A neat, fairly prosperous town set between several lakes, Monchegorsk makes a good base for exploring the centre and south of the Kola Peninsula – although the approach from the south is hardly encouraging as you pass through expanses of stunted or nonexistent vegetation, and then encounter the enormous Severonikel Kombinat factory whose past sulphur emissions are responsible for the ecological devastation. Nickel smelting here ceased in the late 1990s but it will be a while before the environment recovers.
Category: Northern European Russia
This open-air Wooden Architecture Museum (204 164; admission R50; 10am-pm Wed-Sun Jun-Sep, 10am-3pm Wed-Sun Oct-May), 25km east of Arkhangelsk, features a large collection of 16th- to 19th-century wooden churches, windmills, watermills, bell towers, chyornye izby (‘black cottages’, so called because their lack of a full chimney resulted in smoke-stained outside walls) and more, gathered from around the Arkhangelsk Region. Don’t miss St George’s Church (Georgiyevskaya tserkov) from Vershina, dating from 1672, or the five-domed Ascension Church (Voznesenskaya tserkov) from Kushereka village, built in 1669. The natural scenery around the reserve is quite pleasant – bringing a picnic would be a splendid idea. The Mezensky section of the grounds features some of the most interesting structures and the nicest views of the surrounding valleys.
The village of Lovozero, a 110km drive northeast of Monchegorsk, is the main Sami centre on the Kola Peninsula (and in Russia). About 900 of the 2000 Russian Sami live here, though some 300 of those are away much of the year following reindeer herds. Russian Sami were forcibly collectivised and brutally suppressed here under Stalin. Today Sami culture is reviving, in part thanks to contacts with the more numerous Sami in Scandinavia. Reindeer herders and reindeer can generally only be seen in Lovozero from December till March.
The Kola Peninsula is a 100, 000-sq-km knob of tundra, forest, lakes, bogs, rivers and low mountains between the White Sea and the Barents Sea, making up most of the Murmansk oblast (region).
An old pagan ritual site, Kizhi – one of at least 1600 islands in Lake Onega – made a natural ‘parish’ for 12th-century Russian colonists. None of the early churches remain, but the churches built in this remote spot in the 18th century make Kizhi a not-to-be-missed pilgrimage site for anyone touched by the magic of old Russian archi- tecture. Since the 1950s other wooden buildings have been gathered from around Lake Onega to make the 6km-long island the centrepiece of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve(8142-519 825, in Petrozavodsk 8142-767 091; kizhi.karelia.ru; Russians/others R55/418; 8am-8pm Jun-Aug, 9am-4pm Sep-mid-Oct & 15-31 May, 10am-3pm mid- Oct-mid-May). With an ISIC card you may secure a discount on the steep admission price.
Surrounded by the Khibiny mountains and with 2km-wide Lake Bolshoy Vudyavr spread at its feet, Kirovsk is almost an attractive town. If you throw back a couple of shots, squint and look in the right direction, you might just believe you’re in a Swiss alpine village. But Kirovsk was founded in 1929 for mining the world’s deposits of apatite, the raw material of phosphate fertilisers, and the lake is fronted by rail tracks and decaying industrial plants. Still, it has the best skiing and snowboarding in northwestern Russia, with a season that can last into June and prices that will make you want to stay all year.
The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum of History, Archi- tecture & Fine Arts (31735; Sobornaya pl 1; admission R50; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun), occupying a nonworking 14th-century monastery of the same name, is the reason to visit the small town of Kirillov, 130km northwest of Vologda. Legend has it that the monastery’s founder, Kirill, was living at Moscow’s Simonovsky monastery when he had a vision of the Virgin Mary showing him the towers of a new monastery. One of Kirillov’s many marvellous icons depicts this vision.
Kem, 470km north of Petrozavodsk, has a picturesque setting where the Kem River empties into the Kemskaya Bay, but the only real reason to stop here is the daily boats to the Solovetsky Islands from Rabocheostrovsk, 10km northeast of Kem, from at least early June to late August.
The Republic of Karelia stretches from not far north of St Petersburg to the Arctic Circle – more than half of it is forest, and fully a quarter is water, including nearly all of Lake Onega and half of Lake Ladoga, the two largest lakes in Europe. Apart from the lovely capital, Petrozavodsk, it’s the rivers, lakes and islands that provide Karelia’s main appeal – and Kizhi island in Lake Onega, with its fairy-tale wooden architecture, is not to be missed.
The Solovetsky Islands are, for one reason or another, the most amazing part of many people’s visit to northwest Russia. Few vis- itors have much time for anywhere else in Arkhangelsk Region except the historic capital city. But Arkhangelsk’s excellent tourist information office has plenty of suggestions if you’re tempted to explore further.