What unites pilgrims, nuns and three railway carriages?

What do you think can unite the railcars of the Russian Railways, pilgrims, nuns and other ministers of the church? Without joking, we tell you where you can even see the answer to this question.

For more than seven hundred years, the village of Yb has been located on the Sysola River, 55 kilometers from Syktyvkar. You can get there by bus or car. It is interesting to come here just for the sake of the name and the beauties of Russian nature. It is located on seven hills, so its name is so simple and translates from the Komi language "elevation". They are trying to popularize the place at the expense of the Finno-Ugric Ethno-cultural Park. Also, these places are covered with scary stories and legends, but today it will not be about that. 

We were more interested in the St. Seraphim's Convent of St. Petersburg. Every year a large number of pilgrims come here, and tourists have also begun to be interested in this place. And not only by the monastery. By the way, it is active, so it is closed to outsiders, but you can visit the church, as well as join the procession. And next to the monastery is the very attraction that created our question. As many as two Russian Railways cars are standing in the middle of the field in their modern gray-red coloring. Moreover, there are no railway tracks nearby, the nearest station is Syktyvkar. And if you walk to the Holy Ascension Cathedral, there will be another car near the father's house. Almost right at the entrance to Yb.

The answer to why there are railroad cars in the middle of the field turned out to be too simple. No, it's not a church inside. These are classic compartment cars, so that pilgrims who come here can relax. A kind of hotel that has demand in summer. You can spend the night, or just relax for a few hours. But there is no exact answer to the curious question: where did they come from here? There are two options – bought or accepted as a gift from Russian Railways.

There were such stories on the road. For example, the famous church-wagon, which is located in Nizhny Novgorod on Ignatov Street. In 2005, the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Derzhavnaya was left without its own building. And in the same year, he received a decommissioned reserved carriage as a gift from Russian Railways, where all the icons were moved and the service continued. To this day, it is a functioning church in the carriage, which was nicknamed "the people's church". Because it was created by people, has no golden domes and rich decoration.

But this was not the first case of the appearance of a church car. Their history goes back to 1890, when the first such temple was created. Six years later, the first service in the carriage took place at the Putilov plant. The Novosibirsk Diocese received a car from the Russian Railways as a gift in 2002 and the Irkutsk Diocese in 2005. And they plied by rail. They were made for the purpose that passengers could attend services, it was possible to transport holy relics. And also in those corners where there will be a composition, there is no church, parishioners were able to pray. Therefore, services can be attended at parking lots and on the way in temple cars. Only in the villages of Yb cars are used as hotels. At the moment, they operate in the summer, but they plan to put heating in the cars so that pilgrims, and maybe ordinary tourists, can spend the night there or relax before the road.

And what other interesting use of railway cars have you been able to observe? After all, no one could have thought that hotels were made of wagons in so small a village. And how many more hidden places and small villages are in the vast Russia, where an even more interesting way of using former passenger cars can be hidden.