Rybinsk on the Volga

The town is taken from the water — from a sandy spit on the opposite bank, from where the whole embankment is visible at once: the arched road bridge on the left, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration with its bell tower in the middle, the building of the grain exchange to the right. Beyond that the bank recedes into haze.

The cathedral is not white stone, as it is often described: the walls are pale ochre, the columns white, and the large dome is dark, almost black, and ribbed. Only the small cupola, the crosses and the bell tower spire are gilded — the tower is the tallest thing in the frame. The exchange, now a museum, is cream-yellow, with patterned brickwork, bright red roofs and a grey granite plinth.

Rybinsk has been part of the national Golden Ring route since 5 June 2025, and it opens the series. On the spit at the lower edge stands a modern traveller with a backpack — the hero of this series, unlike the walker of The Russian Landscape.