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Seven of the Most Beautiful Villages in Russia
Peaceful, charming, rustic living in the Russian countryside...
There is an online list of the most beautiful villages in Russia, which includes settlements that have retained the rural way of life and have not completely turned into museums. No more than 2,000 people live in these towns. It is important that the village has a picturesque view, harmonizes with the landscape, and preserves traditional buildings.
There are 44 villages and a couple of small towns on this list. All of them are different: there are villages with thousand-year-old fortresses and villages that are decorated with a church. There are also small northern villages with beautiful wooden chapels and amazing windmills, as well as large settlements with merchant houses.
Selected from this list, here are 7 of the most picturesque and interesting villages in various regions of Russia:
Staraya Ladoga
Located in the Leningrad region
Staraya Ladoga in the Leningrad region is called the first capital of Russia. The village was founded in the year 753. It is located 15 km from Lake Ladoga, near the Volkhov River. The distance from St. Petersburg to Staraya Ladoga is about 130 km.
The main attraction of the settlement is the Staraya Ladoga fortress, which was founded in the 9th century. According to legend, Prince Rurik stayed in it with his squad. A stone fortress on the site of the first wooden fortress appeared at the end of the 15th century. On its territory, St. George's Church with a fresco of the 12th century has been preserved.
In total, there are 6 churches, 2 monasteries, a chapel, a tract, and an earthen city in Staraya Ladoga. There is a 15th century street and merchant houses with museums. All of them are included in the Staraya Ladoga Historical, Architectural, Archaeological Museum-Reserve. Village houses and vegetable gardens of the inhabitants of Staraya Ladoga adjoin the fortress and monasteries.
Kinerma
Located in Karelia
Kinerma is the most famous village in Karelia, located 100 km from Petrozavodsk. The town is over 500 years old. In the 16th century it was burned by the Swedes, and in the 17th century it was destroyed by the Lithuanians and Russian Cossacks. But the locals restored Kinerma each time.
The village is small: there are 17 houses, 7 baths, an old cemetery, and a 200-year-old chapel of Our Lady of Smolensk. You can walk around it in 40 minutes.
Now it is a monument of folk wooden architecture and an example of a settlement in Karelia in the 19th century. It has a circular layout with a chapel and a cemetery in the center. In other Karelian villages, the chapel and cemetery are located outside the settlement.
In Kinerma, you can stay overnight, eat in a peasant's house, take a steam bath, buy souvenirs, take a master class on making Karelian pies, or take a guided tour and drink tea with pies. Tours and workshops are conducted by locals. Only 14 people live here permanently. For them, tourism is a way to save the village.
Kimzha
Located in the Arkhangelsk region
Kimzha is located beyond the Arctic Circle, 350 km from Arkhangelsk. It was founded at the beginning of the 16th century. There are 71 historical monuments here, including the wooden five-domed tent-roofed Hodegetrievskaya Church built in 1709. Even in Kimzha, traditional Pomeranian houses of the 19th century have been preserved. All of them are over a hundred years old, and many are still inhabited. The permanent population of the village is about 100 people.
The most unusual thing in Kimzha is the northern wooden pole mills, which stand on log cabins. One of them was built in 1897. The mill mechanism did not work, but in 2010 it was restored.
The inhabitants of Kimzha themselves achieved the restoration of their church, received two grants to create museums in the village, and organized an international mill festival. Here, children are taught Russian crafts at school, most holidays are celebrated according to the church canons, and they still carol at Christmas…
To see the full list of 7 beautiful Russian villages, follow this Global Orthodox link: