Architectural and landscape exhibition in the village of Malye Korely. Small Corels Open-air museums Small Corels

On this page:

Even those who have little idea of ​​the location of the Russian North know about Malye Korely in Russia. This is truly the main local attraction. If you haven’t been to Korely, you haven’t been to Arkhangelsk!

The territories that are part of the current Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions have always been the center of tradition wooden architecture in Russia. But the reality is that more and more villages in the local dense forests are losing their last inhabitants, and wooden monuments are deteriorating, becoming decrepit and left unattended. The most interesting of them, which have so far been lucky enough not to burn or rot, are dismantled and transported to Malye Korely.

Of course, through such transportation, temples and huts are “torn from their roots” and become dull museum exhibits. After all, the lion’s share of their beauty and charm is not the building itself, but its surroundings, the way it fits into the landscape. Move the same temples or to a museum and they will lose all their extraordinary charm.

But the choice facing most of the Korelian exhibits was simple: either complete destruction or a museum. So thanks for that.

Malye Korely Museum

The entire exhibition of the museum is divided into three parts: Kargopol-Onega, Dvina, Pinega and Mezen. These regions of the Russian North were distinguished by traditions and way of life, and accordingly, the architecture in them was different.

Let's start with the Kargopol-Onega sector, as the most familiar to us from our current and past trips. The weather had been going downhill since Onega and towards Korely it turned into a real northern autumn with freezing rain and clouds touching the ground. But what can we do, we had one single day allotted for Korely.

Kargopol-Onega sector

At the entrance we are greeted by a traditional Russian hedge made of slanting branches, and behind it a museum employee mows with a lawn mower nothing other than flax - one of the main northern agricultural crops.

On the edge of the hill stands a massive tower with a dome absurdly plastered right on top of the tent. This is one of the oldest surviving wooden bell towers in Russia, built in the 16th century. The “ancestors” of such archaic bell towers were watchtowers wooden towers forts and fortresses.

This bell tower was transported from a village with the wonderful name Kuliga-Drakovanovo: just a moment the head of the Serpent Gorynych will appear from behind the ancient logs.

Go ahead. Hidden in the grove is a traditional northern chapel with a gallery. In a non-museum state, such chapels usually stand without any galleries or bells and look like a simple log house in an open field. There are still many of them throughout the Russian North.

Next to the chapel in a clearing there is a hut of a simple Kargopol peasant Poluyanov from the village of Gar. Kargopol Sushi has always been the poorest part of the Russian North; peasants here barely made ends meet.

Only the front log house with one room is residential here, and the entire back part of the house is a covered utility yard. To preserve heat, livestock and farm yards in the north are attached directly to the residential hut so that the passage between them is under the roof. The harsher the climate, the larger the yard: livestock live there, hay is stored, and all household work is done.

There is a wooden pipe sticking out of the roof of the hut, because it is not a pipe at all, but a kind of ventilation. This hut was a smoke hut, that is, it was heated in a black way, without a chimney.

To prevent smoke from spreading throughout the hut, special shelves were made at the level of human height. The photo clearly shows that the walls above them are smoked, and below them they are clean.

Poluyanov was quite poor, so his utensils were not sophisticated.

The center of the Kargopol-Onega exposition is the cube-shaped Church of the Ascension of the Lord from 1669 from the seaside village of Kushereka. Once upon a time, Kushereka lived on the prey of salmon, navaga, and whitefish; at the beginning of the 20th century, it had almost 2,000 inhabitants. By 2010, there were 7 of them left.

One of the museum's curators is standing on the porch of the church. These guardians not only sit in every hut and temple, but also happily talk about the history of the museum and the “sponsored” exhibit. Very good!

Next to the temple is the massive house of Pukhov from the village of Bolshoy Khaluy, in Oshevensk. This is the house of a wealthy peasant, consisting of two log buildings.

But that's not all: behind the house there is an equally impressive courtyard. Pukhov had a large farm, a lot of livestock, so he needed an appropriate yard.

Pukhov was an Old Believer, like many of his fellow villagers who fled to the north after the split. The house has a separate chapel room.

