Kargopolsky District - Culture and Recreation

Culture and Recreation

Kargopolsky District has a very high concentration of historical, archaeological, and architectural monuments. The district contains 40 objects (thirteen of them in Kargopol) classified as cultural and historical heritage by Russian Federal law, and additionally 182 objects classified as cultural and historical heritage of local importance. Most of these are the white-stone churches of the town of Kargopol and wooden churches and chapels located in the area. The town of Kargopol contains a number of white-stone churches, the earliest of which, the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, dates back to 1552. This is the oldest building of mainland Arkhangelsk Oblast (some buildings of the Solovetsky Monastery also stem from the 16th century).

The monuments classified as historical and architectural heritage include:

• The Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ (1552–1562) with the bell-tower (1766–1767) in Kargopol
• The Resurrection Church (end of 17th century) in Kargopol
• The Church of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (1740–1751) in Kargopol
• The Holy Trinity Church (1790–1802) in Kargopol
• The Presentation Church (1803) in Kargopol
• The ensemble of three churches: the Annunciation Church (1692), the Saint Nicholas Church (1741), and the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos (1678–1680) in Kargopol
• The ensemble of Aleksandro-Oshevensky Monastery (from 1707) in Oshevensk
• The ensemble of Pogost Bolshaya Shalga consisting of the Nativity Church (1745) and the Intercession Church (1857) in Bolshaya Shalga
• The Saint Nicholas Church (1659) in Pavlovsky Pogost; no longer exists
• The Saint Nicholas Church (1666) in Volosovo
• The Church of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple in Krasnaya Lyaga, a former village west of Kargopol;
• The triple ensemble in Lyadiny (Gavrilovskaya) the Church of the Protection of the Theotokos (1693), the Intercession Church (1761), and the bell-tower (1820)
• The Saint Nicholas Chapel (18th century) in Nikolskaya
• The ensemble of the Saunino Pogost consisting of the Church of Saint John Chrysostom (1665) and the bell-tower (18th century) in Kiprovo

The most notable wooden churches are triple church ensembles, which consist of two churches (a bigger, not heated, church used in the summer, a smaller, heated church used in the winter, and a bell-tower). Not more than a dozen of these triple wooden ensembles survived intact, and one of them is located in Kargopolsky District, in the selo of Lyadiny (Gavrilovskaya).

The only state museum in the district is Kargopol State Museum of History, Art, and Architecture, founded in 1919. This is cloak organization, which not only holds ethnographic, art and historic exhibits, but also protects some of the architectural monuments in Kargopol and surroundings. Fifteen buildings, including a number of churches, belong to the museum. Another museum was open in 1994 in the school of the selo of Lyadiny. There are also two private museums in Kargopol.

There is a traditional handicraft in Kargopol and the area which is production of painted clay toys.