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…
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Russia's far north, with its stunning and often harsh natural beauty, is a place of startling extremes, best typified by the perpetual darkness of polar night and the midnight sun of polar day.
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…
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…
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Beyond the Trans-Siberian: travelling Russia's unexplored northwest by trainNov 28, 2019 • 4 min read
Get to the heart of Northern European Russia with one of our in-depth, award-winning guidebooks, covering maps, itineraries, and expert guidance.