Granite canyon Karelia. Marble exposition: Italian quarry. The nearest hotels and recreation centers to Ruskeala

Mountain park "Ruskeala" is the main pride of Karelia. This is an amazing combination of marble mountains, turquoise lakes and lush greenery. Looking around the surroundings, it is difficult to imagine that a few centuries ago this place was an ordinary adit, where marble was mined under the most difficult conditions.

Prices in the mountain park "Ruskeala" in 2019

• The cost of an individual visit for an adult is 300 rubles per person
• For students - 150 rubles per person
• For schoolchildren - 100 rubles per person
• For participants in the Great Patriotic War, blockade survivors, prisoners of concentration camps and children under 7 years old, admission is free
• For residents of the Sortavala district, a visit to the park will cost 50 rubles per person
• The cost of visiting as part of excursion groups is from 150 rubles for schoolchildren and from 450 rubles for adults

Additional services

From May 1 to October 1, you can rent a boat on Marble Lake (for 1 hour). The cost of the trip is 600 rubles for a four-seater boat.

Diving enthusiasts will have to pay 300 rubles for the opportunity to dive from the pier once.

Tours and routes

For independent tourists, two types of routes are offered - short and long. You can go to them yourself or in a group of 5-20 people with a guide. The first one will pass along the "Marble Canyon" around the quarry, the second - "The road of mountain masters with a halt" and a visit to the "Italian quarry". It is also possible to go along the route "Underground Ruskeala", which will take about 1 hour.

Residents of St. Petersburg and others major cities can go to sightseeing tour in Ruskeala, having bought a ticket from local tour operators.

All excursions in the Ruskeala mountain park differ from each other in the length of the route (from 1.3 kilometers) and duration (from 1 hour).

Note! All year round the temperature in the adits is kept at + 7 degrees Celsius. Even in summer it is highly recommended to have warm clothes with you. For safety reasons, children under 3 years old are not allowed on the route.

Hotels and recreation centers

In the immediate vicinity of Ruskeala there are many places where you can stay overnight or just relax. One of the nearest recreation centers is "Ruskeala". The complex is located on the shore of the lake, not far from the town of Sortavala, just two kilometers from the famous marble canyon. There are also hotels and guest houses near the park.

points of attraction

The main asset of the park is the combination of marble rocks that come to the surface, with the greenery of the surrounding vegetation and the turquoise of lake water. Marble hills have different colors - white, black, bluish, the colors are constantly alternating, so that the emerging picture seems a bit fantastic.

The water-filled marble quarry in Korelskaya Ruskeala is a lake, above which 25-meter marble cliffs rise deep under the emerald water. Rows of slender firs rise directly above the marble.

The canyon is made up of rock workings that create amazing arches, marble-columned halls, and caves that are man-made but look natural. Only a small part of them is accessible for human visits. Most of the grottoes are closed for safety reasons and inaccessibility. Some can only be seen by scuba diving.

You can enter the adits dungeon in the northern part of the canyon. Here are the most frequently photographed cliffs - Ivan da Marya and Catherine II. But the most unusual sensations remain from walking along underground lake by pontoons.

The marble quarry in Ruskeala is also called "Italian quarries", this name came from the first developers of this place. Here you can see smooth cuts of marble, huge stone blocks, a marble pool filled with water, brick kilns.

Ruskeala Mountain Park: Google Panoramas

Ruskeala mountain park

How to get to Ruskeala mountain park

The park is located 25 km from the city of Sortavala, not far from the village of Ruskeala.

On public transport: can be reached with a change in the city of Sortavala.

From Saint-Petersburg- by train Saint-Petersburg - Kostomuksha (from the Ladoga railway station) to the city of Sortavala. Travel time 5.5 hours.

From Petrozavodsk- by bus Petrozavodsk - Sortavala or Petrozavodsk - Lakhdenpokhya (to Sortavala). Travel time is about 6 hours.

How to get from the city of Sortavala to the village of Ruskeala:

From Sortavala there is a bus to Vartsila, which stops in Ruskeala. The bus station and railway station in Sortavala are located in different parts of the city.

By car: both from Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg can be reached through the city of Sortavala.

From Petrozavodsk- via Pryazha, Kolatselga and Lyaskelya (along the R-21 highway). Distance 280 km.

From Saint-Petersburg- along the Priozersky highway through Priozersk along the A-129 highway. Distance 250 km.

Having reached the city of Sortavala, you need to move in the direction locality Vartsila. After 25 km there will be the village of Ruskeala.

Map of Karelia

What to see

The main attraction of the Mountain Park is marble canyon- a mining monument of the late 18th - early 20th centuries. Marble Canyon is a former quarry filled with the purest groundwater for the extraction of different types of marble. Ruskeala marble was used in the construction of the most beautiful and significant buildings in St. Petersburg and its palace suburbs. St. Isaac's Cathedral is lined with it, the floors of the Kazan Cathedral are laid out with it, windows are framed Marble Palace and the facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle.

