Karelian Ruskeala waterfalls. Karelia: Ruskeala, Marble quarry and waterfalls. Where is the marble canyon Ruskeala

is a question asked by many who have learned about these wonderful places. In this article, we will try to explain as clearly as possible how to do this.

Option 1. By car.

The easiest and at the same time the most difficult route. From St. Petersburg, you need to go to the Novopriozerskoe highway, otherwise the A121 highway. There are 130 kilometers of excellent asphalt road to Priozersk. From Priozersk you need to move towards Sortavala. This is another 130 kilometers, but 90 of them are low-quality asphalt, and the remaining 40 are in the trash of a broken primer. After Sortavala the road becomes good again.

After leaving Sortavala, after 8 kilometers, look for the turn signal to Vartsel. The intersection is large, wide and quite difficult to miss. Turning and driving another 18 kilometers, you will have a stunning view of. Be sure to stop here and take a walk, recharge positive emotions and energy of nature.

After walking at the waterfalls, move on for another 3 kilometers. As soon as you cross the Tohmajoki River for the second time (the first was at the waterfalls), turn left. Directly at the crossroads with the road to the mountain park there will be a corresponding sign. Another 700-800 meters along a dirt road and you are in a mountain park, park, buy tickets and walk. Have a nice holiday.

Option 2. By bus.

From St. Petersburg towards Ruskeala there are buses from northern bus station in Murino and Ozerki metro station. Having bought a ticket and boarded the bus, a not too exciting road awaits you at 5 - 6 o'clock. The best option will leave on the earliest possible bus. As a rule, this is a bus at half past midnight, but there are also later (earlier) ones, for example, at 9-10 in the morning.

Arriving at the bus station in Sortavala, you are given several options at once further way. You can take a taxi, which costs about 300-400 rubles to Ruskeala, or wait for the bus, which, as a rule, arrives at 19.30 at the bus station, in this case you will be in Ruskeala at about half past eight, and you will also have to walk a kilometer along a dirt road, but you save on a ticket that costs about 80 rubles.

There are cases when local Karelians, out of the kindness of their hearts, brought tourists to the marble quarry, but this is only a matter of luck and charisma of travelers.

Option 3. By train.

This method is the most difficult to implement. The difficulty lies in the fact that the train you need to take arrives at the nearest to Ruskeala locality at 4 in the morning. The train St. Petersburg - Kostomuksha departs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 21.20-30 from the Ladozhsky railway station. The stop you need is Caalamo. Arrival 4.00. Next comes the hardest part. At 4 o'clock in the morning you need to find someone who will take you to Ruskeala or walk 8.5 kilometers. But even in the case of a leisurely walk, you will have to wait until 9 am, as the marble quarry opens to visitors at this particular time.

When choosing a path, remember that in winter the road is very different from the same road in summer. Be careful and careful, and most importantly, enjoy your time in picturesque places Karelia. Good luck on the road!

mountain park Ruskeala on the map with the route:

A trip to the former, and now flooded marble quarry. Photo report from the trip.

There were small debts according to reports from summer trips. Then there was no time to spread it, but now, in rainy autumn weather, it’s very nice to look at sunny pictures and remember those feelings. Therefore, I will continue the story of the trip to Karelia...

We went to Ruskeala the next day after Valaam. On the way we stopped at a waterfall, where the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" was filmed. Beautiful place..

Then, having driven literally five kilometers, we got to Ruskealy. It is necessary to explain what it is - this is a former marble quarry, now flooded. From here blocks were obtained for facing the majestic St. Isaac's Cathedral Greyish green and light gray marble Ruskealy the halls of the St. Petersburg metro stations "Primorskaya" and "Ladozhskaya" were decorated. Now they have done national park for tourists.

Arriving at the park, the first thing we took boats, 1 hour 200 rubles like. Swimming in a boat is very cool, steep cliffs surround you, and under you there is greenish, clear water.

There is a small grotto in the rocks, you can get into it only by boat.

It's so beautiful inside - the ceiling of the grotto shimmers with reflections of the sun in the water.

After swimming for an hour in the quarry (but it won’t work anymore - it’s small in principle), we went for a walk along its perimeter. Along the entire quarry there is a hiking trail with observation decks from where there are wonderful views.

Halfway along the quarry, we climbed into an abandoned adit.

And then we deviated from the route and went to those places that are usually not shown to tourists. Came across underground caves flooded with water. It looks very impressive - I wish I could swim there on a boat!

Then we came across a marble deposit, there is also something to see.

After walking a bit around the neighborhood, we eventually returned to the path to the career.

Karelia has unique place- Marble Canyon (Ruskeala mountain park), in general, Karelia is interesting for its natural beauty. If you have never been to the Republic, then you should definitely go here.

