The 10 Best Museums in Onega Lake, Northwestern District

The State “Kizhi” Museum is located on the Island of Kizhi in Lake Onega, in 68 km. distance from Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia. The Museum has been researching, preserving and popularizing culture of the native peoples of Karelia for more than 40 years. The collection of the Open-Air “Kizhi” Museum includes 83 monuments of wooden architecture: old chapels and houses, windmills and granaries, threshing barns and racks for drying crops…The gem of this collection is the 22 domed Church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior, 37 meters height. The Church of the Intercession of Holy Mary and the Bell-Tower located nearby emphasize the harmony and magnificence of the main Church. The guests of the museum can visit the Church of the Intercession of Holy Mary and peasant homesteads. Traditional crafts are demonstrated in peasant houses; wind flows bell-ringing over the island. Wonderful performance of the Museum folk ensemble supplements the impressions of the traditional peasant culture. The visitors whose stay on the island concurs with one of the Museum festivals will have the most lasting impressions. The Kizhi Pogost Ensemble was enlisted into the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 1990. In 1993 by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation the Kizhi Museum collection was included into the State Code of Cultural Heritage Sites of Special Value of the Russian Federation.

The Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Karelia was founded in 1960. It is situated in the historic center of Petrozavodsk in the former Cathedral Square, in one of the old stone buildings. This building is the architectural monument of the 18th century, and in different years it housed a public school, Olonets Grammar School for boys, Public Library, Pioneer Palace and College of Culture. The Collection of the Museum includes permanent exhibitions: • unique Icons of XV-XIX centuries (“Northern Paintings”) • Decorative and Applied Art of Karelia of XIX-XX centuries • Russian Art of XX century • Karelian Art of XX century • Russian Art of XVIII-XX centuries • Epic Poem Kalevala in the Art of Karelia, Russian and foreign artists • Western European Art In the Museum our guests can also visit temporary exhibitions. In the Museum there are workshops for those who want to create gifts and souvenirs with their own hands.