In the process of marble extraction, three quarries were formed, connected by adits. Stone mining stopped, and the old abandoned Ruskeala quarries turned into beautiful mountain lakes- white marble bowls filled with the purest bluish-green water. Long-idle mines and galleries began to look like mysterious caves and grottoes. The banks of the canyon, rising steeply above the emerald surface of the water, are riddled with surface and underwater adits, drifts and shafts. Although the Marble Canyon is the main attraction of Ruskeala, you can find many picturesque rocks and stones.

Entrance to the park is paid. In the park, you can walk around the flooded quarry along a well-groomed path, see the working workings and monuments of industrial architecture, and go down into the caves. There is a pier on the canyon where you can rent a boat.On the boat you can see the sheer marble walls from the water and get into the mysterious grottoes and adits.

Around

Waterfalls on the Tohmajoki River are located on the 17th km of the highway Sortavala - Vartsila. It was here that several episodes of the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" were filmed. The waterfalls are not very big, but stormy and picturesque, there is a small lake.

Wednesday evening, the first warm weekend is approaching and the age-old question "What to do?" comes to the fore. The answer is obvious - go to desert island! Quickly figuring out that buying a small tropical island, which are offered in abundance on the Internet, was beyond the budget for this weekend, we decided to spit on climate zone and find an island with a free visit;) It turned out that there are many such islands in Ladoga skerries, and that in a place called Lumivaara (which is not far from Landepohya) at the camp site of the same name, you can rent a boat and raid any island you like with the aim of robbing and enslaving it.

The site of the camp site modestly reported that among the attractions nearby, in Ruskeala, are the Marble Quarry (Marble Lake) and the waterfall on the Tokhmajoki River - the same one where the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" was filmed. Remembering the rave reviews of friends about these places, we decided - we are going to Ruskeala, and then we will occupy the island in skerries. For the needs of the trip, a tent, sleeping bags, an ax, bowlers, a flashlight and three cans of stew of different varieties were urgently bought (in order to find out which is the tastiest). We are ready! :)

Go! A little about the road

The long-awaited Saturday morning, the souls bounce and rush forward. The navigator plots a route from St. Petersburg to Ruskeala through Priozersk, but at the same time says that it will take more than 6 hours to travel 300 km. We frivolously decide that the navigator is stupid))

The freshness of the early morning, the sun, while the roads are still empty. The mood is super, we sing songs, laugh)) The road to Priozersk, with the exception of a couple of short sections, is good. But behind Priozersk, post-war asphalt begins, which was never patched up after the bombing. The thought flashes in my head that the navigator is not such a fool;) After 20 km, the remains of the asphalt end and we roll out onto the dirt road with relief. On the border of Karelia, we are met by a beautiful, smooth, like a table, road. However, exactly after 10 km this lure turns (no, not into a pumpkin!) Back into a dirt road, which stretches almost to Landepokhja. I must say that the primer is quite decent and allows you to keep the speed of 60-80 km / h.

Korela fortress

Immediately at the entrance to Priozersk, on the left side (near the tank), there is an earthen fortress called "Korela". Originally built by the Novgorodians, it was later taken over by the Swedes, who invested in this property for a hundred years. After which they were thanked and took the fortress back.

The fortress is known for the fact that both wives of Emelyan Pugachev and his three children were kept in it for 30 years. Such a sad story.

marble quarry

We were lucky and we turned off the road exactly where we needed)) If you drive from St. Petersburg, you need to turn left immediately after the bridge over the Tohmajoki River. After a kilometer and a half, the path led us to the Ruskeala mountain park.

For a couple of minutes we were torn between the desire to eat and the desire to immediately see and touch everything. Curiosity, of course, won, and a couple of livers were sacrificed to the feeling of hunger. And we dived into the beautiful :)

It is difficult to convey in words the magic of warm, sunny spring day, the aroma of resin, the smells of nature that has just awakened, the cries of seagulls echoing from the marble shores, the infinity of space under your feet and the silent admiration of this beauty. Be sure to leave the path and wander along the edge of the cliff, sit on the warm stone slopes and answer the echo of your voice.

old adit

At the northern end of the quarry there is an adit - a deep vertical shaft cut into the rock, at the bottom of which there is dusk, cold and blocks of ice. An ideal cellar :) Approximately in the middle of the shaft there is a horizontal passage through which you can get to the bridge. Only a piece of the sky is visible from the bridge, and the sun bypasses this gloomy place.

