Solovetsky Island and its sights. How to get to Solovetsky Islands, what to see

Solovki islands are a unique place. On a small archipelago in the White Sea there is a unique natural, historical and cultural complex, which does not exist in the world. The largest and most rich in attractions is the island of Solovetsky, on which the famous Solovetsky Monastery has been active for more than one century.

Nature

The islands arose 9,000 years ago at one of the stages of the formation of the White Sea, when, after the melting of a large glacier, there was a compensatory uplift of the soil. 2/3 of the whole area of the archipelago is occupied by Bolshoi Solovetsky Island.

The archipelago is located in the taiga zone. Unusually picturesque and diverse landscapes of the islands: high hills are replaced by lakes, flowering meadows - extensive marshes. 70% of the area is covered with forests, mostly spruce-pine. About 5% of the area falls on tundra complexes. Dry crowberry tundra is characteristic of the coastal zone, where they are followed by a strip of horns birch (birch twisting). In the central part of the islands, on the site of felling and fires there are birch and aspen trees. Meadows on the coast and in the center of the islands occupy 0.1-0.2% of the total area and are characterized by a rich species composition of meadow vegetation. About 15% of the territory of the islands are marshes with a predominance of upper and transitional varieties. Such a wide range of landscapes, represented on an area of only about 300 km², is one of the amazing natural features of the Solovetsky archipelago.

On the islands there are more than 550 lakes. They vary in size, shape, origin, color of water, but all are very picturesque.

Where are the Solovetsky Islands

The Solovetsky archipelago, consisting of six large islands and over one hundred small ones, is located in the western part of the White Sea, 290 kilometers north-west of Arkhangelsk, the center of the Arkhangelsk Region. The total area of the islands is 300 km ². They include such islands as:

• Solovetsky (Bolshoy Solovetsky) - 218.72 km ²;
• Anzersky - 47.11 km²;
• Great Muksalma - 18.96 km ²;
• Malaya Muxalma - 1,2 km²;
• Big Third - 1.25 km²;
• Small Zayatsky - 1.1 km².

History

The history of the Solovetsky Islands begins with the mastering of them by man in the late Mesolithic age. In the III millennium BC. Sea hunters and fishermen discovered the Solovetsky Islands and began their development, which lasted until the Middle Ages. Numerous traces of their economic-utilitarian and cultic activity have been found on Solovki: more than 20 settlements, parking lots and workshops, four sanctuaries in a complex with ancient sites, many single stone labyrinths, thousands of artifacts.

Primitive inhabitants of Solovki were engaged in a specific hunt for the sea beast and insular lake-forest game, fishing, coastal gathering, the manufacture of stone implements. In the places of their camps, collections of arrows, darts, hunting axes, stone anchors, ceramics, a unique cult drilled ax and many other objects were discovered. The ancient inhabitants of the archipelago were engaged in the construction of stone labyrinths, in which the sanctuaries were built.

The founding of the stauropegic male Solovki monastery

Solovetsky Island was the site of the founding of the monastery in the 30s of the XV century by the monks Savvatiy, Herman and Zosima who came from the Kirillo-Belozersky and Valaam monasteries as the abode of the Savior and Miracle-worker Nikolai. During the XV-XVI centuries. The monastery gradually expanded, acquiring in its possession the large islands of the archipelago.

By the end of the XV century, three wooden churches were built by the monks: Uspenskaya, Nikolskaya and Preobrazhenskaya, numerous wooden cells and outbuildings surrounded by a wooden fence.

The Spiritual Bastion of the Russian North

In the middle of the 16th century the monastery entered a period of serious economic transformations connected with the name of the hegumen Philip (Kolychev), a reformer, an architect, an energetic and talented business executive. Roads were built here in the 1550s-1560s, but the island of B.Muxalma was founded by a "dairy yard" with deer and cattle. To provide the population of the monastery with running water, 52 lakes of the Solovetsky Island were connected by drinking channels. For defense in the years 1582-1594. Was erected a stone fortress wall with towers and gates. Blagoveshchenskaya (Gate Church) was built in the years 1596-1600.

