Belozersk
Belozersk is one of the oldest Russian cities first mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years in 862 as Beloozero (White Lake) and located several kilometers away from the modern city on the northern shore of Lake Beloe. Since 1238 Beloozero was the capital of the Beloozero Principality and a big centre of commerce and crafts. In the 1370s the city was brought under the power of the Grand Duke of Moscow, and since 1389 it became the centre of an appendage principality included in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy.
At present the city is the centre of the Belozersk District of the Vologda Region and a station on the Volga-Baltic waterway. The most important industries of the district are food and timber processing. The main city attraction is the Belozersk Kremlin including a ring of the rampart of 1487 surrounded by a ditch. The rampart and the ditch are still impressive in their size. It seems that nowhere else in Russia the original rampart has been preserved to such extent.
In recent years Belozersk has become a centre of attraction for numerous tourists interested in its history and sights as well as in the picturesque Lake Beloe and its coast. The tourists visit a long Viking house recreating an everyday environment of the Old Scandinavians, who were frequent visitors to Belozersk in the early Middle Ages, and an interactive blacksmith shop, where they can draw the bellows or make their own wrought iron souvenir. They can also take a ride round the lake on the old oared boat Slavyanka. The person interested in history can enlarge his knowledge and just have a good rest in Belozersk in any season.
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