Dvinsk sector

We cross the bridge across the ravine from the Kargopol part to the Dvinsk part. Here there are buildings brought from the villages of the Northern Dvina and Vologda region.

In the center - St. George's Church 1672 from Solvychegodsk district. At the heart of the temple is the same archaic octagonal frame, but the light gallery surrounding it changes the whole picture. In general, many tented churches used to have such galleries, but almost all of them were removed during the last restorations of the 19th century, when the fashion for stone churches forced the villagers to sheathe their churches with planks and whitewash them.

A very beautiful temple.

Behind the church begins the Dvina village. The architecture here is completely different: the huts become two-story “six-walled” buildings, summer lights climb under the roof and acquire flirtatious balconies, and the porches leading directly to the second floor stand on massive “legs.” At the same time, courtyard houses are becoming larger and larger.

On the left, in the far half, there is a summer hut, on the right, with small windows, there is a winter hut. In winter, even the owners of such large houses lived with their whole family in one room.

A very interesting building in the Dvina part is the house of the peasant merchant Tropin. This is a huge two-story domina, where Tropin lived with his family and household, and on the ground floor he kept a tavern. The house was heated by a heating system consisting of a Russian stove and Dutch stoves.

Just a huge house - the width makes everything smaller, but in fact it is the size of half a five-story building.

Nearby there is a much smaller house - the house-yard of Shestakov from the village of Tsivozero. It is interesting due to its ancient-shaped casing above the window. It's called "ochelye".

We move along the forest path to the Pinega sector. Here are buildings from villages on the Pinega River.

Pinega sector

We are greeted by a line of grain barns. In Rus', barns were built at a distance from houses and the entire village, so that in the event of a fire, the most important wealth - the seed grain - would not be burned.

Barns were placed on legs to protect grain from dampness and all kinds of mice. It seems to me that this is where the “hut on chicken legs” came from.

The huts of the Pinega sector are all closed and somehow abandoned. We walk past barns and mowing huts: if the peasants' mowing fields were far from the village, then they built separate housing there and moved there for the entire time of mowing.

In the North, everything is wooden, even a well bucket:

Mezen sector

On the very cliff of the ravine, as if on the seashore, there are huge house-ships of the Mezen part. These are the largest and most prosperous farms in the Russian North. Once upon a time, the Pomors who lived in them were engaged in fishing, catching sea animals and were the richest northerners.

As you can see in the photo below, the Mezen courtyards were even larger than the already rather large houses. This was explained harsh climate and the fact that in winter Pomeranian boats - karbass - were built in these courtyards.

Karbas is not just any boat, but a full-fledged sailing ship, on which Pomors went far out to sea.

Wealthy Mezen residents decorated their houses whenever possible: we have already seen the same painting on the slopes to this day. residential buildings in the village .

It starts to rain again - we go back.

At the exit of the museum there is a “collection” of windmills. There are no longer any of them left in “wild nature” and therefore they look somehow fake.

We have one more destination planned for today - the oldest remaining tented temple in Russia.

St. Nicholas Church in the village of Lyavlya

The village of Lyavlya on the river of the same name is located just a couple of minutes drive from Malye Korel. Here, on the high Lyavlensky Hill, as usual, a wooden tented temple, built back in 1581, stands picturesquely.

It is of the same archaic “tower” form that underlies all tented churches. Just an octagonal tower topped with a tent - “an octagon from the bottom.”

IN mid-19th century, the temple fell into disrepair, so that services were no longer held there. But an amazing incident helped here: the wife of the Arkhangelsk military governor, the Marquis de Travers, had a vision that her sick son would recover if the governor restored the Lyavlena temple.

The governor restored the temple, but the work was done, to say the least, rather poorly. The rotted lower crowns, along with the gallery that surrounded the temple, were simply thrown out, and the temple lost almost a third of its original 40-meter height. That's why he looks so disproportionately overweight now. And it was, you have to understand, very similar to the piercing beautiful temple in Piyala.

Now the church is closed to visitors, but we were lucky: some caretaker just came and let us in: the inside is completely empty (nothing from the decoration of the temple has survived), only the original 16th-century dome, removed during restoration, stands.

It can be seen that to facilitate the construction, the dome was cut through one log. The tent was also cut down.