During the XVII century the Solovetsky Monastery continues to be formed as the administrative, economic, spiritual, military-political and cultural center of the White Sea. In the XVIII-XX centuries. He was one of the places of exile and imprisonment of state criminals.

Soviet time

After the revolution of 1917, a new Russia began to form. Solovki islands ceased to be a spiritual center, and the monastery was abolished. In April 1920, the Arkhangelsk provincial commission began the nationalization of monastic property. It was organized by the management of the Solovetsky Islands and simultaneously organized the state farm "Solovki", which existed until 1923. The establishment of a state farm did not mean the abolition of monasticism. About 200 monks were civilian workers, a religious community was organized, whose activities were controlled by the Solovetsky Islands Authority.

The Gulag Archipelago

From 1923 to 1939, the territory of the islands and all the buildings of the former Solovetsky Monastery occupied the Solovetsky special purpose camps of the OGPU-NKVD (ELEPHANT). Organized on the basis of Kholmogorsk, Pertominsky and Arkhangelsk, the Solovetsky camps were among the largest in Russia. The composition of the prisoners in the ELEPH was changed at different times. Among them were representatives of the Russian aristocracy, the church, the intelligentsia, all pre-revolutionary political parties, criminal elements convicted of domestic affairs, representatives of national parties, and many others.

Among the people who were exiled to the SLON were figures of science and culture, writers, poets, religious figures of Russia: professor, art critic A.E. Anisimov, historian I.D. Antsiferov, the inventor BA. Artemyev, Professor S.A. Askoldov, historian B.B. Bakhtin, artist I.E. Braz, descendant of the Decembrists A.B. Bobrishchev-Dushkin, the poet M.N. Voronoy, ethnographer NN Vinogradov, the writer 0.B. Bolkov, the historian G.O. Gordon, the poet AK. Gorsky, academician D.S. Likhachev, priest, scientist-encyclopaedist D.A. Florensky and others.

Sights of the historical and cultural complex

The historical and cultural complex of the Solovetsky Islands is unique in its own way, unique in its integrity and completeness, preserved in it ensembles and complexes, cult, residential, defensive, economic, hydraulic structures, roads and irrigation systems of the Middle Ages, as well as archaeological complexes, monuments reflecting Ancient and medieval pre-monasterial island culture. They are concentrated in different parts of the large islands of the archipelago, but, interconnected geographically and historically, constitute a single, inseparable whole. Its various components represent all periods of the history of the archipelago and the whole of the Russian North.

The constituent parts of the historical and cultural complex of the Solovki Archipelago are:

• A monastery-fortress of the XV-XX centuries, a former monastic settlement of the 16th-20th centuries, sketes and deserts of the 16th-20th centuries;
• Commercial huts, island hydraulic engineering and irrigation systems;
• Complexes "sanctuary-parking" III-I millennium BC. On B. Zayatsky and the Anzersky Islands;
• Groups of memorial buildings of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp 1923-1939. On the territory of the village and on the site of a brick factory;
• Natural landscapes.

The center of the historical and cultural complex of the archipelago is the Solovetsky Monastery - an integral unique architectural ensemble. Its buildings are characterized by a rare monumentality, a bright individual appearance of many structures and at the same time the integrity of all its parts.

Other places of interest

Almost all the Solovetsky Islands are famous for archaeological and architectural monuments, historical places and amazing objects. Attractions worthy of special attention are located on the following islands:

• Anzersky: The Trinity Skete (XVII), the Trinity Church (1880-1884), the Golgotha-Crucifix Skete (XIX).
• Bolshaya Zayatsky: Zayatsky (Andrew's) monastery (XVI), boulder harbor, Kamennaya harbor (XVI), the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called.
• Big Muksalma: Sergiev Sket (XVI), a boulder dam connecting Muksalma with a large Solovetsky island (XIX).

