CITY · KARELIA

Petrozavodsk.

Petrozavodsk, the capital of Karelia, stretches for 27 km along the western shore of Lake Onega. It grew out of a cannon works founded under Peter the Great, and today it is the starting point for trips to Kizhi and the Kivach waterfall.

Region: Karelia
Population: 234,577 (2025)
Founded: 1703
Airport: Besovets · PES

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History

In 1703, during the Great Northern War, Prince Menshikov founded a works here on Peter the Great's orders to cast cannons and anchors for the Baltic Fleet. The settlement was first called Shuysky Zavod and then Petrovskaya Sloboda. The works closed in 1734, but under Catherine the Great the new Alexandrovsky foundry opened nearby in 1773. In 1777 the settlement became a town named Petrozavodsk. Nearby, at Martsialnye Vody, Peter founded Russia's oldest spa in 1714.

Culture & traditions

The centre keeps its Neoclassical architecture, including the Round Square of 1775 and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral consecrated in 1832. The Onega embankment, opened in 1994, is faced with Karelian granite and marble and lined with sculptures given by twin cities. The city has the Finnish-language National Theatre of Karelia, a musical theatre, a philharmonic and the National Museum, founded in 1871. In Karelian the city is called Petroskoi.

Sport

Petrozavodsk is the home town of several well-known athletes. The biathlete Vladimir Drachev, the handball player Timur Dibirov and the rhythmic gymnast Anastasia Maksimova were all born here.

Food & drink

The dish to try in Karelia is the kalitka, an open pasty with a thin rye crust filled with rice porridge or mashed potato. It is served hot with butter, often mixed with chopped boiled egg.

Practical information

Besovets Airport, with scheduled flights, lies 12 km north-west of the city. Railways link Petrozavodsk with Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Murmansk and Sortavala, and the R21 Kola highway passes through. Saint Petersburg is about 412 km away and Moscow about 1,010 km. The city is on Moscow time. Winters are long and cold, though mild for the latitude; summer is the best time to visit, when hydrofoils run to Kizhi.

What to see

Onega embankment — a granite waterfront lined with sculptures from twin cities
Round Square — the city's late-18th-century Neoclassical centre
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral — a Neoclassical church consecrated in 1832
Martsialnye Vody — Russia's oldest spa, founded by Peter the Great
Kizhi — a UNESCO-listed open-air museum of wooden architecture, reached by hydrofoil
Kivach waterfall — a waterfall not far from the city