Russia - Testament of Kenozero Lake

The National Reserve of Kenozero takes the territory of a hilly glacifluvial plain with many lakes and other diverse glacial forms of landscape. Due to geological conditions, the plain forms a specific uplift surrounded by vast wetlands and taiga forests. This fact induces a relative isolation and a high patchiness of the landscape. These mentioned peculiarities justify the exceptional attractiveness of this place for numerous peasant settlements inclined to limnic landscapes, as well as a highly developed communal farming system with its typical harmonious balance of forest industrial lands, pasturable lealands, and campestral agricultural lands. The settling system took shape in the X II-XV I centuries and generally persists unchanged until nowadays. Historical plans and buildings, typical country estate organization and traditional country houses with their painted frontages, carved balconies, fenestral architraves, traditional inner decorations and housing facilities are preserved in settlements. Nearby almost each village are located wooden chapels, most of which are genuine masterpieces of Russian wooden art of building, as well as sacred groves, i.e. local territories of primary forest until now worshipped by indigenous people.