The central complex of the Solovetsky Monastery ensemble began to form in the middle of the 15th century. The first churches and brethren’s cells were made of wood. Fires have destroyed the buildings, and we do not know how they looked like.

In 1552 solid buildings made of bricks appeared, the bricks production was arranged at the Monastery brick factory. In five years’ time the Novgorod masters and architects built the Uspenskaya (Dormition) Church, Trapesnaya (Refectory) and Kelaskaya (Bursar’s) Chambers which made an architectural complex. The most impressive of these is the Refectory, it is the only chamber in the Russian monasteries built with a single supportive column in the middle. The area of the Refectory is 483 sq. m. Its vaults are resting on the walls of more than 2 m. thick, the central column is 4 m. in diameter and is made of white stone.

On completion of the Dormition-Refectory complex, the next eight years saw the construction of the main church of the Solovetsky Monastery, Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration of Our Saviour) Cathedral. It is 47 m. high. Two upper tiers house the main altar and six chapels, in the lower part of the building there are burial-vaults of locally worshipped saints.

The 17th century is the time when many of the Monastery’s living quarters and household buildings were constructed. The exterior and interior of the brethren’s cells can be seen in one of the restored cells which are situated along the northern facade of the Svyatitelsky (Hierarch’s) Chamber.

The original appearance of the Portnaya (Dressmaker’s) and Chobotnmaya (Bootmaker’s) Chambers (1642) has been restored in the northern yard. The most interesting of all the household constructions is the stone mill in the southern courtyard, it was built on one of the underground canals running from the Svyatoye (Holy) Lake to the Blagopoluchiye (Prosperity) Bay.

Among the 18th century monuments the three-tiered bell-tower, the highest in the Kremlin (52 m), is the most remarkable. The Filippovskaya ( Philip’s) Church was dedicated in 1798, it is situated across the southern facade of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration of Our Saviour) Cathedral. In the 19th century to replace the ruins of the Nikolskaya (St. Nicolas’s) Church (1583) a five-domed Nikolsky (St. Nicolas’s) Cathedral was built, in the place where Zosima and Savvaty Chapel inside the Transfiguration of Our Saviour Cathedral used to be there appeared the Troitsky (Trinity) Cathedral with one cupola.

In the middle of the 16th century during the Livonian War the Swedish navy appeared at the Solovetsky Islands. The Monastery strengthened its fortifications and ammunition to become the oldest fortress on Solovki.

In the 1580-ies the Solovetsky Monastery financed the erection of several wooden forts - ostrogs - Sumsky, Kemsky, Kolsky, Rinozersky. The ostrogs housed garrisons of monastery soldiers, strelets.

At the end of the 16th century, in 1682-1596, the Solovetsky Monastery was surrounded with a wall of wild stone, since then the fortress wall has been one of the most magnificent in Russia.

The Solovetskaya Fortress belongs to the class of regular fortresses, the main characteristic features of which are straight lines of walls, regular intervals between towers and their standing out the line of the walls, possibility of cannon fire from the ground floor. The general length of the Solovetskaya Fortress walls is 1200 m, they are 7 m wide at the bottom, up to 10 m high, and its towers are up to 17 m high.

The lay-out of the Fortress is a pentagon extended from north to south, in the corners there are round war towers - the Arkhangelskaya (Archangel’s), Nikolskaya (St. Nicolas’s), Korozhnaya (Shallow), Pryadilnaya (Spinner’s), Belaya (White) Towers. The western wall which faces the sea is strengthened with the Uspenskaya (Dormition) Tower. The part of the wall (called ‘Pristenok’) with the two towers, Povarennaya (Cooker’s) and Kvasovarennaya (Kvas-Brewer’s), faces the Svyatoye (Holy) Lake. Towers and walls have eleven passages: three in the corner towers of Nikolaskaya (St.Nicolas’s), Korozhnaya (Shallow) and Belaya (White); seven gates are built in the walls themselves: they are called Seldyaniye (Herring), Svyatiye (Holy), Sushilniye (Drying) (closed at present), Povarenniye (Cooker’s) and Kvasovarenniye (Kvas-Brewer’s), as well as Nikolskiye (St. Nicolas’s) -these were built in the place of a gun-slot at the beginning of the 20th century.

