Kargopol, Solvychegodsk and Veliky Ustyug

08:30 Breakfast.

09:00 Bus and walking expedition to "Oshevenskaya volost".

In addition to the village of Oshevenskoye, the route will be to the villages of Saunino and Pogost (50 km). This is the second most important place in Kargopol, where you should definitely visit. An ancient, reviving monastery, wooden architecture and traditional crafts from the Russian north coexist here at the same time. 

The village of Oshevenskoye is an outstanding historical and landscape monument of the Russian North. Residential buildings in the old layout organically coexist with chapels, churches, and the monastery complex. But there are also artifacts of pagan culture preserved here – votive crosses, a holy grove, and cult worship stones. And it's amazing!

There is a church of St. John Chrysostom in the village of Saunino.

This is a tent temple built in 1665. Inside, the temple is covered with a picturesque ceiling – "painted skies". The hexagonal bell tower of the XVIII century gives the whole ensemble a complete and unique look. Ensembles of wooden architecture monuments are also expected in the village with the wonderful name Pogost. 

In ancient times, this word meant not only a cemetery, but also a common place of nearby settlements. Not all the settlements have been preserved, but the village of Pogost has been preserved and is part of the Association of the most beautiful Villages in Russia. That's why people come here from different lands – near and very far.

12:00 Village lunch in the Oshev style with homemade bread and pies from a Russian oven. 

After lunch, we continue our acquaintance with Kargopol – we go to the village of Archangel, where on the left bank of the Onega River there are two wooden churches — Archangel Michael (1715) and Candlemas of the Lord (circa 1820). The first is unique in that it is completed with a cubic roof, known only in Poonezhye and on the Prionezhsky shore of the White Sea. Cuba has a traditional five-domed church. The apse is blocked by a barrel. The Sretensky Church has a helmet-shaped roof with a cupola. The Temple of the Presentation of the Lord belongs to the type of tiered temples.

13:30 We return to Kargopol along the ancient postal route through the village of Volosovo, where the ruined remains of St. Nicholas wooden church (1670) are located. 

The village of Volosovo is also known in the history of Poonezhye as one of the "schismatic nests". One of the last self-immolations took place here in 1860.

15:00 Free time to continue exploring the city on your own. 

For an additional fee are offered: 

• suburban bus tour to the village of Bolshye Lyadiny (37 km) with a check–in (if there is a driveway) to the village of Krasnaya Lyaga, where the unique Candlemas Church (1655) with amazing exterior decoration has been preserved (self-inspection). External inspection of the multi–headed Church of the Epiphany (1793) with a semicircular porch - cemetery in the village of Lyadiny. Visit to the ethnographic museum "Lyadinskoe uzorochye" (the revival of the linen industry, objects of peasant life, the history of the village). The cost of the tour is 2,500 rubles per person.
• inspection of exhibitions and expositions of the Kargopol Museum. The price is according to the museum's price list.
• Visit to the Bereginya Folk Crafts Center, which is located in a building that is an architectural monument of the early 19th century. Traveling through the workshops of the Folk Crafts Center, you will come into contact with traditional northern crafts – birch bark weaving, patchwork, folk rag doll, weaving, clay toy. "Reborn Craft" is the name of the exposition of our small museum, which preserves the warmth of the hands and souls of craftsmen in the images and plots of clay toys. Souvenir shop. The price is according to the price list of the center.

18:00 Dinner (extra charge). 

22:30 Room release. Transfer to Nyandoma station (78 km). 

00:45 Departure by train No. 371 Arkhangelsk – Kotlas.

10:46 Arrival at Kotlas Yuzhny station. 

Meeting of tourists at the main entrance to the railway station from the side of the platform with a sign.

Transfer to Solvychegodsk (30 km).

12:00 Sightseeing walking tour – Saline Lake, mineral spring, Vychegda river embankment.  

Excursion to the Annunciation Cathedral, the house church of the Stroganov merchants (XVI century), which houses the exposition of the Solvychegodsky Historical and Architectural Museum. 

Frescoes and an iconostasis from the 17th century have been preserved in the interior of the temple. The bell tower of the cathedral offers a wonderful panorama of this small county town. An introduction to the Vvedensky Monastery, founded in the 17th century near the Salt Lake, on the shore of which a salt barn has been preserved. 

The main temple of the monastery, the Vvedensky Cathedral, has preserved an impressive seven–tiered carved iconostasis and icons of the "Stroganov" school of the 17th century. Note: during the day of sightseeing, there is time for an independent snack in a cafe in Solvychegodsk.

16:00 Transfer to Veliky Ustyug (101 km).

