Kholmogory

Cathedral Square in Kholmogory, 19th century

Kholmogory () is a historic village and center of the Kholmogorsky District in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Northern Dvina, 75 km southeast of Arkhangelsk and 90 km north of the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. The name is derived from the Finnish for "the rock of death".

As early as the 14th century, the village (the name of which was then spelled Kolmogory) was an important trading post of the Novgorod Republic in the Far North of Russia. Its commercial importance further increased in 1554 when the Muscovy Company made it a center of its operations in furs. The Swedes besieged the wooden fort during the Time of Troubles (1613), but had to retreat in shame. In the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, the settlement was also a place of exile, notably for ex-regent Anna Leopoldovna and her children.

In 1682, the six-pillared Kholmogory cathedral was consecrated; the biggest in the region. It was destroyed by the Communists in the 1930s. Many ancient wooden shrines and mills, however, still survive in the neighborhood. One of the nearby villages is a birthplace of the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov. Local artisans - such as Fedot Shubin - have been famed for their craft of carving the tusks of mammoths and walruses. The Lomonosov Bone-Carving Factory preserves the medieval tradition of this folk art.

External links

*An 18th-century walrus-ivory chess set from Kholmogory
*Modern works of Kolmogory craftsmen