旅人る - Tabibito
Olonets
Olonets is one of the oldest Russian cities in Karelia. It is called Anus in Karelian.
It used to be a very powerful wooden castle, but it burned down in the 18th century. Recently, on the site of the towers, gazebos resembling them in shape were built.
Nowadays Olonets is all about wooden pedestrian bridges across the Olonka and Megrega rivers.
There are beam bridges.
Hanging bridges
And those that fail.
In some places, wood has already given way to more durable materials.
The Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God (1828). The bell tower with the domes was demolished in the 1930s, but the domes were restored.
Museum of Livvik Karelians in the house of the Kuttuev merchants.
Private museum of fans of Stalin and Zhukov.
A rare version of the bust of Lenin - in ushanka-hat. Karelian winter is cold you know.
Living creatures.
Hand numbered lighting poles.
The Assumption Church (1788) is located at the city cemetery.
There are many old tombstones nearby.
But let's get back to the bridges. The most beautiful suspension bridges, which sway merrily while you walk along them, are not even in Olonets itself, but in neighboring villages. One of them is upstream on Olonka, in the village of Verkhovye.
Next to it you can look at a residential building built in 1885.
And at the abandoned Nativity Church.
Another bridge downstream of the Olonets is in Rypushkalitsy.
However, there is nothing to see next to it. Perhaps to an abandoned grocery store from the 1980s.
There is (or was) another suspension bridge upstream of Megrega, in the village of Sudalitsa. But on December 19, 2023, it collapsed, having stood for only six months after major repairs. I don’t want to offend the Olonets bridge builders, but their designs don’t look particularly reliable.
Getting there (as of August 2023): about 4 hours ride from St. Petersburg by car.
Where to stay: "Tochka na karte" hotels in Lodeynoye Pole or Vidlitsa.
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