Audiotour State Museum of Wooden Architecture and Folk Art “Malye Korely”. Dvina

The culture of the Russian North is diverse and unique and wooden architecture is believed to be the gem of it. To preserve ancient monuments of architecture it was decided to set up the museum ‘Malye Korely’ in 1964. Unique wooden buildings have been brought here from remote northern villages since 1968. On June, 1 the Museum opened its gates for the visitors.  Nowadays ‘Malye Korely’ is one of the largest open-air museums in Russia. There are more than one hundred monuments of wooden architecture situated on the territory of 140 hectares. In 1996 the Museum was included into the State Code of especially valuable objects of cultural heritage belonging to the peoples of the Russian Federation.

The territory of the museum is divided into 4 sectors, which correspond to the basic rivers of our region: the Dvina, the Pinega, the Onega and the Mezen. Each sector represents a definite type of a northern peasant settlement with architecture and planning typical of the given district. The reconstructed interiors and exhibitions represent everyday life and activities of people from different parts of the Arkhangelsk region.

This excursion invites you to see the biggest part of the Museum – the Dvina sector. Here you can see the monuments from the higher and the middle parts of the Dvina River stream and its tributaries.

The Northern Dvina played one of the main roles in the settlement of the northern territories. Later it became the chief trade route connecting the Arkhangelsk North with the central Russian territories. Along agriculture peasants were involved in trade, carrier's trade and others. That is why many villages there appeared on trade or mail highways. To underline this district peculiarity the sector represents a street-line planning of the village with the facades turned to the street. The central point of the settlement is a church.