ago, before it was inscribed - with Ivan's Dad. We made this town on the Estonian borders an overnight stop when taking the car through the borders and back due to customs reasons. It was a lovely summer afternoon and evening, which added to the beauty and pleasure of the experience.
Since we haven’t been anywhere via an overnight train, one of our favourite modes of travel in Russia, in a long time, we decided to make a weekend trip out of revisiting Pskov and examining its sacral school of architecture a bit closer. And examine we did. Ten churches are inscribed and if you wish to make a proper visit out of it, I recommend marking all of them on a map. Most are a walking distance, except for the Church of Svyatitel Nikolay inside the Snetogorsky monastery. We were overchurched by the time we could visit it and skipped that one, along with Church Rozhdestva Ioanna Predtechi.
If you had to pick one, I would recommend visiting the Cathedral at the Spaso-Pereobrazhensky Monastery, which has beautiful 12th century frescoes in s very good state. Entrance to the monastery complex is for free, but to get admitted to the Cathedral you have to visit the green “tickets shed” and buy your tickets there. I also very much enjoyed the double church of Pokrova i Rozhdestva ot Proloma. There is no entrace fee for the remainder of the churches - if you want to support them in any way, I recommend buying and lighting a candle (we did so and and ended up lighting 14 throughout the day). I would also recommend visiting the Pskov Kremlin - you only pay for entrance if you wisht to take part in a guided tour nd you can visit their Trinity Cathedral, which, though not one of the inscribed as its of a much later date, you can compare and contrast the evolution of sacral style.
The ladies that mind the churches are very nice, if you speak Russian, you can ask them anything you want to know about the churches. When we visited the church of Kosma and Damian s Primostya, the lady inside, happy to see at least someone coming in, gave us a tour of the whole church. It was very sweet. As I’ve said, most churches are walking distance, but if you become tired of walking, you can always take Russian version of Uber - Yandex and order a taxi to drive you anywhere you please. They are super cheap - one ride costs 150 rubles max, which is less than two euros.
As for where to go on next, Pskov trip can be combined with Veliky Novgorod, also a WHS. There are regular train and bus connections between the two towns. As for other trips available, there’s Mikhailovskoye estate of Pushkin two and a half hour-ride one way, cave monastery of Pechory and medieval fortress in the town of Izborsk.