The marble deposit in the Ruskeala region was discovered in 1765 and was used until 1939. A beautiful stone with numerous shades was used in the construction of Isakievsky and Kazan Cathedrals. Now the Ruskeala mountain park pleases tourists with its marble steep banks, well-groomed path around the canyon, the opportunity to go boating on the azure lake.

Address and opening hours of Ruskeala mountain park

Navigator coordinates: 61.936192, 30.589610

Opening hours depend on the season:

Winter (from November 1 to February 28): from 10.00 to 19.00

In winter, every Friday and Saturday, the artistic illumination of the entire Marble Canyon is open.

Spring (from March 1 to April 30): from 10.00 to 21.00
Summer (from May 1 to August 31): from 09.00 to 24.00
Autumn (from September 1 to October 31): from 10.00 to 21.00

How to get to Ruskeala marble canyon

By car

There are 2 options:

through Priozersk along the A129 highway. Before turning to Kuznechnoye (outside the city of Priozersk) the road is excellent, then from the border of Karelia to Sortovala the coverage is good, from Sortavala to Ruskeala the road is a bit broken.
along the E105 highway in the direction of Petrozavodsk (the road is gorgeous, but the ride is much longer)

by train

from the Ladoga railway station the train "St. Petersburg - Kostomuksha" goes. Need a Sortovala station

Where to stay in Ruskeala

We stayed at the Ruskeala recreation center, which is a five-minute walk from the Marble Canyon.

On the territory there are all the accessories for barbecue, you can rent a sauna near a small pond. It is advisable to book the time in advance by phone, as there are many people who want to, and there is only one bathhouse.

You can also book a room in the nearest city — Sortavala. If a trip to Karelia is planned in high season, weekends or holidays, it is better to look for a room in advance, after all, there are not so many of them in the whole town. Links to hotels in Sortavala:

Hotels in Sortavala on Hotellook.com
Hotels in Sortavala on Booking.com
Private house or apartment on Airbnb (via this link you will receive 21 euros as a gift for your first booking)

What to see in Ruskeala and surroundings

It is very beautiful in here - marble canyon will not leave anyone indifferent. We visited the park during the "golden" autumn. gray marble, turquoise lake and golden trees around - a complete delight.

A trail is equipped around the canyon, where there are observation platforms with gorgeous views on the water surface, grottoes, caves and, of course, marble rocks.

Be sure to take a boat and swim in Marble Canyon Lake.

For lovers of extreme sports created trolls across the lake.

Adits at the Ruskeala quarry

An adit is a horizontal or inclined mine working that has direct access to the earth's surface. In simple terms, an adit is a mine where marble was mined.

In Ruskeala, there is only one adit left, which is open to the public.

The Ruskeala failure was formed due to explosions in neighboring quarries, with the help of which they simplified the extraction of marble. The collapsed part of the rock revealed the interweaving of a large number of flooded adits.

In summer and winter, those who wish can go down a special rope and find themselves in the very center of marble mining.

The Ruskeala Gap is carefully monitored: here you can find carved figurines and interior items made of ice.

Italian Quarry

The path along the Marble Lake, which I mentioned earlier, will lead to the Italian Quarry. Italian Quarry- This last place in Ruskeala, where marble was mined.

Now there is an exposition "The path of a stone through time." It is amazing how evenly the stone is cut. The feeling that these are slices of cheese, not marble.

Do you know why the quarry was named "Italian"? It was because of these very machines that could cut stone perfectly like this, and they were made according to Italian technology.

Marble-lime plant in Ruskeala

The entrance to the territory of the plant seems to be closed, as our guide told us (I advise you to take a tour, it is inexpensive, but it is really interesting to listen). But we managed to walk near the plant and take pictures of it.

The Finns built the factory in 1896. First, lime was created here by firing calcite marble in a special kiln. Then they began to produce facing stone, white and gray marble chips.

The marble mined at the quarry was delivered to the factory with the help of a suspended railway. The plant completed its activities in 1990.

Filming location of the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” – Ruskeala waterfalls

“And the dawns here are quiet…” I remember how in a literature lesson in high school, we were shown this film. Everyone sobbed, and the boys were stronger than the girls. It was very interesting for me to visit the same waterfall. Finding this place is very easy. There are many tourists here, so there are corresponding signs on the road. From the Marble Quarry to the waterfalls about 2-3 km

We need Ruskeala waterfalls - Waterfall on the river Tohmajoki

Address: 86К-332, Ruskeala, Rep. Karelia, 186759

Ruskeala waterfalls coordinates for the navigator:

61°54"58"N 30°37"38"E

Now there is paid equipped parking, gazebos, souvenir shops, cafes and much more.