18:00 Accommodation at the Dvina Hotel in rooms with amenities. 

Dinner (on your own). 

08:30 Breakfast in the hotel cafe. Room release.

09:00 Sightseeing walking tour with a visit to the church of Prokopius of Ustyuzha.

During the tour, tourists will visit the Cathedral Courtyard, get acquainted with the ensemble of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Monastery (founded in the 12th century), see beautiful monuments of stone architecture – the Churches of the Transfiguration of the Savior and the Sretensky Transfiguration of the 12th-18th centuries, the churches of the Ascension and St. Nicholas of the 17th century, monuments of civil architecture, stroll along the embankment of the Sukhona River. 

11:30 a.m. Visit to the souvenir shops "Severnaya rabble" and "Korobeinik".

12:00 An excursion to the Museum of Ancient Russian Art is held at the Church of the Ascension. 

The Museum of Ancient Russian Art was created in the architectural monument of the 17th century – the Church of the Ascension, where a museum tour was organized. 

Today, the temple is a rare monument, distinguished by the integrity of its interior. Ustyug icon painting is especially vividly represented in the Museum of Ancient Russian Art. About 70 monuments of icon painting of the XV–XVII centuries are on display, 33 of them are shown for the first time. 

Note: in case of a weekend or a sanitary day at the Church of the Ascension, the tour is replaced by a sightseeing tour of the museum's storage facility. 

Summary: in the depository – the repository of museum funds, a sightseeing tour of the museum's storehouse is conducted – numerous collections, including tiles and furniture, artistic birch bark and samovars, glass and porcelain, books and documents. 

Large areas of the exhibition are devoted to the storage of collections of objects accessible to visitors. The sightseeing tour includes: a collection of tiles with more than three and a half thousand items of storage, a collection of spinning wheels and furniture, a collection of birch bark products, a collection of porcelain and earthenware, a collection of bone products. 

The largest group of objects in the sightseeing tour is all kinds of caskets, boxes, caskets of different sizes. Among the household items, mostly in well–to-do homes, there were various objects made of bone - fans, sewing machines, paper knives, combs. 

The abundance of monasteries and churches in the Russian North has determined another type of work of bone cutters: icons, crosses, icons. Icons were mounted from bone plates and figures on a rectangular board on a foil or fabric background. A collection of metal objects is presented in a separate room of the storage facility. 

Basically, these are samovars: kettle samovars, camping samovars. Also on the sightseeing tour you can see rainbow bells of different sizes, candlesticks, candelabra, locks, large and small keys. 

13:00 Lunch at a cafe.

14:00 For an additional fee, you can choose from:

• A trip to the Country Estate of Santa Claus – a visit to the fabulous terem of the gray wizard, the Trail of fairy tales and the forge of Santa Claus. The cost is 3,900 rubles per person.
• Excursion to the museum of the Severnaya Rabble factory. The cost is 600 rubles per person.
• Excursion to the ethnographic museum "Art of the Ustyuzha land" in the St. Nicholas Church building. The rich stock collections allowed us to show a variety of folk art of the Ustyuzha region of the XVII – early XX centuries: patterned weaving (pestle, remiz, brane, elective), embroidery, cubic stuffing, wood carving and painting, forging and cutting, ceramics. The cost starts from 1,250 rubles per person.
• Excursion to the Trinity-Gledensky Monastery. 

Summary: at the confluence of the Sukhona and Yuga rivers, the city of Gleden stood on a high hill in ancient times. A monastery in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity was founded near the city, which is rightfully considered one of the oldest in the Russian North. 

The iconostasis, which was restored in the 70s of the 20th century by Moscow restorers, is admired by everyone who comes on a museum tour to the Trinity-Gledensky Monastery. 

• Visit to Dymkovskaya sloboda. Panorama of the embankment of Veliky Ustyug. Notes: the tour is a bus and pedestrian tour, conducted only in summer (from May to September). The cost is 3,000 rubles per person
• Excursion to the Mikhailo-Archangel Cathedral, decorated with a tall three-tiered carved gilded iconostasis of the 17th and 18th centuries, which combines two styles - Baroque and classicism. 

On the porch of the cathedral, four paintings of different times from the 17th and 18th centuries have been preserved, including the unique "Parables of the Elders."  

Notes: the tour is a walking tour, conducted only in summer (from May to September). The cost is 1,250 rubles per person.

17:45 Transfer to Kotlas Yuzhny (70 km).

19:22 Departure of tourists by train No. 97 Vorkuta – S.St. Petersburg.

20:12 Departure of tourists by train No. 375 Vorkuta – Moscow.