Plyos is a quiet, old city tucked away in the dense forests in Ivanovo Oblast on the right bank of the Volga River. Even six centuries after its founding the city has managed to preserve the original beauty that the forests and water have to offer. Plyos’ breathtaking landscapes have caught the eye of many famous artists, however gained the most glory thanks to the work of Isaac Levitan, who painted many of his great works here. Nowadays Plyos is home to about 40 artists who all share the desire to be one with nature, capturing it firsthand at different times throughout the year.
The cathedrals of the Donskoy Monastery are home to the richest collection of religious relics connected to some of the most significant events in Russian history. From the moment of its foundation, a copy of the Our Lady of Kazan icon, which aided the Russian army in its victory over the Tatars, has been kept in the monastery’s main cathedral. The necropolis of the royal Bagrationi dynasty is also located in the cathedral’s basement. The monastery’s Maly Cathedral is fascinating for its own reason — it is here in 1992 that once-believed lost relics of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Russia, were found.