Karelia, ecology and nature

Flight to SAINT PETERSBURG

Arrival of the group in SAINT PETERSBURG.

Meeting with the guide. Transfer to the hotel. Check in at the hotel and dinner.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

City tour:

Visit to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the fortress (an architectural monument of Peter the Great Baroque. From 1733 to 2012, the Cathedral, 122.5 meters high, was the tallest building in St. Petersburg. Until 1952, it was the tallest in Russia).

St. Isaac's Cathedral is currently the largest Orthodox church in St. Petersburg and one of the highest domed structures in the world. The construction continued from 1818 to 1858. St. Isaac's Cathedral is considered the latest building in the style of classicism and since 1928 has the status of a museum.

Return to the hotel and dinner at the restaurant.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and check out.

Departure of the group to the capital of Karelia - Petrozavodsk.

Check in and dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

City tour:

The foundation date of the city of Petrozavodsk is September 1, 1703, when, on the instructions of Peter the Great, the construction of an arms factory was started on the shore of Lake Onega.

The date of assignment of the status of the city is March 21, 1777.

The pride of Petrozavodsk is the embankment of Lake Onega, built in 1994.

Temple of Alexander Nevsky (the temple was built in 1832 in the style of late classicism), the Catherine Church (1878) and the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross (1852).

Transfer to the port. A trip to the island of Kizhi on the ship "Meteor" (1 hour 15 minutes through Lake Onega).

Kizhi Museum-Reserve is an open-air museum. Today, 87 monuments of wooden architecture dating back to the 16th-18th centuries have gathered in the reserve. The museum-reserve, in addition to historical significance, has value as a natural park.

The architectural ensemble of Kizhi Pogost is the most significant exhibition site of the museum on the island of Kizhi. The architectural ensemble has two wooden churches built in the XVIII century - the Transfiguration and Intercession churches.

The first mention of temples on the island of Kizhi in historical documents refers to the XVI century.

The Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an elongated rectangle with a pentahedral altar. The church was built in 1694. The height of the church is 26 m.

Transfiguration Church (1714). The church was built without a single nail and has twenty-two gilded domes.

The unique eight-winged windmill was designed and built by Bikanin, an ordinary peasant, in 1928. The church was moved from the village of Volkostrov.

Oshevnev House - a large two-story house-museum, combining residential and utility rooms under its roof. It is a house characteristic of peasants of the late XIX century. The house was restored in 1951 according to the project of Ilyin.

Return to Petrozavodsk and dinner with national Karelian dishes.

Overnight at the hotel.

Early check out. Guests will be offered lunch boxes for breakfast.

Departure to the city of Sortavala.

The city of Sortavala is one of the oldest and most beautiful cities of the Republic of Karelia.

There are three squares left in this place (at the moment there are two squares left). Sortavala differs from other cities of Karelia with a peculiar historical and cultural appearance formed by three states: Sweden, Finland and Russia. The city’s birth year is 1632.

In 1990, the city of Sortavala was included in the list of historical cities of Russia. The city is often called an open-air museum of Finnish architecture. Now Sortavala is the only one in the city of Karelia where the old buildings have been preserved. In the central and northern parts of Sortavala, stone buildings of the late 20th century have been preserved. This is mainly typical Finnish architecture in the style of northern Art Nouveau and neoclassicism.

Departure to the island of Valaam on the ship "Meteor" (50 minutes to Lake Ladoga).

Valaam - a small island in Lake Ladoga - the main place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians in Karelia.

The key architectural complex of Valaam is the Transfiguration Monastery.

Presumably the monastery was founded in 1329.

From 1812 to 1940 it belonged to Finland and was the most important monastery.

Lunch at the refectory. Departure on the ship "Meteor" to that part of the island called the "New Jerusalem".

In 1999, the archipelago received the status of a natural park called the Valaam Archipelago. Its area is 24.7 thousand hectares, most of it falls on water bodies. The park was created to protect the unique natural complexes of the Valaam Islands and adjacent islands.

The monastery complex is located in the northern part of Valaam Island on a hilltop near Monastery Bay.

It finally formed in 1862.

At a distance of 1.5 km from the monastery complex on the small Nikolsky Island is the Nikolsky Skete. It is considered one of the most beautiful monasteries of the archipelago. Wooden bridges are laid to the island through small straits. The monastery was founded in the XVIII century. The current St. Nicholas Church was erected in 1853 on the site of a wooden chapel in 1809 and a lighthouse. The church stands on a hilltop. The church was built in the tradition of Moscow architecture of the XV-XVI centuries. Inside the temple, murals have been preserved that tell of the life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the patron saint of sailors and travelers.

Gethsemane monastery is 5 km away from the monastery estate. This monastery was the last in the project of creating "Russian Jerusalem". The Gethsemane monastery consists of two buildings, the Church of the Assumption (1911) and the chapel of the Ascension of the Lord (1906). This complex is unique in that it is completely wooden, and all buildings are created in the same style and color scheme.

The Resurrection Skete stands at the end of the Main Monastery Road near Bolshaya Nikonovskaya Bay. A chapel on the site of a modern monastery was founded in 1846 and was consecrated in the name of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. A stone church in its place appeared in the period from 1901 to 1906. The church is a bit like the temple of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

In the western part of the complex is the Smolensky monastery. It was founded at the beginning of the 20th century, therefore it is the youngest monastery of the archipelago. In 1917, a stone church and a wooden cell building were built on the site of an old wooden chapel, but in the 30s they were destroyed. Nowadays, construction in the Smolensk monastery has begun anew.

Opposite from the Smolensk monastery, across the strait on a rocky cape is the Konevsky monastery. It began to be erected in 1858, when a chapel was moved here from the Baptist Island. The current church monastery is the smallest on Valaam. It was built on the site of a temple destroyed in the mid-20th century.

Return to Sortavala. Dinner at the hotel restaurant and overnight.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Check-out.

Departure to SAINT PETERSBURG