Severodvinsk, Russia

Severodvinsk

Transportation

 

Description of Severodvinsk

Severodvinsk (until September 12, 1957 - Molotovsk) is a city in the Arkhangelsk Region of Russia, the administrative center of the Severodvinsk municipality. Founded in 1936 as a working shipbuilding village, received city status in 1938. In 2016 he received the status of the City of Labor Valor and Fame.

 

Travel Destinations in Severodvinsk

Nikolo-Korelsky monastery

In Severodvinsk, the territory of the shipbuilding enterprise OAO Sevmash includes the territory of the former Nikolo-Korelsky monastery, found in 1419. The St. Nicholas Korelsky Monastery was first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1419, when this monastery was burned and ravaged by the Norse, the vikings. In 1420 the monastery was again mentioned in the Russian chronicles, when the monastery suffered from a fire.

In 1471 the monastery was mentioned again in the history of Russia. While hunting for the beast in the White Sea, two sons of Marfa Boretskaya, better known as Marfa Posadnitsa, sank, they were buried in the Nikolo-Korelsky monastery. Subsequently, Martha ordered to rebuild the monastery with the church of St. Nicholas, and also gave him a part of her possessions — agricultural fields, salt-works and fisheries.

The domes of the Saint Nicholas cathedral were lost in 1933 due to a fire allegedly caused by lightning. The drums of the cathedral were destroyed in 1936. In 2009, 5 domes and crosses were restored at the Nikolsky Cathedral of the former Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery, located on the territory of the shipbuilding enterprise OAO Sevmash. Steel domes were made in workshop 7a and in workshop 40, crosses were made in workshop 42 of SEVMASH OJSC. Restoration was carried out at the expense of parishioners.

 

 

History of Severodvinsk

Pre-20th century
Vikings explored the territories around the North Dvina River - part of Bjarmaland - at the start of the first millennium. British and Norman ships came to these places for mining, fur and fishing before the 13th century, but later the climate became colder and access to the northern seas became closed.

The historical records first mention the settlement on the site of modern Severodvinsk in 1419, when the Swedes sailed into the bay and burnt down the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery that stood by the shore during the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars. Tradition states that Saint Euphemius, an Orthodox missionary in Karelia, founded this monastery. The abbey stood in ruins until 1471, when two sons of Marfa Boretskaya died in a vicious storm; their bodies were recovered on the beach near the monastery twelve days later. At the urging of Boretskaya, the monastery was restored and her sons were buried there.

On August 24, 1553, a ship of Richard Chancellor reached the salt-mining settlement of Nyonoksa, which is still famous for its traditional wooden architecture. The British sailors visited the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery, where they were surprised to find a community of "sailors in soutanes (cassocks)" and a pier large enough to accommodate several ships. The main church of this extraordinary establishment was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the holy patron of sailors; hence, the whole White Sea became known in 16th-century English maps as "St. Nicholas Bay". In late 1613, during the Time of Troubles in Russia, Polish-Lithuanian vagabonds, the Lisowczycy, captured and looted Severodvinsk with the monastery.

The Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery flourished after the establishment of the Muscovy Company, as the bulk of their trade passed through the local harbor. In August 1618 the harbour was visited by John Tradescant the elder, who conducted a survey of an island situated opposite the monastery. This island became known to the British as "Rose Island", because it was there that Tradescant found an exceedingly rare plant which he named "Rosa moscovita" and brought back to London.

 

Transportation

Severodvinsk is the terminal station of a railway line which splits of at Isakogorka station from the line connecting Moscow and Arkhangelsk.

The Kudemskaya narrow-gauge railway in 2010 has appeared in Forbes ranking, of 10 most beautiful railway routes of the world.