The defense system of the Solovetsky Monastery also included two dry moats dug on the southern and northern sides, the most accessible for enemy. The northern moat has survived in a good state till our days.

In its long history the Fortress of the Solovetsky Monastery has been tested for invincibility several times. In the 17th century, in 1674-1676, the strelets (soldiers) of the Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich stormed the Monastery - the brethren rose in rebellion against the church reforms initiated by Patriarch Nikon. During the Crimean War, in July 1854, the Monastery was bombarded by 120 guns of two British frigates for nine hours. The Solovetskaya Fortress proved invincible in both attacks.

For three centuries, from the middle of the 16th to the end of the 19th, the Solovetsky Monastery was a state prison where numerous enemies of Faith and State served their sentences.

Famous statesmen and church notables, such as Hegumen of the Trinity lavra Artemy, Tsarevich of the Kasimov Khanate Simeon Bekbulatovich, the Chronicler of Time of Trouble, the burser of the Trinity lavra Avraamy (Palitsin), the last ataman (Cossack chieftain) of Zaporozhskaya Sech Petr Kalnishevsky, the head of the Secret Office in Peter the Great’s times the count Petr Tolstoy were among the prisoners.

In the Kremlin there survived several prisons of the 16th-17th centuries - Korozhnaya, Golovlenkova, Sushilennaya, as well as the Icon-Painting Chamber, which served as a regular prison at the end of the 18th century.

One km from the settlement, off the road to the Sekirnaya Mountain, there is a peculiar construction built in the middle of the 16th century; they are Filipp’s fish-wells. This is the first man-made dam of huge wild stones on the Solovki which crosses the smallish sea bay.

The Solovetsky Monastery had numerous fishing grounds off the islands’ coast where they used to catch sea species, mostly cod and herring, with a sweep-net. The catch however had never been secure. This is why in as early as the 16th century there appeared an idea to provide for a constant source of live sea fish at the Monastery. To achieve that, a small sea bay nearby, well protected from the winds, was diked with two stone dams, thus making two closed sea basins. They were constructed under Hegumen Filipp and have been called «Filipp’s fish-wells» since.

The dam is not a solid structure as the one that can be seen in the channel near Muksalma, it is sooner a kind of a net made of stone. The stones are laid so that the tides come to the basins filling them to the brims and leave them freely. With the tides young fish, plankton, some species of invertebrates are brought to the fish-wells providing food for bigger fish.

Most likely the fish-wells were places where they kept the caught fish, mainly cod.

The Botanic Garden is situated 4 km from the Solovetsky Kremlin, on the Nizhny Pert Lake. The Garden territory lies in a narrow gally protected on its three sides with hills and forest. The southern side overlooks the Nizhny Pert Lake. Thanks to the relief and approaching forests there exists a special microclimate in the area of the Botanical Garden which is favourable for the plants brought here from other latitudes and climatic zones.

In 1822 the Makary’s Hermitage of the Solovetsky Monastery was founded here. On one of the hilltops a wooden chapel was erected, at its foot, near the lake, two cells were built.

Later years saw rapid development of the area. There is information that in as early as the first half of the 19th century they used to grow fruit and berries and herbs brought to these parts from the mainland.

By the middle of the 19th century apple-trees were planted, dog-rose, shadbush were cultivated; two chapels, a cellar of wild stone filled with ice, some other household houses were built; on the top of the Krestovaya (Cross) Mountain a worship cross was erected. In 1862 a two-storey dacha (summer cottage) for the Archimandrite was built of larch brought from the mainland; it was to accommodate him on his short visits here.

The wax bleaching plant at the Makary Hermitage helped to develop the garden as the hot water after being used to melt the wax was directed along the wooden pipes to the gardens to heat the soil and hot-houses. There the monks grew flowers and fruit and exhibited them to their guests as the Monastery marvels.

