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
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…
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 …
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,…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
Northern European Russia
This attractive 17th-century church is one of Vologda's oldest constructions and contains some 200-year-old frescoes. Located on the river bank opposite…
Northern European Russia
Besides exhibitions on trade between Russia's north and the Byzantine world, the history of the city and regional trades, this excellent museum (with…
Northern European Russia
One of several enchanting old wooden buildings at the eastern end of ul Leningradskaya, this little museum evokes the life of a 19th-century, 17-child…
Northern European Russia
The third largest of the Solovetsky Islands, Bolshaya Muksalma is connected to the main island by a dam built by monks in the 19th century. It's an…
Northern European Russia
Dating from the 17th century, the view from Veronica’s Veil Chapel offers wonderful panoramas right across Kizhi. Walk west across the island from Yamaka…
Northern European Russia
Vologda’s oldest museum (1885) is a compact late-17th-century stone house that belonged to the Gutman traders who hosted Tsar Peter I during his March…
Northern European Russia
The sparklingly modern Lace Museum, across the square from the kremlin, patches together some great examples of this archetypal Vologda craft, with…
Northern European Russia
On the eastern side of the main kremlin courtyard, Muppet-style wooden dolls, lacquered wood items and embroidery briefly grab your attention before the…
Northern European Russia
Those interested in the Kalevala epic poem will want to pay their respects to the kantele-plucking statue of Karelian rune singer Petri Shemeikka that…
Northern European Russia
Around 3km northwest of the village, the botanical garden enjoys a special microclimate – monks have grown vegetables and hothouse fruits here for…
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