Flora

Labyrinths of the Solovetsky Islands have become home to 500 plant species. Among the natural-territorial island complexes there are habitats of endangered and rare plant species. Scientists are engaged in their study, preservation and augmentation. Arriving on the island, you need to take care of the local flora, because a torn unusual flower can be a rare sight. The following representatives of the flora need special protection: pink radish, common wolfberry, double-leafed lily, spotted orchis, male shield, broad-leaved orchis, Siberian pine, northern nibbler, lazileuria lying, Arctic sea mustard and others.

Coastal waters of the White Sea - one of the richest in the algoflor and the most productive basin region (there are 160 species of bottom algae here).

Fauna

The animal world due to the island location of Solovki and the northern location of the archipelago is not distinguished by a large variety of mammals. Two of their kind appeared here thanks to man. This is a reindeer brought to the islands in the 16th century, and the muskrat, who appeared here in the 1920s.

More rich in the number of species of avifauna of the islands. Birds on Solovki recorded almost 200 species. Among them there are "Red Book": white-tailed eagle, osprey, piebald, dead end. Exceptional interest is represented by one of the largest colonies of polar tern in Europe and the largest colony of seagulls in Russia. The largest variety of species is the island of Solovetsky.

Of marine mammals in coastal waters, ringed seals, beluga, sea hare and the Greenland seal are common. On the coast of the Anzer Island there are massive pinnacles of pinnipeds, and to the western part of the Great Solovetsky Island there are herds of beluga whales with a population of several hundred individuals.

Ecotourism

The archipelago is of great interest to people who love nature. Not only for the sake of visiting the famous monastery, tourists come to the Solovetsky Islands. Attractions of nature are also worthy of attention. Surprisingly diverse landscapes will allow you to wander through the taiga on a compact territory, to enjoy the greenery of meadows and the beauty of lakes, to observe the wildlife.

Unique bays of the archipelago. Beautiful, with many small islands Long lip is a unique reservoir, which is inhabited by relic Arctic forms of invertebrates, representing a practically closed ecosystem. Beautiful Trinity Bay, almost two dissecting Anzersky Island.

The nature of the Solovetsky archipelago has an outstanding value, as it reflects the main periods of the postglacial geological history of the North, the history of interaction with man, contains amazingly beautiful landscapes and is the habitat of rare bird species and large bird colonies. People who are keen on their native nature are strongly advised to visit the Solovetsky Islands.

How to get to Solovki in winter

The direction of the route depends on the vagaries of the weather and the seasons. In winter, travel is severely restricted, it is possible to get an ordinary tourist to the islands exclusively by air from Arkhangelsk:

• From the airport "Talagi" on Tuesdays and Sundays the airplane of the airline "Nord Avia" (AN-24) flies. The flight time is 45 minutes.
• From the "Vaskovo" airport on Fridays, the company "2nd AAOO" (L-410) carries out flights.

How to get to the islands in summer

With the improvement of the weather, the number of possible options for visiting the Solovetsky Islands considerably increases. How to get to the archipelago in the spring-autumn period will be discussed in more detail. In addition to flights from Arkhangelsk, at this time, routes from Karelia open.

From the regions to get to Arkhangelsk it is recommended by plane or train. For road transport, local roads will be a real test. Like in winter, you can get to Solovki by air. Flights from the airport "Talagi" (NordAvia) are carried out on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. From "Vaskovo" (2nd AAOO) - on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The most romantic way is to get a boat to the Solovetsky Islands from the Karelian cities of Kem and Belomorsk. In the directions from Moscow and St. Petersburg, these cities can be reached by the Murmansk train. From the berth of Rabocheostrovsk (Kem), every day the ship "Blizzard" and "Vasily Kosyakov" sail to Solovki. From Belomorsk goes the ship "Sapphire". On the islands also run "river shuttles" - small ships that deliver pilgrims and unorganized tourists. Aircraft and ships deliver passengers to the main island - Solovetsky.