Mandrogi - uVisitRussia

Mandrogi

Welcome to Mandrogi! It is a famous reconstructed traditional Russian village. You can see how people lived long time ago.You can train some skills there: horse riding, cooking, different types of sewing, wood drawing on Matreshka and others. Mandrogi is located on the shore of the Svir River, which connects the greatest European Lakes Ladoga and Onego. The village has several traditional Russian houses (izba), museums. The nature is nice around, the River has lots of fish, and forests are inhabited with many bird and animal species.

Once upon a time there was a village called Verkhnie Mandrogi, or "Upper Falls" in the language of the locals. The village was rebuilt in 1997 and has been attracting tourists ever since.Visitors to this small settlement on the outskirts of the Leningrad region can catch a glimpse of a time long-forgotten by immersing themselves in 19th-century rural Russian life.

Located 260 kilometers northwest of St. Petersburg, Verkhniye Mandrogi is a rustic, wood-crafted village that has thoroughly recreated the simple life of pre-revolutionary Russia. Surrounded by forests and flanked by waterways on both sides, this timeless settlement along the Svir River offers something for almost anyone who wants to unwind from big-city life.

There are several relaxing banyas dotted around the village, two restaurants with excellent homestyle food, a vodka museum, crafts and cooking master classes, horseback riding and, for those seeking something a little more rustic, cozy cabins offering complete immersion in 19th-century Russia. All cottages have a wooden Mandrogi decor and a welcoming atmosphere with a real stove and all the amenities.

Among the activities are the workshops. A community of people of talent and enthusiasm united in our objective to preserve, develop and recover the popular arts and crafts. There are exhibitions of Russian dolls, paintings and prints (lithography and etching). In these workshops you will be introduced evidence to the processing of the materials you will learn the basics of a trade: painting on wood (such as for the dolls), work on a frame, make a pot in ceramics, painting ceramics and much another.

Thanks to the rich forests of the area and the geographic location on the river, in Mandrogi is possible to organize activities of hunting and fishing. Another interesting activity is the excursion in the forest, riding a horse, walking, archery, air rifles and organize a picnic with sausages, wine or taking what you want for lunch. The stay at Mandrogi is not just for the summer but also in winter, with special activities.

It’s a harmonious blend of a historical and a modern way of life. Here it is possible to completely unwind from the noisy big city and learn something new about Russia’s past.

Visitors can stay in wooden cabins — a number of which are authentic, 19th-century cottages, dismantled in the Arkhangelsk region and taken to Mandrogi — without modern conveniences, such as a television, gas stove or indoor plumbing. You can see a wooden cabin with cozy bedrooms, a large living room with a loom and a stone oven, a small stable on the ground floor with a cow and a horse, and outside, a banya beside a fresh-water lake.

Tourists learn how to work the loom and fire up the wood stove and banya, cooking the food themselves and even doing chores like feeding hay to horses and cows.

You will know everything about living in the old days, about tending to cows and horses, milling flour, weaving textiles on a loom and firing up a stove and “black,” or smoke-filled, banya.