Things to do in Ruskeala Mountain Park

Diving in the marble quarry of Ruskeala

Ruskeala is a very favorite place of entertainment among divers, because at the bottom of Marble Lake you can see a lot of interesting things. For example, underwater caves and mines. A large number of different equipment flooded by the Finns before the war.

The organizers can offer you routes with varying degrees difficulties.

Rope descent and bungee jumping on Ruskeala

For daredevils, they came up with the attraction "Jump over the canyon." There are no such queues as for a boat, but nevertheless this service is popular.

Canyon boat trips

The boat can be rented for 1 hour / 400 rubles. Maximum 4 people per boat. Life jackets are provided for everyone. Boat rental is open from 18 May to 30 September.

In high season, you may have to stand in a long queue for the boat. However, it's worth it. After all, you can swim on your own on the lake and swim into the grottoes, examining them from the inside.

Dog sledding

Walking on Siberian Husky is relevant in winter. The cost is 1000 rubles / adults and 800 rubles / children.

Huskies are incredibly beautiful dogs with unforgettable blue eyes I even want to take a picture with them

We were in Ruskeala in autumn, but I really want to go there also in winter, as our guide praised the artistic lighting, and even on dog sledding I have never ridden in my life.

Marble Canyon - a place of mesmerizing beauty. Not far from the village of Ruskeala, located about twenty-five kilometers north of the city of Sortavala, Republic of Karelia, there are picturesque marble quarries that have long served as a place for marble mining. Back in the 17th century, the Swedes began mining marble here. At that time, marble was used for very mundane purposes - building foundations in the surrounding settlements and for the production of construction lime. The practical Swedes did not need pompous material to decorate buildings, they always loved conciseness and practicality, so the hand did not flinch to translate good. However, almost a century later, our country began mining marble for its intended purpose.

St. Isaac's Cathedral, Marble Palace, Kazan Cathedral and Mikhailovsky Castle are decorated with Ruskeala marble

Marble from Ruskeala quarries was highly appreciated by such outstanding architects of that time as Rinaldi and Montferrand. They began to use marble slabs to decorate the buildings they erected. Many famous buildings St. Petersburg. lined with marble from the Ruskeala quarries, the main of which are Green and White, named after the color of the marble that is mined from them. For example, white marble from Karelia, they were used in the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral, one of the facades of the Mikhailovsky Palace, the pedestal of the monument to Peter I, they were decorated with windows Winter Palace. The marble of the Green Mountain was useful in the construction of the Kazan Cathedral and other objects in St. Petersburg, Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo. Nowadays, Ruskeala marble has been used for lining the underground halls of St. Petersburg metro stations. Marble was quarried different levels called horizons, which are located even underground. The original horizons did not reach our time, they were replaced by later ones. I will not write about how the marble was mined, because it will be much more interesting for you to hear this story from a qualified guide in the park, who will tell you everything in detail. Currently, some of the quarries are abandoned and flooded, and some continue to be used for industrial stone extraction. The combination of the nature of Karelia and human activities have given these quarries an amazingly picturesque look that attracts travelers not only from Karelia, but also from St. Petersburg, Moscow and other places. One of the quarries, now called the “Ruskeala mountain park”, is equipped for tourists to visit - pedestrian paths have been cleared and fenced around, a parking lot has been equipped, right in the quarry, you can rent a boat and enjoy the view from the water to the marble walls, which are more than twenty meters high . It has been developed since 1765, today its length from north to south is four hundred and sixty meters, width - up to one hundred meters. The distance from the highest point of the canyon wall to its bottom is over fifty meters. The transparency of the water reaches up to eighteen meters.

In addition to the marble canyon, the mountain park includes many other interesting objects.

In front of the entrance to the park there is a square with a long row of souvenir tents and an administration building where tickets are sold. There is also an observation deck at the largest Ruskeala quarry. The mountain park occupies a small area and its inspection does not take much time. If you rent a boat, then from the water you can swim into the marble grotto and admire the bizarre play of light reflected from the water on slightly transparent marble arches. Sheer cliffs also leave an indelible impression.

In the evenings, the quarry is illuminated with colored lights. There are several other quarries around the park. Interesting fact- careers differ from each other in the color of water. In the main quarry, the water has an emerald green hue, in the neighboring ones it is blue and gray with a blue tint. And this is not accidental: the shade of water is directly related to the color of the marble mined here. In addition to the flooded galleries, there are also not flooded ones. But getting into them on your own without an escort is impossible.

The quarry is filled with crystal-clear water with an emerald hue and is framed by patterned banks - sheer cliffs. In places, the marble glows through the water. So viewing platforms located along the perimeter of the quarry, very picturesque views open up. The banks of the quarry are steep, sheer cliffs. It is forbidden to climb on them, as indicated by the corresponding signs. When issuing the boat, they warn not to swim up to the rock, fenced on the water with buoys, as stones sometimes collapse from above.

