The crossroads of streets Komsomol and Advice. Webcam Kondopoga online

Kondopoga is a city with a population of about 30 thousand people located in the Republic of Karelia, on the shores of Lake Onega. The main attraction of Kondopoga was the wooden Assumption Church, built in 1774 and burned down as a result of arson on August 10, 2018.

The territory where Kondopoga later arose was inhabited from different times by different peoples: Sami, Karelians, Vepsians, then Novgorodians. The first written mention of the settlement on this site dates back to 1495. It was located on the territory of the very small Nikolsky Shuisky churchyard, uniting by the 17th century about 130 villages of the neighboring islands and Zaonezhie.

In the middle of the XVIII century, not far from Kondopoga, in the villages of Tivdia and Belaya Gora, marble deposits were discovered - Tivdian marble breaking. Kondopoga turned into a transshipment point, from where the extracted marble was sent to St. Petersburg. Rich in shades of Tivdian marble was used, including, in the construction and decoration of Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedrals, the Winter Palace, the Tauride Palace, Mikhailovsky (Engineering) Castle, the Marble Palace, Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo. In the vicinity of Kondopoga, iron ore was also developed, which was supplied to the Petrovsky plants in Petrozavodsk. The locals worked on hard work.

Kondopoga turned into a transshipment point, from where the extracted marble was sent to the capital of the Russian Empire. Therefore, it is not surprising that peasant uprisings often broke out in Kondopoga and other villages. The largest was the Kizhi uprising of 1769-1771. Then, two thousand peasants gathered at Kizhi graveyard, demanding better working conditions at the Olonets mining plants: to wage another war with Turkey, a large number of cannons, cores, and other weapons were required. The local population was driven to the factories, there was no time or effort left to engage in agriculture.

Soon, a riot swept a significant part of the territory of Karelia, uniting representatives of different ethnic groups: Russians, Karelians, Vepsians. The uprising was brutally crushed. In 1774, a wooden tent-mounted Uspenskaya was built in Kondopoga, which became a memorial church for those who died in the Kizhi uprising.

By the end of the 19th century, there were 48 houses, 300 inhabitants, 2 churches and a school in Kondopoga. At the beginning of the XX century, the Kondopoga volost became part of the Petrozavodsk district of the Olonets province. In 1916, construction began on the Kondopoga Hydroelectric Power Station, one of the oldest in Russia, using the runoff of the Suna River and Sandal Lake. It is the lower stage of the Suna cascade of hydroelectric power stations. The first hydraulic unit was launched after the revolution, in 1929.

In 1923, the construction of a paper mill, Kondopoga Pulp and Paper Mill, began in Kondopoga, which became one of the largest newsprint producers in Russia and Europe. Unfortunately, to a large extent, the waters of the Kondopoga Bay of Lake Onega are poisoned due to it, the environment suffers. Despite its picturesqueness, Kondopoga Bay is not popular among water-tourists. During my travels on Lake Onega, I often had to see sudden clouding of water near Kondopoga, to smell a terrible smell.

The main attraction of Kondopoga was, without a doubt, the tent-shaped Assumption Church, built in 1774 in memory of the Kizhi Uprising and burned down on August 10, 2018.

Should I go to Kondopoga? I think that after the loss of the Assumption Church - it makes no sense. It is better to spend time on more interesting sights in these parts.