The place on Lyavoensky Hill is magical - once upon a time there was a large monastery here, on the high bank of the Northern Dvina.

And now the pipes of Novodvinsk are just smoking on the other side and the men are setting up salmon nets on the river.

With this, I ask you to consider our current journey through the North over; the next day we were waiting for the M8 highway to Moscow, which surprised us with its unknown quality.

All previous episodes of our northern journey, as well as a detailed route, can be found here.

We can learn about the way of life of people in previous centuries from ancient legends and traditions, as well as from artifacts preserved in museums. How do you like the idea of ​​going for a weekend to a real northern village of the 16th-19th centuries? There is such a place, and it is located very close to a large modern city Arkhangelsk. Architectural museum complex“Malye Korely” is located on a vast territory and is one of the largest in the country.

The beginning of large-scale reconstruction

Back in 1963, architects were concerned about the issue of preserving ancient monuments of Russian architecture. Unique and unusual buildings have been preserved in many places where people lived since ancient times. However, the problem was that it was usually a single church or residential building in a remote village. In this case, the object is not properly protected and is not restored in a timely manner, as a result of which it simply deteriorates and collapses.

The chief architect of the Arkhangelsk specialized research and production workshop began creating a unique museum complex. A picturesque place was chosen, and almost all the surroundings of the city of Arkhangelsk were examined in search of monuments of Russian architecture.

In 1974, the Malye Korely museum was opened, and its first visitors could see 11 ancient buildings at once for various purposes. The complex received its name in honor of the village located nearby.

History of the museum's development

Today the museum complex is a member of the Association of European And in 1996, “Malye Korely” was included in the State Code of Particularly Valuable Objects cultural heritage peoples Russian Federation. 2012 is also noteworthy in the history of the museum, when it received the prestigious “Property of the North” award.

Today the exhibition includes about 120 buildings various types and appointments. Among them there are residential buildings, outbuildings, and majestic temples. What unites the exhibits is that they are all built of wood and without a single nail. All architectural monuments were created in the 16th-20th centuries, completely disassembled for transportation, after which they were restored and assembled on the territory of the museum.

Architectural monuments

Today, the total area of ​​the museum is about 139.8 hectares. Its uniqueness lies not only in its scale, but also in its organization. All architectural monuments are integrated into the surrounding landscape and look as natural as possible. For the convenience of tourists, “Malye Korely” is divided into several sectors (mini-villages): Mezensky, Pinezhsky, Dvinsky, Kargopol-Onezhsky. While visiting the museum, you can admire not only the architectural forms, but also learn more about the life of our ancestors. In some buildings, the interior decoration has been restored, services are held in churches, and even ringing can be heard from the bell towers from time to time.

In addition to peasant estates, barns, churches and chapels, the pride of the complex is windmills, there are 7 of them in total, and one has a restored working mechanism. Also in the museum you can see wells, ancient vehicles, benches and fences - the same as those used by our ancestors. The Museum of Wooden Architecture "Malye Korely" regularly holds various festivals and festivities By big holidays, with an unchanged truly Russian flavor and immersion in a bygone era.

Opening hours and cost of visiting

You can visit the museum at any time of the year. It is open for tourists daily from 10:00, closes at summer period- at 19:00, and in winter - 17:00. You can explore the architectural monuments on your own or accompanied by a guide organized group. Several excursion programs are offered to guests, differing in theme, duration and cost. The price of an adult ticket is 100-150 rubles, with discounts for students, pensioners and children.

How to get to the Malye Korely Museum?

The architectural and historical complex is located 25 kilometers from Arkhangelsk. You can get to it by personal or public transport. You should focus on the village of Malye Korely - it is near it that the reserve of the same name is located. Until you need it settlement followed by buses No. 104, No. 108, No. 111. Many travel agencies The city offers excursions with transfer to the museum and back to the city. If you are driving a personal car, it is most convenient to use a navigator or follow the signs. If the place of your vacation or work trip is Arkhangelsk, “Malye Korely” is a must-visit place. Only here you can enjoy all the splendor of northern architecture in its original form. A visit to this museum will be interesting for everyone, but if in doubt, come here for a holiday or one of the festivals.