As the Monastery legend goes, at the end of the 19th century the monks traveled to the Pamir where they were presented to Dalai-Lama; they brought dog-rose with especially big hips, lilac, marsh tea and other plants as a present from him to their Father Superior. Japanese rose, Hungarian lilac, Siberian tea have survived since the times of the Monastery and now make huge thickets.

At a period when the concentration camps were functioning, the garden collection was enlarged with new plants, and the territory of former meadows and wax bleaching factory was used to grow edible plants. The central lane adorned with larch is a true focal point of the garden. Larches were grown in a nursery garden; they were planted in 1935 when they were 5-7 years old.

In 1979 the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve resumed weeding in the Botanical garden and restoring the soils which had been used before. At present more than 500 plants grow there, 80% of them were planted after 1989.

Everywhere on the islands one can see hills with steep, almost vertical, slopes. One of the highest hills on the Solovki Islands has got the name of the Sekirnaya (Pole-Axe) Mountain.

In the 1860-ies a monastery hermitage was built on top of the Sekirnaya Mountain. The main building of the hermitage architectural ensemble was a church built of stone in 1860 and dedicated to Our Saviour’s Ascension. Above the church there was a bell tower, in 1862 a light-house was opened at the top of it, becoming the largest on the White Sea. Adjacent to the church there is a wooden cell building surrounded with household buildings. An open space in front of the church has a breathtaking view to the north-west of the Solovetsky Island, to enjoy it one has to climb 294 steep stairs. In the second half of the 19th century a bath-house of boulders, and stables were built. The Hermitage was a place where masses of pilgrims used to visit.

At the time of the Solovetsky camps, in 1923-1929, on the Sekirnaya Mountain they arranged a penal isolation cell here. At the bottom of the hill mass executions took place. The Sekirnaya Mountain has become a symbol of prisoners’ sufferings. In August 1992 the Holy Patriarch Alexy II dedicated a worship cross at the bottom of the mountain in memory of all who perished in the Solovetsky Camp.

Two kilometers away from the Sekirnaya Mountain there is the village of Savvatyevo. The place where the Venerable Savvaty and German prayed in solitude has been preserved with the erection of memorial hermitage.

Originally, in the 17th century, there was the Reverend Savvaty’s Chapel and several cells, the second half of the 19th century saw the flourishing of the place. In 1858-1860 the Church of the Virgin Hodegetria was made of stone; later adjacent to the antechurch, a cell building of two storeys was built; a hotel, new houses for brethren and other household constructions were erected. The Hermitage was surrounded with man-made meadows, drainage was built in the marshy area, kitchen gardens and hot houses were organized. Savvatyevo became a centre of the hermitage system in the north-west of the Island.

When the concentration camps appeared on the Archipelago in 1923, here, in Savvatyevo, they arranged an isolation colony for political enemies of the Bolsheviks - members of Socialist Revolution Party, Mensheviks, and Anarchists. In 1925 «politicians» were transferred to the mainland; instead a Soviet farm was organized in Savvatyevo. In 1942 a Sea Cadets School took its place here. The stone buildings housed classrooms, headquarters, and flats for teachers. Sea cadets made dug-outs to live to the east of the Hermitage. In three years of its existence the Sea Cadets School gave the Navy more than 4000 young specialists.

When one follows the track from Savvatyevo further along the road, one gets to the bank of the Bolshoye Krasnoye (Big Red) Lake, 300 metres further the road brings one to Isakovo, one of the most picturesque places on the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island.

The hermitage here is called after the Chapel of Saint Isaac of Dalmatia built in the 18th century on one of the hills by the lake in the forest (the Chapel has not survived). Isakovo is situated between Karasevoye and Isakovskoye Lakes, in a hilly place. The lakes are connected by a narrow channel, across which a wide meadow lies. The meadow reaches as far as the foot of Sekirnaya Mountain. The wet meadow used to be drained, the ditches are still visible today.

The Monastery hayfield was situated in Isakovo, and the fishery artel (a group of people working together) were housed there.They provided the Monastery with fresh fish. From the years when the Monastery was flourishing a wooden cell building and two store-houses made of boulders have survived. One of these was used to dry nets on the shore of the lake, the other to store household’s things at the stables.

The Solovetsky Islands are the land of lakes. The major part of them is on the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island.

