Russia is rich in places that, without exaggeration, can be called the pearls of the country. Karelia, with its low-key cold beauty, corresponds to this status more than others. It attracts with bottomless lakes, relict forests and rare natural monuments. One of which is Ruskeala, a mountain park, a fantastic place, an open-air museum.
The park is a rather rare combination of natural and industrial sites. It attracts not only with its fantastic beauty. Its past and present are full of amazing facts.
Historical fact
The area around the village of the same name has been the subject of disagreements between Russians, Swedes and Finns for centuries. They passed from hand to hand. Only after the Northern War did the lands finally ceded to Russia. However, it was the Swedes who first began to explore the marble quarries. Compatriots began to mine marble here only in the second half of the 18th century.
Then St. Petersburg was actively built up. For the palaces and squares of the new capital, marble was needed. Ruskealsky, white-smoky, ideally suited the noble Petersburg atmosphere. With the outbreak of the Finnish War in 1939, the quarries were flooded. Some mining was carried out after the Great Patriotic War.
In 1998, this monument of mining of the 18-20th centuries was included in the list of Russian cultural and historical heritage. And in 2005 a tourist park was opened in Ruskeala.
Decorative fact
Ash Ruskeala marble is decorated with:
- walls of St. Isaac's Cathedral;
- the floors of the Kazan Cathedral;
- facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle;
- columns of the palace in Gatchina;
- Roman fountains of Peterhof;
- Oryol Gate of Tsarskoe Selo.
And also the stations of the St. Petersburg metro - "Ladozhskaya" and "Primorskaya" are lined.
Tourist fact
The main point of attraction is, of course, the Marble Canyon, the former site of the extraction of the famous finishing stone. Today it is a huge bowl filled with water. It is framed by marble rocks that go deep under the water. And the silvery rocks, in turn, border green spruces. They are in harmony with the turquoise water of the lake, creating a beautiful visual series.
The lake on the site of the canyon is elongated in length up to 460 meters, the depth in some places reaches 50 meters. The canyon is fed by clear groundwater. Therefore, its water is so transparent that in some places one can see the equipment abandoned at the bottom of the quarry.
There are paths and observation platforms around. There is something to admire: mine workings look like amazing arches, columns and caves. The impression that all this is done by nature. And in this fabulous country, only dwarves with pickaxes are missing.
Cinematic fact
The river on which Ruskeala stands fully justifies the name “mad”, translated from Finnish. It is rapids, with rifts that form four waterfalls. The cascades are not very large, but they fit perfectly into the landscape. It turns out to be an unusually beautiful place. Director Stanislav Rostotsky was the first to appreciate the nature for filming. In 1972, one of the brightest scenes of the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" was filmed here, when Zhenya, played by Olga Ostroumova, was swimming in Ruskeala waterfalls.
After almost 40 years, the place again became a film set, this time in the mystical fantasy "The Dark World". After the filming of the first Russian film in 3D format, the decoration of the hut remained. She organically complemented the landscape.
In a word, the park turned out to be very cinematic. Then the mystical series "The Seventh Rune", the action movie "Flint" and others were filmed here. And the pianist Pavel Andreev starred in the video. He performed one of his philosophical and meditative works. The piano was installed on a raft in the center of the Marble Canyon.
Sporting fact
Local beauty attracts not only filmmakers. When the river becomes full-flowing, full-fledged rafting takes place here with rapids from 3rd to 5th difficulty levels.
From a series of sports activities in the park they offer:
- jump from a canyon cliff in free fall;
- go down to the lake on a high-speed roller along an inclined rope;
- go through the canyon on the rope bridge.
All this with insurance, of course. You can explore the flooded labyrinths, only with a diving instructor, of course.
The fact is extreme
Ruskeala failure was formed in the 60s as a result of a rather powerful explosion in the quarry. Now it looks like a huge hole in the ground, more precisely, in marble, about 30 meters deep and the size of a standard basketball court.
The feeling that you are descending not into a pit, but into some other world, unreal and mysterious. This is because the microclimate of the sinkhole keeps the cold even in summer. In the far corners, weird icicles that never melt hang from the walls. The spectacle is added by water condensate, frozen in the form of stalagmites, only of ice, not mineral origin. For the sake of completeness, they came up with an original illumination of the failure. There are enough impressions.
Fact retro railway
This is the most effective way to come to the park. And the most popular one. It has already become a tourist route in itself. Imagine a trip on the Nikolaev Express at the beginning of the 20th century: leather chairs, curtains with tassels, green lamps, black-and-white photos on the walls of the carriages. The conductors are dressed in uniforms of those years, and the train is driven by a real steam locomotive. In general, full immersion in the atmosphere.
The retro train runs daily from Sortavala, where the St. Petersburg Lastochka arrives. During festivals and other events, the express train is launched directly from St. Petersburg to Ruskeala.
Cultural fact
The Ruskeala Symphony music festival is held in the park every summer. Despite the name, well-known musical groups of various styles and trends take part in it.
In winter, a kind of ice art festival is organized in the park. Ice sculptures fill not only the park, but also the gap, adding fantasticality to the latter.
