Sergiyev Posad is where Russians go to pray and to buy a wooden toy, often on the same afternoon. About seventy kilometres north-east of Moscow, the town grew around the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius, a monastery founded in the fourteenth century by Sergius of Radonezh, a hermit who became the spiritual father of the nation. When Prince Dmitry Donskoy sought a blessing before facing the Tatars at Kulikovo in 1380, he is said to have come here, and ever since the monastery has been the most revered in the country, with pilgrims queuing in all weathers to touch the saint's relics.
Inside the white walls the buildings crowd together in a way that feels almost theatrical. The Dormition Cathedral, with its four blue domes spangled with gold stars, was modelled on the one in the Kremlin and commissioned by Ivan the Terrible, and the slim blue-and-white bell tower is a late baroque confection that rises over everything. Candles, incense and the sound of choirs fill the cathedrals, and old women in headscarves cross themselves with each step. Everything is alive, a working monastery with a seminary and a theological academy, and not a museum.
The town has another trade. For centuries craftsmen here carved wooden toys, and Sergiyev Posad is one of the places that claims the nesting doll, the matryoshka, as its own invention, and there is a toy museum a short walk from the walls. Local shops sell painted dolls, small carved animals and honey cakes, and a bag of such things is the standard souvenir.
The ride up from Moscow follows the old Yaroslavl road, one of the busiest corridors out of the capital, with heavy trucks, queues on Friday and Sunday and speed cameras at frequent intervals, so it is better to start early and go on a weekday. Beyond the town the roads become quieter, running through birch woods, small villages with carved window frames and wide fields, though the surface is often patched and rutted where the lorries have worn it down. Mosquitoes and midges in summer are real, and the autumn colours of birch and aspen are lovely.
Sergiyev Posad has more than a hundred thousand people, so fuel and food are simple, with stations on the main road and cafes around the monastery. Check the current rules on travel and documents for foreign visitors and vehicles before planning anything here, as they change often.