The north shore of Lake Ladoga contains many fascinating sights that have been around since Peter the Great moved the capital to the shores of the nearby Baltic Sea. One of the most beautiful of them, located just beyond the archipelago monastery of Valaam, is a small village settled in the 18th century on the left bank of the Svir River – Mandrogi.
Prior to World War II Mandrogi was a quintessential Karellian mill town, a fishing settlement hardly touched by time. The war left it a burnt ruin, but after the Soviet Union fell, a group of Russian investors bought the land and invited the best of the region’s woodworkers to use their creativity and traditional skills to restore the town to its former glory. Between 1996 and 1999 the traditional buildings were restored, and today the settlement is called Upper Mandrogi (Verkhny Mandrogi).