The Valaam archipelago is located 42 kilometers from the city of Sortavala and has more than 50 islands. The island is famous for its architectural ensemble of the Transfiguration Monastery, which has existed since the 14th century - it is one of the oldest male monasteries in Russia. To this day, the Transfiguration Cathedral, the Assumption Church, the hotel, the stable and water supply houses, the buildings of the White and Red Skits have survived.
* Departure time from Sortaval - daily 09.00; 11.00; 13.00

Directions by meteor, a tour of the Central Estate with a visit to the Transfiguration Monastery, lunch at the refectory, moving to Nikonovskaya Bay, an overview tour of the Red Monastery. Duration of the excursion up to 5 hours.
Cost - 58 euros/person

Ruskeala Mountain Park
Excursion cost: EUR 12/person long program (duration 1.5 hours)

SORTAVALA CITY
Cost of review tour of Sortavala 45 euro/group
Duration of 1.5 hour

We invite you to visit one of the amazing places of the Northern Rook - the Ruskeala Mountain Park - the only complex monument of its kind to the nature and history of mining.
The Ruskeala Mountain Park is located 30 kilometers from the city of Sortavala. The old and abandoned quarry for stone mining, which has been developed for almost three centuries, is now equipped for visiting tourists, admirers of historical heritage and "collectors" of natural phenomena and species. Pearl of the Mountain Park - Marble Canyon. The huge bowl, cut down by the hands of a man in a massif of marble, extends from north to south for 456 meters, its width is 109 m. Half filled with pure water of emerald hue, it is framed by both gentle and sheer rocks reaching a height of 25 meters above the water mirror. The sides of the canyon are penetrated by surface and underwater adits, shtrews and shafts. The total length of accessible and prepared for viewing workings reaches several hundred meters. Inspection of underwater mines is possible only by trained divers.
Excursion cost: EUR 12/person long program (duration 1.5 hours)

Sortavala is a classic small European town, by the will of fate, which ended up in the lands of Russia. This is one of the oldest cities in Karelia. It has the status of a historical city of all-Russian significance, has an original architectural appearance and has many excellent architectural objects. The city is often called an open-air museum of Finnish architecture. Now Sortavala is the only city in Karelia where old buildings have been preserved. Almost the entire city center is of historical value. Once in this city, be sure to pay attention to the old Finnish houses, admire the views from the marina and the bridge over Vakkolahti. Its length is 220 m, and its width is 11 meters. At one time it was the longest bridge in Finland. Opened in 1932, on the days of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the city.
About 90 buildings of the city have historical and cultural value. Here you can get acquainted with the architectural styles of different periods: Western European modernism, classicism and neoclassicism, national romanticism, pseudo-Gothic and folk wooden architecture. Several interesting buildings are located in the vicinity of the city. According to the number of architectural monuments registered with the state, the territory of the Sortaval Council ranks first among all districts of Karelia. There are 466 such objects here - almost a third of all architectural monuments of Karelia.
The main attraction of Sortaval remains, of course, the unique nature in its beauty and the largest European lake called Ladoga. One cannot but say about the wonderful nature of the Karelian Territory, it was she who attracted musicians, poets, artists to Sortaval. Two years in Sortavala lived with the family N.K. Rerich. Here he painted famous literary works and about 200 paintings. And he was not alone inspired by the beauty of the edge. It was here that the famous song "It Will Be Long Karelia Dreams" was written by composer A. Kolkerom.

Interesting facts

Sortavala land was involved in the creation of Kalevala - in the summer of 1828, the outstanding Finnish folklorist scientist Elias Lennrot, the compiler of the world famous epic, visited Sortavala in search of runes. The sculpture of Alpo Saylo, depicting the rune-singer Petri Shemeikka, was installed on the cozy Väinemeinen Square in 1935 in honor of the centenary of the first edition of the famous epic Kalevala.Cost of review tour of Sortavala 45 euro/group
Duration of 1.5 hour

This is a unique museum of wood carving by People's Artist of Russia Kronid Gogolev, attracting the attention of all visitors to the city without exception. The exhibition hall presents paintings and samples of woodcarving, oil paintings, watercolors and drawings of the 1960-2000s. Woodcarving performed by Kronid Gogolev is a unique phenomenon: in its multi-layered reliefs from linden or alder, the life and life of the Russian village is recreated. A number of watercolors and drawings are devoted to the harsh Ladoga nature, the island of Valaam, the hometown of Sortavala. The exhibition hall is actively developing, in 2013 an art studio and creative workshops were opened. Master classes are often held, where you can independently make a souvenir for memory.

Opening hours from 10-00 to 20-00

The Regional Museum of North Rook is the only local history museum in the city of Sortavala. The museum is located in a monument building built in 1903, and known as the city estate of Dr. Winter. The revamped North Rook Museum opened its doors to visitors in December 2014. The interior of the museum has been completely renovated, modern technologies have come to the museum. For the convenience of visitors, a new track lighting system, WI-FI, is made, on the windows there are QR codes of objects, photo frames, where you can get additional information on each section.

