Karelia highlights

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Highlights of your journey:  

• The Blue Road, an international tourist route, runs through Karelia and connects Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
• UNESCO-World Heritage List: Solovetsky monastery and museum of wooden architecture on Kizhi Island in Lake Onega. The Kizhi museum exhibits the architecture of various nationalities and ethnic groups of Karelia.
• The Valaam archipelago in Lake Ladoga, an outstanding cultural historical complex of the still active Orthodox monastery.
• The Martial Waters Spa, the first Russian health resort established by Peter the Great in the early 18th century.
• Galleries of Stone Age - petroglyphs on the banks of Lake Onego and the White Sea.
• Europe's largest lowland waterfall Kivach.
• Stone labyrinths more than 2 thousand years old.
  

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• The history of Valaam: The history of the monastery is not exactly known and is surrounded by many legends. The monks believe that it was founded by two Greek monks who came to Russia with the first Christian missionaries. According to an old monastery legend, there were some pagan tribes who lived on the island of Valaam and worshiped the god Vaal. While visiting the Slavic and Scythian territories, the apostle Andrew came to the Russian North and reached Valaam island. Here he converted the pagans and predicted an important role for Valaam in the history of Russian Christianity

• The history of Solovki: During Stalin's times the Solovky monastery was used as a so-called “special camp” for Russian political prisoners. Although it was just one of many such camps, the history of this archipelago became known to everyone due to the world-famous novel “Gulag Archipelago”, by the famous Russian writer, dissident and historian Alexander Solzhenizyn