Failure: Ice Realm

Imagining ourselves as prisoners of the dungeon, we moved towards the mysterious failure, which was formed as a result of the collapse of the vault of one of the underground galleries. When we went down the stairs to the failure, an unusual-looking man called us and offered to go down into the failure on ropes. If you meet this person - immediately agree, it's worth it :) We got a lot of vivid emotions from descending from a 12-meter height and skiing on transparent ice.

As soon as you touch the ice, you enter another world. This world hardly changes... When it's hot in June, there's still ice here. It is quiet and resonant here, the transparent ice a quarter of a meter thick is covered with long cracks. In one of the corners of the cave, ice stalactites and stalagmites grew during the winter. And you can sit on the ice throne, imagining yourself as the Snow Queen :)

Our expedition to the bottom of the failure was not in vain: a thawed frog was found and rescued on the ice, despite its desperate resistance. In the pocket of the jacket, we raised it to the surface and released it into a warm puddle near the Italian quarry))

Waterfall on Tohmajoki

Finish

Tired and hungry, but satisfied and happy, we exchanged an uninhabited island in skerries for an uninhabited lawn near small lake somewhere along the way. The smoke of the campfire, dinner cooked on the fire, and a quiet sunset completed this magical day.

This June I managed to make short trip in Karelia as part of organized tour for 5 days (tour review). The program was designed in such a way as to show us the most recognizable and photographed places in Karelia that can be visited for such short vacation. We spent the first part of the tour in the area Karelian city Sortavala, next to which there are such famous sights of Karelia as the Ruskeala waterfalls, the island of Valaam with an ancient monastery and mountain park Ruskeala, which will be discussed today.

A bit of history

The Ruskeala mountain park is a territory where marble canyons with emerald water, adits, mines and paths with viewing platforms are located, organized into routes for tourists. I would call this attraction industrial-natural, and here's why.
Back in the 17th century, the Swedes began mining marble here, which, with northern severity, was turned into whitewash. Practical Swedes did not need pompous material to decorate buildings and pavements, they always loved conciseness and practicality, so the hand did not waver to translate good. However, almost a century later, our country began mining marble for its intended purpose. Few people know, but many famous buildings Petersburg are 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 used in the construction St. Isaac's Cathedral, one of the facades of the Mikhailovsky Palace, the pedestal of the monument to Peter I, they decorated the 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.

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, as part of the recruited group, will tell you everything in detail.
It is worth saying about marble quarries that a kind of unique park, because it was created with private investment, you must admit that for Russia it is not a frequent occurrence.

Walk around the Ruskeala quarry

Our excursion group arrived at the Ruskeala mountain park around 8 pm. In summer, admission is possible until 24-00. In June, in the Russian north, the nights are almost white, and in another season, the backlight works in Ruskeala.

You can walk around Ruskeala on your own by buying an entrance ticket, or you can excursion group led by a local guide in the park. For some reason, our travel agency could not organize an excursion for us earlier than 20-30, so by agreement with all the participants of the tour, we went to the territory ourselves. Why didn't they wait an extra half hour? It was the first day of our trip, many got off the train at 6 am, then we visited the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery in Leningrad region, drove almost 5 hours to the recreation center in the Sortavala area. We had a choice - to sit an extra hour at the base, and then go, which meant returning back later, or leave the base earlier, take a walk in the park ourselves and go to rest after a crazy day.

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.

Since we arrived in the evening, we didn’t see emerald-blue water, because the sun, apparently, fell at the wrong angle. But still, marble mountains, water, floating boats looked very nice, I was already impatient to get into the park.

Around the quarry laid walking route, during which they constantly meet viewing platforms, allowing you to approach the edge of the quarry without extreme sports. For the especially gifted, signs are placed everywhere, stating that do not throw stones down, do not approach the edge and do not dive down ... apparently, there were such.

I drew attention to the rather large grottoes on opposite side mountains, for some reason they seemed familiar to me, although I had never been to Ruskeala.

And then Zhenya suggested to me that this is the first 3D Russian film "The Dark World", namely the scene with the lake witches, was filmed here. Here is a video for the song "Witch", you can see the landscapes of Ruskeala.

Filming location "Dark World" in Karelia

In addition to boats that can be rented at a special station, I noticed divers in their careers. As the guide said, they really like this place, and the park allows professionals to train. It turns out that the water in the quarry is very clean, besides, at the bottom lies the equipment flooded by the Finns, with the help of which marble was mined. And since Karelian lakes are not rich in outlandish seabed or tales of sunken ships with treasures, the exploration of the bottom of Ruskeala is extremely interesting for divers. The cost of using the pier for diving is 200 rubles.

As soon as we passed one side of the quarry, we saw a pointer to an adit, into which you can freely go down without special permission. In your own words, the adit is a recess in the ground, a kind of corridor, a quarry. We decided to go down to the adit, which has been preserved for a long time, which goes 200 meters deep. It was created to deliver trolleys with marble from the mine along the narrow-gauge railway. At the entrance to the adit, you can see what an old trolley looks like.