Tour duration 1 hour

The Svartbjornborg Museum of Viking Living History is a new interactive project in Karelia, Sortavala.
"Svartbjornborg," not a classical museum, but a living history, where there are no objects behind the glass, where all the expositions are located in the public domain and everyone can touch absolutely everything with their hands. In fact, "Svartbjornborg" is the first, not only in Karelia, but also in Russia as a whole, large-scale project of practical archeology, since all the buildings and exhibits of the museum are reproduced according to archaeological finds that have reached us in one degree or another.

In the museum of living history, you can not only immerse yourself in the atmosphere of long-gone times, but also taste honeybees. For tasting, three or six varieties of "Hop Honey" are offered, prepared according to old recipes exclusively from natural ingredients without adding dyes and preservatives.
The tasting is carried out in a game, animation form and on the territory of the Swartbjörnborg Museum of Living History.

If you look at the map of Lake Ladoga, then the peculiar shape of its northern shores is immediately striking. This area of   Ladoga is called skerries. Ladoga skerries are a chain of rocky islands framing the coastline cut by bays and narrow straits in the northwestern part of Lake Ladoga. There are about 500 islands separated by a maze of narrow straits. The glory of one of the most picturesque corners in the North-West has long been entrenched in the Ladoga skerries.

We offer you walks along the Ladoga skerries on boats. You will not only be fascinated by the beauty of the unique Ladoga skerries, but also learn a lot new and interesting about their history.. There are many sights: what are the inner lakes alone on the islands, with a level difference of 70 meters, countless monuments, the remains of ancient "fortresses on the hills" of the Viking and ancient Karelians. And if you are lucky, then you will meet the Ladoga seal - this is a unique animal, a relic of the ice age, listed in the Red Books of Russia, Karelia and in the list of rare animal species of the World Union for Conservation of Nature.

Not far from the Mountain Park there is a zoogrinpark - an interesting zoo in a quiet corner of Karelia.

The zoo contains unique species of animals, from various parts of Russia and the world - noble and spotted deer, roe deer, llamas, alpaca, domestic yaks, muflons, marals, heel pigs, African ostriches, various breeds of geese, ducks, caesars and chickens, as well as other rare species of animals listed in the Red Book.

All animals live in spacious aviaries, which facilitates visitors' access to the inhabitants. Zoogrinpark receives guests at any time of the year. Experienced guides will conduct excursions and tell you about each resident of the zoo.

On the territory of the zoo park there is a contact children's zoo, where there are no fences or cages. Everyone can be touched, stroked, fed and photographed with them for memory. In the children's zoo live: dwarf sheep, deer, Cameroonian goats, rabbits, Shetlen ponies and other animals!

Holy Trinity Alexander Svirsky Monastery is an Orthodox monastery in the Leningrad Region, 21 km from the city of Lodeynoye Pole.

The monastery, founded by St. Rev. Alexander Svirsky at the end of the 15th century in the deaf Olonets Territory, quickly gained fame. People began to flock here: both monks and those seeking help. During the life of the founder, the monastery was formed as two complexes connected to each other, but independently located: the Trinity part with fraternal cells and Preobrazhenskaya - next to the cemetery. Both complexes today represent a single monument of architectural buildings of the XVI-XIX centuries.
Thousands of pilgrims literally come from all over the world to this remote monastery. Many of them are honored to see the miracle of myrrrh. Over the 500-year period of its existence, the life of the monastery was outwardly little different from the life of other monasteries in Russia: flourishes and falls, invasions of enemies, fires, looting, the restoration of churches again and strict monastery life, unassuming prayers and work. In the best of times, the monastery had 8 temples, a rich sacristy, dearly decorated icons, a rich book depository with ancient manuscripts, scrolls and books. There were years when only the main shrine remained in the monastery after the destruction - the relics of St. St. Alexander Svirsky, and several monks. 
Most of the buildings are well preserved, demonstrating the high art of the architects who built them. The oldest building of the monastery is the stone church of the Protection of the Mother of God, built in 1533. Its construction was carried out with donations from Tsar Vasily III. Stone Transfiguration Cathedral with the chapel of St. Alexander Svirsky (1644). The stone cathedral of the Life-Giving Trinity was built in 1791, but before that there was a wooden church built by the founder of the monastery himself, and consecrated in 1509. The church of John Damascus was built in 1718. The stone chapel of St. Trinity was built on the place where, according to legend, the Holy Trinity appeared to St. Alexander Svirsky. Tsars, Grand Dukes, Russian emperors, family boyars and nobles, merchants made large contributions to the construction of churches and monastery buildings. Information about each of them was recorded by the careful hand of the monks in the "Census Books." Most of the monastery archive has been preserved and placed in the National Public Library, the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in three historical archives of St. Petersburg.