We've answered the most popular questions - check, maybe we've answered yours too?

  • We are a cultural institution and want to broadcast on the Kultura.RF portal. Where should we turn?
  • How to propose an event to the portal’s “Poster”?
  • I found an error in a publication on the portal. How to tell the editors?

I subscribed to push notifications, but the offer appears every day

We use cookies on the portal to remember your visits. If cookies are deleted, the subscription offer will pop up again. Open your browser settings and make sure that the “Delete cookies” option is not marked “Delete every time you exit the browser.”

I want to be the first to know about new materials and projects of the portal “Culture.RF”

If you have an idea for a broadcast, but there is no technical ability to carry it out, we suggest filling out electronic form applications within national project"Culture": . If the event is scheduled between September 1 and December 31, 2019, the application can be submitted from March 16 to June 1, 2019 (inclusive). The selection of events that will receive support is carried out by an expert commission of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

Our museum (institution) is not on the portal. How to add it?

You can add an institution to the portal using the “Unified Information Space in the Field of Culture” system: . Join it and add your places and events in accordance with. After checking by the moderator, information about the institution will appear on the Kultura.RF portal.

February 14th, 2017

Arkhangelsk is not only Big city at the mouth of the Northern Dvina. It is also the center of a large region, with an area one and a half times larger than Germany (yes, European countries are a unit of measurement for Russian territories!). The Arkhangelsk region is rich in ancient villages and wooden architecture, which is presented in the museum, which has been operating since 1973. open air 20 kilometers from the regional center. Despite the name, wooden architecture is Russian, like the majority of the region's population. The name of the museum comes from the village of Malye Karely, where it is located (the name of the village is spelled with an A). However, first things first.

You can get to the museum from the city by bus running from the MRI (marine and river station). 22 kilometers along the road along the right bank of the Northern Dvina through several villages. This road continues far to the east, first along the Dvina, then along the Pinega, and so on all the way to the Mezen (it was completed there quite recently). But on the bus I was on, the village of Malye Karely is the final point. Although the village itself is small, a significant part of the passengers go exactly to it - perhaps the museum is popular and just like a good place for walks.

2. The Little Karelians themselves look like this. Despite the name, this village is Russian, like almost the entire Arkhangelsk region. However, these regions were once inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes, assimilated by the Russians many hundreds of years ago. Including the Korela tribe (the ancestors of modern Karelians), from whom the Korelka (Korely) river, which flows here into the Dvina, got its name. There is a village next door Big Karelians, however, is approximately the same in size.

3. The village is small, and probably many of the houses are dachas of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk residents. The flow of cars along the road is quite busy, and maybe some of them are even heading to distant Mezen...

4. A hut with the sun under the ridge of the roof. This is typical northern tradition, which I observed in .

5. And this is how the bus stop in Malye Karely looks original. Also, however, wooden architecture!

But let's head to the museum now. It is quite large (area 140 hectares, noticeably more village) and has about a hundred wooden buildings brought here from different places in the Arkhangelsk region. To bring the situation closer to the real one, the museum, as is usually the case, is integrated into the surrounding nature - wooden buildings stand under the arches of a coniferous forest. According to the geographical division of the Arkhangelsk region, the museum is divided into four sectors - Onega-Kargopol, Dvinsk, Pinezh and Mezen.

6. The first to meet is the Onega-Kargopol sector (reflecting the western part of the region) and the bell tower of the Ascension Church from the village of Kushereka (Onega district), built in the mid-19th century.

7. The Church of the Ascension itself is older - 1699. The architecture is typical for Poonezhye - a five-domed structure on a cubic volume; the church in the village of Archangelo has the same design.

8. And this is already a much more artifact late erawindmill tent-type 1902 from the Kozheozersky Epiphany Monastery (located in the wilderness of the Onega region and in our time being revived after decades of neglect).

9. Inside the mill:

10. Another windmill is from the southwest of the region, from the village of Bolshaya Shalga, Kargopol district. One of the wings was apparently removed for restoration.

