Wednesday Walk to the cottages area

I discovered this place by accident. I was studying maps of the southwest area of our city to understand the complex hydrographic system. Rivers, creeks, and canals were changed many times when new houses were built and roads were laid, and it can be difficult to know where the source of a particular river is. I searched for information on various maps on the Internet, and at some point wikimapia showed me objects nearby. One of those objects turned out to be a beautiful white-washed church.

The road to the church starts at the city train station. To the right of the station is an ordinary city neighborhood. Once upon a time there were summer homes and small farms, but those days are long gone. The neighborhood was built up in the 1960s and 1970s with typical high-rise buildings. But on the other side of the railroad tracks the picture is completely different, there are still small cottages and wooden dachas. This area was out of the built-up area thanks to the nearby airport.

I crossed the railroad tracks and headed in the direction of the Dudergofka River, which was the river I had studied on the maps at the beginning of my story. The concrete bridge across the river bears the name of the village of Staro-Panovo, and the beautiful ceramic plaque with the name of the bridge is made in the same workshop as the plaques on the bridges across the Moika and Fontanka Rivers.

Along the way I encountered mostly modern stone cottages, but occasionally I also came across wooden cottages. I also came across a few old water wells. Such old standpipes are less and less common now; new houses have central water supply, and these standpipes are not being upgraded to more modern ones.

Out of curiosity, I went to a real estate agent's Web site to see if any houses were for sale in the neighborhood. A few buildings do come up for sale, but the prices would scare anyone away. The ruins of a wooden house on a small plot of land will cost more than a two-bedroom apartment in the city center.

The village of Panovo (modern name Staro-Panovo) has been known since the XVIII century, when the church was built. But the old church was completely destroyed during the Second World War, the new building was erected recently, in the early XXI century. The architecture of the new church does not copy the old building, but reminds of it, the church was built in a similar style.

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay.