Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery
Northern European Russia
This imposing, stone-walled monastery is the heart and soul of the Solovetsky Islands. Founded in 1429, it has played various roles throughout its…
Must-see attractions in Northern European Russia
Murmansk
Home to Murmansk's ‘walruses’ – hardy souls who swear by the health benefits of regularly bathing in icy waters – this wooden hut on the edge of Lake…
Northern European Russia
One of Russia's unmissable attractions, the reserve is home to dozens of 18th- and 19th-century log buildings, some furnished in period style, which were…
Northern European Russia
Literally translated as Hatchet Mountain, this infamous 71m-high hill was the site of tortures and summary executions described in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn…
Northern European Russia
Powerful five-domed St Sofia’s Cathedral has a soaring interior smothered with beautiful 1680s frescoes. The astonishingly tall iconostasis is filled with…
Northern European Russia
This small, wind-whipped island is famous for its 13 labyrinths, including the largest one in northern Russia. A boardwalk loops around the island from…
Murmansk
Murmansk is a centre for nuclear icebreakers that carve their way to the North Pole, but even in port you can give in to your wildest seafaring–Arctic…
Abandonded Soviet Train Station
Kola Peninsula
This colossal Soviet-era train station stands abandoned and half-forgotten amid the harsh Arctic landscape. The two-platform station, which once took…
Northern European Russia
The five-domed, 1562 star of Sobornaya Ploschad sports intriguing timber-encased corner buttresses and houses a splendid iconostasis on the 2nd floor …
Kola Peninsula
Every November, ice sculptors from all over the region make their way to Kirovsk to chisel the snowy halls and tunnels of the Snow Village into existence,…
Murmansk
One of Murmansk’s most memorable sights is a gigantic concrete soldier nicknamed Alyosha, erected to commemorate the Arctic fighters who perished in the…
Northern European Russia
Beautifully presented nautical exhibits cluster around the striking centrepiece – the prow of a ship – in the light-filled main hall of Arkhangelsk's…
Northern European Russia
Vologda’s multidomed, attractive kremlin is the city’s historical centrepiece, a 17th-century fortified enclosure built as a church administrative centre…
Northern European Russia
Besides the permanent exhibitions that feature medieval icons, and folk art such as embroidery, weaving and birch-bark creations, there's a collection of…
Northern European Russia
The history section charts the development of the harsh north, from its settlement by dispossessed and exiled peasantry in the 1930s, to the Gulag camps,…
Kola Peninsula
This excellent museum delves into the Sami people's troubled history and their way of life, which continues to be threatened. It also celebrates the…
St Alexander Svirsky Church on Khizhgora
Northern European Russia
Some 2km into the national park, in an elevated clearing in the forest, stands the atmospheric St Alexander Svirsky Church on Khizhgora. This onion-domed…
Kola Peninsula
This museum has over 900 types of minerals and ores, many of them rare and unique. Entry is by an appointment made in advance; friendly academics speak…
Northern European Russia
Arkhangelsk’s most compelling art gallery has regularly changing exhibitions that range from modern reflections on Soviet propaganda to pop art. Upstairs…
Northern European Russia
In the 16th and 17th centuries, this monastery in the lakeside town of Kirillov, 130km northwest of Vologda, was northern Russia's largest, and one of the…
Northern European Russia
The second-largest island in the archipelago, Anzer Island has its share of stone labyrinths and burial mounds, as well as a scattering of monastic sketes…
Murmansk
Comprehensive exhibits at Murmansk's oldest museum include one on Sami culture and handicrafts, a vast natural-history section with all manner of…
Malye Karely Wooden Architecture Museum
Northern European Russia
Set in pretty rolling dales 25km southeast of Arkhangelsk’s centre, this well-presented open-air museum is Arkhangelsk’s foremost attraction. Featuring…
Northern European Russia
Souvenir stalls line the short road that leads, via short-cut steps, up to Valaam’s main attraction. The monastery is radiant in gleaming white and sky…
Northern European Russia
One of the few parts of the island that's easily accessible on foot from the monastery is the forested Nikonovskaya area, dotted with chapels and sketes.
Northern European Russia
Painted in circus-tent stripes, the powerful fortress towers of this active 14th-century monastery are photogenically reflected in the river, best viewed…
Northern European Russia
The village of Yamka is home to extravagantly bearded Old Believers, as well as genuinely lived-in (and well-labelled) historic houses. Its pretty lake…
Solovetsky Forced Labour Camps & Prison 1920–1939
Northern European Russia
Inside former gulag barracks, this excellent exposition (in Russian) takes you through the different stages of the Solovetsky gulag – from punishing …
Murmansk
The mass of exhibits inside this crumbling turquoise anchor-flanked building covers everything from the founding of Russia’s first navy in Arkhangelsk, to…
Sovoletsky Stone in Honour of Gulag Victims
Northern European Russia
This 1.5m-by-1m granite stone was brought to Arkhangelsk from the Sovoletsky Islands in 1990 as a monument to the victims of Soviet-era Gulag camps…
Northern European Russia
This museum displays the works of Russian artist Kronid Gogolev, who spent much of his life in Sortavala. His landscape paintings are appealing but not…
Northern European Russia
The natural history section has clearly benefited from the untimely demise of numerous regional species of wildlife, such as the dramatically posed…
Northern European Russia
Enough to give a taste of its former grandeur, the evocative remains of this monastery are bleakly derelict, in sharp contrast to the beautifully tended…
Polar-Alpine Botanical Gardens
Kola Peninsula
Russia’s vast, northernmost botanical gardens and its special hothouses nurturing tropical plants can only be accessed on one of three tours offered daily…
Northern European Russia
Beyond the beautifully proportioned Church of the Nativity of Christ (Церковь Рождества Христова) and just off ul Lenina, this small log house is the…
Northern European Russia
Located within the Church of the Entry into Jerusalem, this museum highlights Totma’s unlikely contributions to marine exploration (one-fifth of all…
Northern European Russia
A British tank on the streets of a Russian city is an unusual sight indeed. This one, which saw service in WWI, was captured by the Red Army in 1919 after…
Northern European Russia
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Arkhangelsk’s heart and soul was this merchants' yard, a grand, turreted brick trading centre built between 1668 and 1684…
Northern European Russia
The construction of this 72m-high cathedral, which stands on the site of a prerevolutionary cathedral that was destroyed by the Soviets in 1938, is due to…
Northern European Russia
This historical building houses an impressive collection of Russian art from the 18th to the 20th centuries, including works by Karl Bryullov of The Last…
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