11. And this is a residential building - the house-yard of Pukhov from the village of Oshevensk (or rather, the village of Bolshoy Khaluy) in the Kargopol district, where I never got to. Residential buildings in the Russian North are huge and sometimes harsh in their appearance. Firstly, the residential part is divided into winter and summer, and secondly, it is combined with the economic part. In cold climates, everything is under one roof!

12. Against the backdrop of the forest is the chapel of Elijah the Prophet (late 18th century) from the now deserted village of Mamonov Ostrov on Kenozero (Plesetsk district).

14. The landscape here is quite hilly. It seems that there are ski slopes a little further from the museum. However, this was not relevant in the summer.

15. This is a ravine, along the bottom of which a stream flows. I was in Malye Korely on July 18th. It’s funny, but this is not the first year in a row that on this date I find myself in a place with long wooden stairs.

17. The next sector is Dvinskaya. Again, several wooden buildings assembled in one place actually recreate the entire appearance of the village.

18. House-yard of Shchegolev (1826) from the village of Irta on the banks of the Vychegda River in the Lensky district (district center - the village of Yarensk), not far from Kotlas. This hut is no longer five-, but six-walled, with two parallel cuts.

19. On the left is a windmill from the second half of the 19th century from the village of Medlesha (Shenkursky district).

20. Other buildings of the rural estate: in the foreground there is a black bathhouse, and on the far right there is a barn e bottom for storing food.

21. Two more six-walled residential buildings: Turobov’s house (1820s, also from the village of Irta) and Tsigarev’s house (19th century, village of Vyemkovo, Lensky district).

22. In the center of the Dvina sector is the Church of St. George the Victorious (17th century, village of Vershino, Verkhnetoyemsky district). This is already a tent structure (as, for example, in the village of Saunino near Kargopol).

23. And this is Shestakov’s house from the village of Tsivozero, Krasnoborsky district (1861). It is small because it is only part of a formerly intact hut, divided during its reconstruction.

24. Porch. The house is closed because I was here on Monday, when the interior displays are closed. In general, in the outback of the Russian North, in many villages it is not even customary to lock houses...

26. Windows in northern huts. usually small:

27. And this is Tropinin’s estate from the village of Semushinskaya, Ustyansky district. The owner was a wealthy man.

28. Even the roof ridge is double-headed!

29. Ermolina estate (1880, village of Krivets, Kholmogory district). The hut has five walls, and is no longer so huge.

30. C reverse side There is a barn adjacent to the residential part:

31. The owner of the estate was a blacksmith, so there is a rural blacksmith shop in the backyard:

32. And this is Rusinov’s house (19th century, now the uninhabited village of Kondratovskaya, Verkhnetoyemsky district). Of course, there are wooden walkways too.

33. Rye grows behind the house:

34. And again the forest. The next sector is Pinezhsky. It was there that at the time of my visit it was the most sparsely populated, with the most mosquitoes, and it was at the moment of arriving there that the sun disappeared behind the clouds. The Pinega sector of the entire museum seemed to me somehow especially detached and mysterious, just like, probably, the Pinega region itself in its dense and inaccessible forests.

By the way, near Arkhangelsk, as in North Karelia, Siberian spruce grows. But there is no larch here, because the climate is slightly moderated by the White Sea - it is found further south, in the Plesetsk region, and to the east.

35. In the foreground is a barn from the village of Sura, Pinega region (19th century), and on the left in the distance are baths.

36. Several 19th century barns from the Pinega region. They stand “on chicken legs” specifically so that rodents do not get into them.

37. Residential buildings from the rear (utility) part. IN this moment They are apparently undergoing restoration.

38. Bathhouse interior:

I was given a short tour of the Pinega sector by a museum employee, who herself comes from the Pinega region (in ethnographic museums, including such people, it is a fairly common practice to specifically hire people from the appropriate places). In her speech, I noticed a characteristic accent (I especially remember the pronunciation of the word “yet” as “ishsho”).

39. At the edge of the forest stands the Holy Trinity Chapel (1728) from the village of Valtevo, Pinega region.

40. In the foreground is the house of P. P. Filin (1876, the village of Gorodetsk, Pinezhsky district), and further away is the house of Dorodnaya (early 20th century, the village of Sheimogory, Pinezhsky district).

