What to See in Arkhangelsk - Top Sights and Attractions

Building. The Merchant Court is a network of fortified depots built on the Pur-Navolok promontory in Arkhangelsk by a team of German and Dutch masons between 1668 and 1684. Only the northern tower of the original structure and parts of the western wall facing the Northern Dvina still stand.

In the 17th century Arkhangelsk handled more than half of the country's exports. The local merchant court was rebuilt in stone after the fire in May 1667. The complex consisted of the Russian and German courts (for native and foreign merchants, respectively) and the so-called Stone Town (Каменный город) wedged in between.

After Peter the Great conquered the Baltic coastline and moved the capital to St. Petersburg, most foreign trade was rerouted and the Arkhangelsk trade center was abandoned. In the 19th century the remaining buildings were used as a customs house. The Neoclassical bourse with a squat tower was added to the complex in 1788.

By the mid-20th century many buildings had fallen into irreparable decay and were demolished. In 1981 the crumbling structure was adapted to house a local-history museum. Restoration has been underway since 1992. It is still delayed by lack of funds.^[1]

Monastery in Russia. The Siya Monastery of St. Antonius is a Russian Orthodox monastery that was founded by Saint Antonius of Siya deep in the woods, 90 km to the south of Kholmogory, in 1520. Currently the monastery is located in Kholmogorsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia, inside the nature protected area, Siya Zakaznik.

The monastery takes its name from the Siya River, a tributary of the Northern Dvina. This river route allowed the monks to travel to the Solovetsky Monastery and other centres of spiritual life. There was also a station on the trade route connecting Archangel and the Russian capital of Moscow.

Following the saint's death in 1556, the monastery grew on the salt trade with Western Europe and developed into one of the foremost centres of Christianity in the Russian North. Ivan the Terrible and his son Feodor granted it important privileges and much land. By 1579, the monastery owned 50 versts of ploughlands stretching towards Kargopol.

In 1599, Boris Godunov exiled his political opponent Feodor Romanov to this remote monastery. While many of his relatives were starved to death in other cloisters, Feodor took monastic vows and the name Philaret and was eventually raised to the dignity of hegumen of the monastery. Later he became the Patriarch of Moscow, and his son Mikhail established the Romanov dynasty of Russian tsars.

In the 17th century, the monastery continued to prosper. The large katholikon was constructed over the years 1587–1608. The tent-like church and refectory were completed by 1644, and the belfry was added in 1652. The monastic library was one of the richest in Russia and included such books as the Siysky Gospel from 1339 and the 16th-century album of 500 Western religious etchings adapted to Eastern Orthodox canonical requirements. Its treasury was famed for its collection of medieval jewelry. In 1764, the monastery owned more than 3,300 male peasants.

In 1923, the monastery was disbanded. Both library and treasury were taken to Moscow or Arkhangelsk. The medieval buildings were used as a sanatorium and a kolkhoz. The monks were readmitted to the grounds in 1992 and immediately began emergency repair works.^[2]

Monument to Peter the Great is a monument to the Russian Emperor Peter the Great erected in Arkhangelsk in 1914. It is a monument of monumental art of the federal category of protection. The most famous reduced copy of the monument by M. M. Antokolsky.

The monuments made on the same model by Antokolsky are located in Peterhof (1884), in Taganrog (1903), in Petersburg near Sampsonievsky Cathedral (1909), in Petersburg on Kirochnaya Street (1910), in Schlisselburg (1957). The plaster statue of Peter the Great (1900) is in the Russian Museum, the bronze sculpture of Peter is also in the Tretyakov Gallery. The original plaster sculpture, created by Marc Antokolsky in Rome in 1872, which served as a prototype for the monuments mentioned above, is kept in the Scientific-Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.