As soon as it was not called the city of Priozersk - and Korela, and Kexholm, and Kyakisalmi, but all because the city has a rather long and very interesting story. It was founded back in the distant twelfth century and through him even held the second on the account of the water-trading path, which was then called "from the Varyag in the Greeks" and was always a lackless piece for neighboring states.
Priozersk is geographically located on the Karelian Isthmus in the northwestern part of the Leningrad region. Since he alternately was Swedish, then Finnish, and later the Russian city, it could not not affect his cultural and on his architectural look. In the vicinity of the city there are a lot of objects with both Finnish and Swedish names. In the same city, as in its surroundings, there are intentions and Orthodox churches and Lutheran chicks built in different centuries.
The most interesting attraction of Priozersk is of course the old fortress of the Korela. The exact date of its construction is so kind and unknown, or it was the ninth, or the twelfth century. But in any case, the initial wooden fortress is not exactly preserved, and what we see now was built much later.
The territory of the fortress is relatively small itself, so it can be easily bypaced for a maximum of two or three hours. Here, the stone buildings of the medieval period are well preserved - the round tower, the powder cellar and the old arsenal. Of course, it is worthwhile to turn on the round tower built by the Swedes at the end of the sixteenth century. She then played the most important in the defense of the city.
In the eighteenth-nineteenth century, this tower was used as a prison and since it contained a wife with the children of Emelyan Pugachev, then the tower has a second name - Pugachevskaya. In the same tower contained five Decembrists in anticipation of the court. You can go inside the tower and see the decoration of her rooms that have passed the reconstruction. And in the premises of the new and Suvorovsky Arsenals there are very interesting exhibits of the local local lore museum.
The "swan song" of the famous Finnish architect Armaas Lindgren became very beautiful and majestic Lutheran Kirch in Priozersk. It was completely folded from the boulders brought from the shores of Lake Ladoga, and in its appearance heavily resembles a medieval fortress, despite the fact that it was built in 1930.
A very unusual appearance in Priozersk has the church of all saints belonging to the Diocese of the Valaam Monastery. It was built on the territory of the old cemetery of the eighteenth century on the means of the merchant daughter of Avdoti Andreva, so the church is very often called Andreevskaya. The unusualness of this church is to mix the architectural styles applied by the Finnish architect - Old Russian, Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Classicism.
In Priozersk, you must certainly visit the Konede Christmas-Virgin Monastery. It is located on the island of Konevets five kilometers from the shore in the western part of Lake Ladoga. The name of this island gave a huge boulder horse-stone, which, in ancient times, local residents - Korela brought every year a sacrificing horse.
At the very end of the fourteenth century, the Rev. Father Arseny landed on the island, who intended to create a monastic monastery. Twice the island captured the Swedish troops and destroyed the monastery, but he nevertheless rebuilt again. Nowadays, the holy relics of the Rev. Father Arsenia are kept on the island in the Christmas Cathedral of the Saint Virgin in the very place he himself sometimes chose. It is also of particular interest is the chapel on horse stone, which the Monk built here after driving out of here evil spirits.
In Priozersk there is also a very interesting monument to Mowgli - the hero of the Kipling books. It was built back in 1967 and is the only one in Russia. The author of the monument was then another beginning sculptor-trait Boris Kargod. But he did not yet explain to anyone why I decided to establish a sculpture from the Indian fairy tale in the distant Priozersk.