The route unexpectedly led to the legendary village of Goloshevo. Crossing the Sokolyanka River, through the clouds of dust of the only country road here, untouched natural beauties begin to appear: golden glades, unfamiliar multiple road branches leading into forests, then into the sky; lively air, the singing of meadow birds, the unobtrusive warmth of April, and several motorcyclists rushing off into the distance.
After passing one of the streets of the neighboring village of Zaozerye, a fragment of Glukhoe Lake (now Glubokoe) immediately appeared. The charmingly picturesque surroundings, the water surface, transparent and saturated with all the colors of spring, the croaking of frogs, the barking of village dogs, the sparkling glare of sunlight on the water, and again a group of motorcyclists… Melody of summer!
And there is an important thousand-year-old stone cross on the shore of this lake, the Baba-cross, as it is also called. It is said that it marked the border between the principalities of Drutsky and Mstislavsky, but it is not only notable for this and its age, but also for the legends that have surrounded it for centuries. The most famous legend goes like this:
Disguised as a pilgrim, Jesus Christ once wandered into this village, and began to ask its inhabitants to let him into the house for the night. Everyone refused him, and only one poor old woman acted as an exception – she fulfilled the request of the wanderer. The next day, Jesus Christ, leaving the village, took this woman with him, but told her not to look back, no matter what she heard behind her. Suddenly she turned around, hearing a rumble behind her: the village had sunk into the ground as punishment for the fact that those who inhabited it did not accept God himself. A lake formed on the site of the village, and the old woman, disobeying, was turned into stone. And so she remained, with her arms open, standing, stone, on the shore of the lake, where once there was a sinful village…
April 27, 2025; part seven
