Karelia Republic overview
Karelia Republic (also spelled Kareliya, Carelia, Careliya) is a remarkably beautiful land of white nights, boundless forests, and blue lakes. Karelia is located on the border of Western and Eastern Europe, on the border of cultures and religions. The capital city of the region is Petrozavodsk.
While being one of the territories of Russian North-West with its Orthodox Christianity, Karelia Republic has always been influenced by Western, in particular Scandinavian countries which affected the culture and the mentality of its inhabitants.
Karelia Republic population is about 688,000 (2009) on the territory of 172,400 sq. km.
Karelia Republic features
Severe beauty of Karelia Republic nature, the climate, not too favorable in these latitudes, the coexistence and intermingling of various peoples inhabiting this land for centuries, all that conditioned the character of the people living here: very laconic, self-assured, contemplative, and tolerant people.
It also accounts for the fact that there is no national strife and terrorism in Karelia region. The borderline location of Karelia has often brought it to the foreground of major events in European history. But while in old days the land of Karelia region often became a subject of international claims and a matter of concern even in Rome, present Karelia Republic as a subject of Russian Federation is destined to become the economic and cultural bridge between East and West.
The official language in Karelia is Russian. At the same time there are peoples in the Republic whose written language is based on Roman alphabet - these are Karels and Veps. These peoples’ languages are not official, that’s why the federal law on using Cyrillic in official languages in Russia doesn’t apply to these peoples. The affinitive Finnish language also uses Roman alphabet.
Karelia Republic attractions
Karelia Republic is justly called a national park in Russia. It was this land that preserved the runes of Karelian and Finnish epic Kalevala, as well as numerous ancient Russian epics (bylinas). It was this land that preserved the great monuments of wooden architecture, attracting millions of tourists from all over the world.
Present day Karelia Republic is rich in forest, stone, ecologically clean water, flora and fauna, as well as in people aspiring to live in harmony with the beauty of surrounding nature.
Main tourist attractions of Karelia region are:
- Martsialnye Vody – the oldest cure resort in Russia founded by Peter’s I order
- National Park Paanayarvi
- The island of Kizhi - world-known memorial of wooden architecture
- The island of Valaam with Valaam cloister
- Rainfall Kivach
- Ruskeal marble canyon
- Rainfalls on Tohmaioki river
- Rainfall Yukankoski (White Bridges) on the river Kulismaioki
- Rainfall Kumio (Kumo-rapids)
- Northern Ladoga skerries
- Mountain Vottovaara
