Arkhangelsk – once Russia’s only port – is a historic though not exactly pretty city. It does have an insidious kind of beauty, however, especially on its waterfront along the 2km-wide Severnaya (Northern) Dvina River. The rest of the city is chiefly an expanse of concrete, but it’s one with broad, tree-lined streets, interspersed with surprising enclaves of old wooden houses (notably along pr Chumbarova-Luchinskogo).
Category: Northern European Russia
The Kola Peninsula’s second-largest city has grown from almost nothing in the 1960s to become a processing and transport centre for the apatite mines at nearby Kirovsk and has also become the largest scientific centre in northern Russia. Nine separate research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences are here. The nearby Khibiny and Lovozero mountains are a dreamland for rock collectors, with over 500 mineral types catalogued.