Must-see attractions in Northern European Russia

  • Solovetsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Transfiguration Monastery (iconic view, Solovki Kremlin). White Sea, Russia, Arkhangelsk region, Solovki island; Shutterstock ID 1737751220; your: Sloane Tucker; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI
1737751220

    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…

  • 17th-century wooden churches and bell tower of Kizhi Pogost historical site.

    Kizhi Museum Reserve

    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…

  • Church of the Ascension, Gora Sekirnaya, Solovetsky Island, Russia.

    Gora Sekirnaya

    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…

  • St. Sophia Cathedral on an early August morning, Vologda, Russia.

    St Sofia’s Cathedral

    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…

  • Bolshoy Zayatsky Island

    Bolshoy Zayatsky Island

    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…

  • The Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Kargopol, Russia.

    Nativity Cathedral

    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 …

  • The Northern Maritime Museum in Arkhangelsk, Russia.

    Northern Naval Museum

    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…

  • Aerial view of Vologda Kremlin in Vologda, Russia.

    Kremlin

    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…

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Petrozavodsk, Russia.

    Fine Arts Museum

    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…

  • Regional Studies Museum

    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…

  • Fine Arts Museum

    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…

  • Kirillo Belozersky monastery in the Vologda region of Russia.

    Kirillov-Belozersky Monastery

    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…

  • Residential buildings of the Holy Trinity Skete on Anzer Island, Solovetsky Islands.

    Anzer Island

    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…

  • Transfiguration Monastery

    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…

  • Nikonovskaya Area

    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.

  • Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery

    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…

  • Yamka

    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…

  • 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…

  • Kronid Gogolev Museum

    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…

  • Regional Studies Museum

    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…

  • Saviour-Sumorin Monastery

    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…

  • Kuskov Museum

    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…

  • Seafarers’ Museum

    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…

  • Captured British Mark V Tank

    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…

  • Gostiny Dvor

    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…

  • Archangel Mikhail Cathedral

    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…

  • EK Plotnikova House-Museum

    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…

  • St John Chrysostom Church

    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…

  • Museum of Regional Studies

    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…

  • World of Forgotten Things

    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…

  • Bolshaya Muksalma Island

    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…

  • Veronica's Veil Chapel

    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…

  • Peter the Great House

    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…

  • Lace Museum

    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…

  • Art Department

    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…

  • Petri Shemeikka

    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…

  • Botanical Garden

    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…