Cultural Landscape of Kenozero Lake

Visited Kenozero in July 2024 during the days, when it was inscribed (and the news was read out by the guide).
Kenozero National Park is a remote place requiring 1,200 km drive (including 80 km of gravel roads) from Moscow or flight to Arkhangelsk and still 470 km drive by rail / car. This seclusion resulted in the preserved mix of cultural, ethnographic, spiritual and architectural heritage coupled by natural landscape and rich biodiversity of the region. Cultural landscape is integrated with the pattern of lakes and adjacent agricultural and forest lands.
The park is divided into two sectors: Plesetsk sector (northern part) and Kargopol sector (southern part). Plesetsk sector with the visit center in Vershinino is culturally more interesting and provides broader coverage.    
The unique local feature of the religious monuments – is “heavens” or “skies”, painted wooden ceiling in the form of celestial sphere with the stars, sun, moon and the kingdom of God. There are 17 complete “heavens” complexes in Kenozero (dating to 18-19th centuries), including 7 in situ in the churches and 10 in the museums. Special museum space with dome-shaped pavilions will be constructed in 3 years to host these 10 “heavens” as ceilings like they were placed originally. A number of churches were restored in 1996-1998 with the generous support of Norwegian specialists and use of their “lifting” technology, when the whole construction is lifted by special jacks and each log is changed / restored staring from the bottom. 
Visit center in Vershinino is …

Kenozero National Park was the second tentative site we visited on our weekend stint via night train (for logistic details, have a look at my Lake Onega Petroglyphs review). As an alternative, one can travel to Nyandoma, a regional centre on a train line to Arkhangelsk. From there a transport has to be arranged to Kargopol and one of the local tourist hubs in the National Park - Morschikinskaya on Lake Lyokshmozero, which forms the southern sector of the national park, or to Pershlakta, which is the main entrance point to the northern sector.

The Kenozero park is a lovely place where not only Russian, but foreign tourists as well enjoy spending their holiday. It specializes in ecotourism: you stay either in homestay, rented wooden house or pitch a tent. The main problem is to get there, but once you get to the hubs and manage to find information centre, there are maps available, informing about accommodation, tours, tourist trails and everything else. There is not only splendid nature all around, but the area also contains many wooden houses and churches, which add to the picturesqueness of it all. Some info is available in English, but if you travel by yourself, you might encounter slight communication issues.

We drove from Kargopol, local centre that has exactly one decent hotel and it gets full in season rather fast, so book ahead. I would also recommend stocking up in any food store you can find. We haven't seen any restaurants …