The Kizhi Museum-Reserve is located on the island of Kizhi in Lake Onega - this is 68 km from the city of Petrozavodsk. For more than 40 years, the museum has been studying, preserving and popularizing the spiritual and material heritage of the indigenous peoples of Karelia.
Currently, the island of Kizhi is worldwide famous. The Kizhi Museum is one of the largest museums of peasant culture in the Russian North. The collection of architectural monuments collected in it has 89 monuments of traditional wooden architecture: ancient chapels and houses, mills and barns, Riga and hanging...
The pearl of the meeting is the 22nd main Transfiguration Church 37 meters high. This is truly a work of its time, incorporating all the previous experience and the best traditions of northern wooden architecture, time, reflecting the desire for special splendor and outfit, which has survived to this day. Unfortunately, the names of the creators of the Transfiguration Church are unknown.
The legend of the master Nestor has been preserved, who, having completed his creation, threw an ax into the waters of Lake Onega with the words: "It was not, no and it will not be." However, this is all just a beautiful legend. Next to her, emphasizing her greatness and harmony, a winter church of the Protection of the Virgin and a bell tower were erected. Plastic, picturesque in silhouette structures are skillfully inscribed in the surrounding nature and make up a harmonious, unique in beauty ensemble.In addition to their beauty, they are interesting in that they are made without a single nail and screw. Kizhi is not only a museum of wooden architecture, but also the traditional culture of the peoples of Karelia. After all, it is so interesting to see what our ancestors used in everyday life... The ethnographic collection of the museum has about 30 thousand objects that existed in the villages of Karelia in the XIX-XX centuries.
The interior of the Church of the Protection of the Virgin and peasant houses are open to visitors. Traditional peasant crafts are demonstrated in huts, bell ringers sound over the island. The colorful performance of the Museum's Folklore and Ethnographic Theater will complement the idea of   the life of peasants. An unforgettable impression will be given to tourists whose stay on the island coincides with one of the museum holidays.

Solovetsky archipelago (Solovki) is a historical, architectural and natural museum-reserve. In 1967, the Solovetsky State Historical, Architectural and Nature Museum-Reserve was founded, and in 1992 the Solovetsky complex was added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.
Located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, 150 km from the Arctic Circle. The archipelago consists of 6 large and many small islands.

The most famous is the Big Solovetsky Island - the island began to be developed first and still has the only village of the archipelago, the main museum and monastery values   of Solovkov. The Solovetsky Monastery is located on this island. The monastery is located on the isthmus between Holy Lake and Welfare Bay on the Big Solovetsky Island. The foundation date of the monastery is considered to be 1436 - the time of the appearance of St. Zosima on Solovki. Before the modern stone monastery was built, there were wooden buildings of the XV - early XVI centuries. The architectural ensemble of the monastery includes: Solovetsky Transfiguration Cathedral, Annunciation Gate Church, monastery fortress, structures of the monastery village and skits, a unique system of hydraulic structures and some other buildings.

The territory of the monastery is surrounded by massive walls (height - from 8 to 11 meters, thickness - from 4 to 6 meters) with 7 gates and 8 towers, built in 1584-1594 under the direction of the architect Tryphon. The walls are built of huge stones up to 5 meters in size. On the territory of the monastery there are religious buildings connected by covered passages, surrounded by residential and economic premises. The Solovetsky monastery ceased to function as a religious structure with the advent of Soviet power on Solovki and a special-purpose camp (in 1920), but from October 25, 1990 it resumed its activities
The picturesque rugging of the Solovetsky shores, boulder deposits along the sea, wide swathes of mixed forests, lakes scattered among them are unique. For many years of life on the islands, people connected parts of them by roads, connected the canals of the lake, cleared hayfields, and built dams. Harbors, fishing tony, fish gardens were built on the islands, a dock was built, many crafts and crafts were established.
Every year, many tourists and pilgrims visit Solovki - they are in a hurry to get acquainted with the sights of the islands and, first of all, to see the magnificent structures of the Solovetsky monastery sheepishly inspired by legends.
The operational management of the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve contains more than 1000 cultural heritage sites within the chronological boundaries from the 5th millennium BC to the 20th century. These are archaeological sites: primitive sites, chapels, sanctuaries - unique evidence of the "maze era." These are unique examples of medieval monumental Russian architecture - churches, chapels, cell buildings, a fortress - built for centuries, reliable and majestic. This is a system of hydraulic structures - docks, canals, marinas - interconnected and organically fitting into the fragile ecosystem of the islands. These are utility buildings - a hydroelectric power station, a mill, dried - created according to the latest modern technology for their time and striking the imagination of their contemporaries.The most visited objects of the Solovetsky Islands include the Kremlin, the Ascension Church, the Botanical Garden, the Philippov Islands, the labyrinths of the Great Zayatsky Island, the Muksalm Dam, and the man-made system of canals and lakes.