41. Well-"crane". Nowadays, I see these very rarely in villages, mostly in museums and in old photographs.

42. And in the forest there is a hunting store:

43. There is also a hunting hut nearby:

44. Coming out of the forest, we find ourselves in the Mezen sector, dedicated to the most distant and inaccessible region in the Arkhangelsk region, where I still definitely hope to get to (Mezen and Leshukonsky districts). The Mezen sector is located at the cliff, where the descent into the Northern Dvina valley begins.

45. House of a wealthy Mezen peasant:

46. ​​Another house has six walls. The cuttings are located nearby.

47. Another six-walled Mezen hut:

48. And this one has five walls. With painted shutters and overhangs.

50. There are also barns nearby:

52. And the well:

53. At the end of the Mezen sector there is a windmill from the village of Azapolye, Mezen region (19th century).

54. And a worship cross. For Pomors, they also served as navigational signs and were placed on the seashore. If you see the cross directly from the front side, then you are looking east.

55. Picturesque ravines and forests lie around:

56. And on the other side - somewhere below is the Northern Dvina, divided into many channels (the water, however, is not visible because of the trees). And on the other side is the city of Novodvinsk, a satellite of Arkhangelsk with 38 thousand inhabitants, and its city-forming enterprise - the gloomy Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill. This landscape reminded me of the view of the Kirovo-Chepetsk chemical plant from the high bank of the Vyatka.

This is a museum display of the rural Arkhangelsk region near its capital. The museum is constantly working to replenish its collection; the Pomeranian and Vazhsky sectors are currently being created. So it’s likely that it will become even more interesting in the future. This is where we finish the story about the Malye Korely museum.

“Korelians” or “Karelians”?

Discussions about correct spelling the words did not subside for a long time. The fact that the museum is located not far from the village of Malye Karely, and a little higher is the village of Bolshie Karely, added fuel to the fire. The origin of the place names is due to the White Sea tribe of Korels, who lived on the territory of modern Arkhangelsk in the 12th-14th centuries. The Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery (located 60 kilometers from it) and the Korely River, formerly called local residents Korelka. The chronicles are documentary evidence because they reflect the spelling of the Korel tribe with the letter “o”.

Akanye transformed the unstressed vowel into “a”, thereby being reflected in the names of the villages. Associations with Karelia and the nearby Malye Karely tourist complex created additional confusion and gave rise to new disputes.

As a result, the law assigned the names “Little Karelians” and “Big Karelians” to the villages, and state museum still remained with the vowel “o”.

History of Malye Korel

Speaking about the beginning of construction of the museum, one cannot fail to mention 1963. It was then that Valentin Lapin, the chief architect of the Arkhangelsk Special Scientific and Restoration Production Workshop, took the initiative to create unique collection monuments of wooden architecture, the number of which decreased every year for various reasons: fires, frequent thunderstorms, rapid rotting of walls. Ancient buildings were collected and carefully transported from many villages in the Arkhangelsk region to the site where the museum was planned to be created. If before 1973 tourists would have to travel a lot in order to form an opinion about the skill of the ancient peoples, with the advent of Malye Korel, their route was limited to one walk through the picturesque area. Distinctive features Arkhangelsk carpentry art, historical spirit and ethnographic value - this is how one can describe the cult buildings of the museum complex.

Museum exposition

The Malye Korely Museum is formed by four sectors: Pinezhsky, Dvinsky, Kargopol-Onega and Mezensky. 120 samples are concentrated on their territory wooden architecture. Among them are churches and buildings for public and civil purposes. Their arrangement follows the traditional layout of villages of that time. The museum management plans to open two more sectors in the future – Vazhsky and Pomeranian.

The most ancient buildings on the territory of the museum are the Ascension and St. George churches, as well as the bell tower from a village called Kuliga-Drakovanovo.

Ascension Church

This boxy temple was built in 1669. The shape of the building served as the architect’s creative response to the ban on tent construction by Patriarch Nikon. The Church of the Ascension has an altar and a porch, to which a porch leads.