The absence of rivers on the Islands neccessitated the dwellers to connect the lakes with canals. In four centuries 20 separate lake canals systems were constructed. The main one being the Svyatoye (Holy) Lake system which consists of more than twenty lakes and canals. The Svyatoye (Holy) Lake supplied the monks with drinking water.

Canals which ran from the lake to sea served as water supplies for kitchens and kvas-brewery, and the huge wheels for the mills which later were changed to turbines.

Water from the Holy Lake running in canals was also used for sawing logs, producing electricity, and filling the dry dock when ships were repaired. At the beginning of the 20th century some of the canals were made wider to make the water supply larger; they then became navigable. In 1913 canals used for transportation connected 9 lakes. The energy from the water in the old main canal running from Pityevoye (Drinking water) Lake to the Holy Lake was also used at new turbine of the mill (1907) and at the hydroelectric power station. Boats and small steamers brought timber, hay, fish that was caught to the Monastery by canals.

The road from the Kremlin to the Boat Station first crosses the settlement , then goes towards the Sekirnaya Mountain. The first fork to the right will take you round the Pityevoye (Drinking water) Lake. Here there is a device which regulates the amount of water coming to the Holy Lake from the canal system.

The Boat Station is on the Lake Sredny Pert and offers visitors rowing boats day and night. When you start the voyage you should keep to the right shore of the Lake Sredny Pert. At the end of the Lake you will see the first navigable canal.

The canals are 1.5 - 2 m deep, their walls are made of boulders.

When the water is high, the beginning and the end of a canal might be not visible, this is why it is advisable to be very careful entering and leaving canals and not to cut off the corners. If the boat is sand-banked, you should move it backwards. The first canal could be followed through the usual way, right in the centre of it. When navigating in the canals, one should try not to touch their sides or bottoms. The current in the lakes depends on the winds. So when experiencing head wind on a canal or lake it is important one should keep the boat facing exactly into the waves.

Entrance to the canal from the Krugloye Orlovo (Round Orlovo) Lake to the Shchuchye (Pike) Lake is marked with a sign. This canal and the next one are comparatively narrow, one must go along them with much care taking owers out of the rowlocks and using them close to the boat sides. Try not to touch the canal boulder sides with them. In the end of the canal, at the very entrance to the Pike Lake, one can see remains of the dam built at the beginning of the 20th century.

The boat routes divide on the Pike Lake. The Small Circle route continues through the left bay, you should follow the sign. The next lake called Plotichye (Roach) Lake is filled with water plants. One has to be careful not to damage the yellow water-lilies with the oars.

The canal from the Plotichye Lake takes you to the last lake in this canal system – Bolshoye Karzino. From here there is a path specially made in the forest to get to the Botanical Garden.

The Big Circle route at first coincides with that of the Small Circle. In the Shchuchye (Pike) Lake one should keep to the right shore to enter the Valday Canal; its walls are made of boulders and strengthened with logs. The remains of the bridge with a lifting mechanism can still be seen on its bank. The entrance to the Bolshoye Krasnoye (Big Red) Lake is very impressive – three canals follow each other in succession.

Titanic must have been the work of digging through two stony hills more than 10 metres deep, and the people did it with their hands.

Leaving behind the small lake called Maloye Krasnoye (Small Red), a boat enters the expanse of the Bolshoye Krasnoye (Big Red) Lake which contains one ninth of all the resource of fresh water on the Solovki. The legend says the Lake appeared when seven lakes merged after the dams had been built and water-level had become higher. The stumps you see on your way are the remains of the forests flooded at the time.

The Bolshoye Krasnoye (Big Red) Lake is very picturesque, its water is sweet and clear, its surface is breathtakingly spacious. Signs will help you find the way on the lake route. A good reference-point is also the Voznesenskaya (Our Saviour’s Ascension) Church on the Sekirnaya Mountain, seen from very far; it shows the general direction to a voyager. The moorage is near the green lawn not far from the road. On mooring and securing the boats you can follow the sings at the fork to reach the Monastery hermitages – Savvatyevsky, Sekiro-Voznesensky and Isaacovsky.