Alexander Barabanov

4.00 Russia - 10-Aug-24 -

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 quite well organized and provides all required services, including park fees, accommodation, three meals a day (there is only place to eat in the village) and excursion. Accommodation is quite limited and quickly booked for the summer season, we were lucky to get big traditional wooden house with 4 beds on the lake shore with modern toilet facilities.
Typical tour requires 3 full days in Vershinino (plus 2 days to get there and return). The tour includes: 3 museums; 2 cruises on a Soviet-era boat to the different villages (including 7 churches and reconstructed watermill), full-day expedition (including 14-km forest hike and a tasty traditional fish soup cooked over fire for lunch) to a distant Porzhensky church-yard; quick bus ride to fully restored Pochezersky church-yard. A number of specialized tours, like mushroom gathering and gastronomical, white nights tour, photo tour, art tour exploring local crafts, etc. is also offered.    
I liked this atmospheric region, after busy and noisy city and long difficult road you suddenly submerge into a sleepy rural world with a great number of wooden churches and “heavens”. 

Martina Rúčková

Slovakia - 20-Jul-21 -

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 in Morschikinskaya or Maselga further up the road. The drive from Kargopol takes about 70 kilometres of a bumpy ride on unpaved dirt or gravel road. Morschikinskaya has an info centre, which gives out permits to enter the National Park, sells souvenirs and offers guided tours. Just outside the centre which sits on bank of the lake with a lovely wooden church next to it, there's a short ecotrail called "Route of the anthills". Apart from quite large anthills, it has a small wooden chapel and many art-objects and noticeboards informing on the life of local fauna. It can be done in about half an hour and it's less than 3 km. The main village road leads to Maselga, which is an entrance to the park itself, again, it has many lovely hiking trails, both along the way and in Maselga are official camping grounds. Maselga has an outdoor museum of wooden architecture, lovely lake views and beaches as well as a wooden church on the top of Kizhgora, 1,8 km hike. Graves of local residents can be found along the way. 

We only stayed for couple of hours, but to fully enjoy this site, it's best to stay for three or four days, enjoy hikes and the lake, maybe even fish. The local groundkeepers are nice and helpful and the nature is beautiful. I really enjoyed the combination of natural and cultural aspects of the landscape and think the site is unique and worth visiting.