Initially, the temple, erected “with the diligence of the peasants,” was located in the village of Kushereka, Onega region. A year before the opening of the museum, Malye Korely moved it, and since then the Church of the Ascension of the Lord has been the main attraction of the square in the Kargopol-Onega sector.

St. George's Church

In 1672, a temple was erected in the village of Vershina using the ancient method. It was an octagon topped with a tent. In the 17th century, such buildings were considered the pinnacle of architecture. Contrary to the aforementioned prohibition of Patriarch Nikon, taking advantage of the remoteness of the village from the church authorities, the church was not built “about the five peaks.” Material basis The funds collected by the peasants served.

Now St. George's Church can be seen in the Dvina sector of Malye Korel.

Bell tower from the village of Kuliga-Drakovanovo

The end of the 16th century was marked by the appearance of a unique structure - a tented bell tower made of wood. The restrained forms and rough log frame evoke associations with an impregnable watchtower, which were typical for fortresses of that time.

The bell tower is also notable for the fact that it is the oldest among similar buildings in Russia. You will certainly feel its uniqueness by walking through the Dvinsk sector of the museum.

What else to do in Malye Korely

Not a single year within the “walls” of this amazing museum is not complete without traditional Russian festivities. In Malye Korely they cope with special trepidation. Religious holidays: Easter, Ascension of the Lord, Christmas and others. An indelible impression on tourists is made by such unusual celebrations as the Bread Festival, the Horse Festival and the Haymaking Festival. Entertainment will amaze with its diversity: horse riding, a competition in making the biggest sandwich, a competition for the most beautiful loaf, performances folklore groups, recreation of an ancient haymaking ritual... The idea that the Malye Korely Museum is limited to just one exhibition is the biggest misconception of tourists heading here!

In addition to the opportunity to take part in numerous festivities, visitors can book a sightseeing or thematic excursion. You can take a closer look at just one of the sectors of Malye Korel, or choose a longer option that covers the entire territory of the museum. Thematic excursions are not so much of educational value as they allow travelers to completely immerse themselves in the unique atmosphere of the Russian land. If the guide's monologue bores you, join game program or take part in an ethnography class. Available for booking are sleigh rides in a horse team accompanied by the cheerful tinkling of bells, aromatic tea and pancakes in wooden huts and much more.

What to buy as a souvenir of the Malye Korely Museum

Most best gift- this is a book. This is what will help you refresh your memories of your visit to the open-air museum. Choose a theme close to your liking: animals and vegetable world, patterned knitting, objects of ancient Russian life, elements national costumes, patchwork, the main attractions of Malye Korel. The main advantage is that you don’t have to stand in line: the official website of the museum allows you to place an order online. Prices vary from 30 to 1000 rubles.

Tourists who prefer original products of folk craftsmen can look into the souvenir shop. There will certainly be something unusual there, for which you won’t mind parting with a couple of hundred rubles.

Tourist Information

You can visit the Malye Korely Museum from 10:00 to 18:00 (from October to May inclusive) and from 10:00 to 20:00 (from June to September). Compared to many Russian museums, the ticket price is low. For citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus it will cost 200 rubles from Monday to Friday and 250 rubles from Saturday to Sunday. Visitors of retirement age, children over 16 years of age and students full-time students can buy a ticket cheaper: for 100 and 150 rubles, respectively. Behind single ticket you will have to shell out 500 rubles regardless of the day of the week.

The cost of visiting exhibitions and excursions is specified separately on the official website. In addition, you can order wedding ceremony, a traditional greeting with bread and salt, as well as professional photo and video shooting.

The Little Corel program seems so attractive that you are ready to literally live here for a few days? Fortunately, the tourist complex “Malye Karely” is located 200 meters from the museum. Tourists have the opportunity to stay in a cottage or hotel room. After getting in touch with the history of Russian architecture, modern entertainment is the best choice: paintball, billiards, bowling, a restaurant and a traditional Russian bathhouse.

How to get there

The Malye Korely Museum can be found at the address: Malye Karely village, Pravdy Street, 15. Buses No. 104 and No. 108 go in this direction. The departure point is the railway station and bus station, respectively. Transport runs every 20-30 minutes, so you will have enough time to prepare yourself for an exciting journey through the pages of Russian architecture!