There is also something to see outside the park.

Close to it are the so-called "Italian quarries", where layers of evenly cut marble are clearly visible, both directly in the mountain, and in the form of rejected and abandoned huge stone blocks. Italian - because the first developments here were carried out with the involvement of Italian specialists and technologies. There is also a marble pool carved into the “floor” and filled with water.

One of the sights of this place are the brick kilns of the 19th century, for firing marble chips (XIX century), the pipes of the kilns are somewhat similar to towers or minarets. You can come close to them, and even look inside. Mono to see the old administrative building, made entirely of marble Ruskeala.

A separate topic is diving. The flooded quarries of Ruskeala, interconnected by adits, are real paradise for divers. Labyrinths of tunnels, no less than three underground horizons of marble mining and remote unexplored underwater caves attract diving enthusiasts here. in large numbers. At the bottom of the main canyon, the technique used at one time for the extraction of marble has forever remained. Combined with amazing clear water, these techno-artifacts only increase the attraction of the place. By the way, the transparency of water is due to its low temperature: the water in the quarry is the key and is constantly updated.

If you are traveling by car, on the way to the marble quarries, you should definitely stop on the banks of the Tohmajoki River, at the Ahvenkoski waterfall. Benches and houses are specially made here so that you can stop and relax. Having gained strength, you can also go to the destroyed Finnish power plant, located on the same Tohmajoki river, a little downstream. To do this, you need to go back a little along the highway - less than a kilometer and turn right, after walking five hundred meters along a forest road. The waterfall is artificial but beautiful.

A small amount of money is charged for a walk through the park. Boat rental, of course, is also paid. However, the price for people who spent money on the road from St. Petersburg or another big city, will not seem high. Especially for divers provide a pier for diving. In winter, there is an ice skating rink and you can rent skates.

How to get to the marble canyon Ruskeala

It is difficult to get to the village of Ruskeala by public transport, although it is possible. First you need to get to the city of Sortavala. From St. Petersburg it can be reached by train or by regular bus. From Sortavala to the village of Ruskeala, and you can get there by bus (it runs 2 times a day to Vartsila through Ruskeala) or by taxi. Alternatively, you can get to the Matkaselka station by train St. Petersburg - Kostomuksha, and walk to the park on foot about eight kilometers along the road. The arrival time of the train is very inconvenient 1:00 and 4:00, although, on the other hand, you will be the first visitors. Traveling by private car is much easier. From St. Petersburg you need to get to the city of Sortavala along the highway A-129 St. Petersburg - Sortavala. Then go north along the A-130 highway to Vartsila to the village of Ruskeala. It will have a pointer to the Mountain Park. You can leave your car in the complex's parking lot (free parking) or on the side of nearby roads. The path is not close. From St. Petersburg to the Mountain Park about three hundred and thirty kilometers.

Ruskeala- amazing a nice place, located in Karelia in the Sortavalsky district (Northern Ladoga region). Getting there on your own is relatively easy. Travel time by car is approximately 4-5 hours, if there are no big traffic jams, of course (see the map). Ruskeala Canyon is a former marble quarry, now filled with water.
You can come here all year round - it is good in its own way at any time. In winter - in the snow, with a mysterious backlight at dusk, which starts already from 3-4 hours in the afternoon. In summer - surrounded by greenery and warmth. At this time of the year, you can go boating here, stopping by numerous grottoes.

Spring and autumn are just fine!

In addition, in spring you can also admire numerous fast rivers with small waterfalls, full-flowing after winter.

By the way, it was here at the Ahvenkoski waterfall that the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” was filmed.

Our visit to this mountain park fell in early spring - early May. There was still snow in these places.

Near the quarry it was a little cool, but this did not interfere with admiring and admiring its beauties.

Having enjoyed the Ruskeala canyon, you can immediately go back home. If you are very tired or reluctant, Sortavala hotels, located nearby, are suitable for an overnight stay and rest. It is better to book places in advance. Or you can follow our example and spend the night in a tent, choosing a beautiful and deserted place, which are there in bulk.

We stopped near picturesque lake We were just passing by and immediately fell in love with it.

As it turned out, the lake is located a couple of kilometers from the Finnish border. But the place is quiet - only in the morning one fisherman appeared on the other side - and that's it! And we had a great rest and caught some fish, in the morning we swam in still cool water, even sunbathed a little and went back to St. Petersburg. On the way back, you can make a halt in Losevo - have a bite to eat - warm up and admire the Losevo rapids, or maybe take part in rides along them. And with new forces - again on the road!