To be honest, going down was scary, and I don’t like all sorts of caves and grottoes at all, but I decided to go into the adit, because I had never seen anything like it.

We walked around the quarry and quietly envied independent tourists, who sailed on boats, swam up to the grottoes, as in frames from the film.

We were told that research is now being carried out in the quarry to open a passage inside the mountains for tourists. In a couple of years, they promise to organize excursions to grottoes, caves and other wonders of nature hidden from the eyes.

Routes in Ruskeala

Routes along Ruskeala can be found at the entrance to the park - a large poster hangs.

Download map with routes

Route around the Marble Quarry

You can limit yourself to a walk around the Big Marble Quarry, as we did, or you can visit the factory, the neighboring lake. In general, if you are lovers of industrial tourism, then Ruskeala is just an ideal object. In any case, this place is very unusual, so I recommend allocating at least 3 hours for it, and then, as they say, as it goes.

What else can you do in Ruskeala

As you already understood, Ruskeala is interesting, first of all, to walk on foot, depending on the degree of interest, take a look at the quarry with one eye or make a real journey into the industrial past of our country.

From entertainment Rusleala offers boating. Immediately upon entering, you will see a descent down to boat station. There you will be put on life jackets, and you can go swimming. I think it's very cool to swim under the huge marble rocks, look in clean water and just enjoy nature. In addition, you can swim up to the grottoes, which we saw only from above. Boat rental is open from May 20 to September 30, it costs 400 rubles per boat (no more than 4 people, we are not in China).

If you like to tickle your nerves, then you definitely want to ride on the torso on a bungee shortcut or cross the entire quarry. The bungee is located at the exit of the Marble Quarry.

I can’t say anything about reliability and safety, but it’s fixed like this.

There is a trampoline for children at the exit, beer with barbecue for dads, shops for moms. They also regularly ride husky dogs there, but we arrived too late.

How to get there, opening hours, entrance fee

Working hours mountain park depends on time of year.

If you walk around Ruskeala on your own, then the entrance ticket will cost 150 rubles. for adults, 100 for students, 50 rubles for schoolchildren, and for children under 7 years old, admission is free.

A tour of the park costs 250 rubles. behind short route duration 1 hour and 350 rubles. for a 1.5 hour walk.

And if you decide to create and celebrate a wedding not in Thailand, but in Karelia, then the mountain park will give you a boat ride ... and let all the guests wait. ?

Get to Ruskeala by car not difficult, here is her address. Free parking near the entrance is present.

On one's own, i.e. by public transport, you can also get to the marble quarries.

From St. Petersburg, you need to take train No. 350 St. Petersburg - Kostomuksha, having bought a ticket to the Kaalamo station. Next, take a taxi to the park (drive about 5 km).

You can get from Petrozavodsk to Ruskeala by train No. 680-Ch Petrozavodsk-Sortavala, get off at Kaalamo station. Travel time from 19-20 to 06-06. You can also get there by bus or minibus (NUMBERS), which go to Sortavala, although the travel time will be from 5 to 8 hours.

The easiest way to get to Reskeala or the city of Sortavala. At the bus station, look at the bus schedule to Vartsila, it stops near the park, though it runs very rarely. If you are in Sortavala, then it is most convenient to take a taxi (about 450 rubles one way), and you can immediately arrange to be waited for and brought back. This option will cost you about 1000 rubles, but it all depends on the particular taxi driver, your art of trading and the time you want to spend in the park.

From Moscow to Ruskeala, you guessed it, you can get through St. Petersburg or Petrozavodsk.

Perhaps the information on how to get to Ruskeala is scary, but you need to understand that it makes no sense to go to Karelia on Ruskeala. It is necessary to develop a route that includes the city of Sortavala and its environs, visit Ruskeala, Ruskeala waterfalls, swim to Valaam, fish, walk in nature, and there are many things to do in this area of ​​Karelia.

Where to stay

In the area where Ruskeala is located, there are several recreation centers where you can comfortably stay. This will allow you to combine outdoor recreation with visiting attractions located nearby.

I lived at the recreation center "Black Stones" and I can safely recommend it. The base is located about 30 minutes drive to the mountain park.

Recreation center "Black Stones"

Approximately the same distance is country club Gardarika, who can be booked on booking.com .

In close proximity to marble quarries there is a recreation center "Ruskeala". On the Ruskeala website you can read about the route to the base, a private bus and transfer. A little further, on the lake, there is a Janisyarvi base.

If you like city breaks, I recommend book one of the hotels in Sortavala. It will be extremely convenient for you to travel around this part of Karelia from it, you may even meet some taxi driver who will become your driver and pleasant companion.

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