Murino’s history can be seen in a variety of places: the wooden Shagin House, the Neoclassical Church of St. Catherine, Murinsky Park, and works of art and memorials. These themes can help you decide what to focus on during your stay: are you more interested in church architecture and local history, the park, or public art? If you’re looking for a holiday apartment in Murino, this selection can also help you decide which aspects of the town you’d like to explore.
Church, Wooden Architecture and Local History
The Church of St. Catherine is a stone, single-nave church in the Neoclassical style. It was designed and built in the late 18th century under the direction of Nikolai Lvov. “Single-nave” describes a church with one main nave and no side aisles. A major turning point came in 1988, when the church was fully restored and returned to the faithful. On December 6, Metropolitan Alexius of Leningrad and Novgorod consecrated it as the first church in the Diocese of St. Petersburg to be consecrated with the full episcopal rite during the Soviet era.
The Shagin House at 4 Borovaya Street tells a different story of architecture. It is one of the oldest surviving wooden houses in Murino. The log-built house was constructed in the 19th century, while serfdom was still in force, by Nikolai Shagin, a wealthy Murino peasant. In contrast with the stone church, the focus here is on a different building method and historical context: wooden construction and peasant history rather than Neoclassical church architecture.
Murinsky Park and Its Historical Context
Murinsky Park was laid out in 1973 on the initiative of the Murino Village Council and ceremonially reopened in November 2015 after extensive renovation. The park has sports and children’s playgrounds and also hosts festive and sporting events. If you’d like to plan your visit around a particular event, it’s best to check the dates in advance. This lets you plan for a specific occasion without making your visit to the park dependent on an event date.
The sacred spring “Rodnik” is also located in Murinsky Park. It has been known to local residents for more than three centuries. The park therefore brings together two distinct historical contexts: the dated story of its creation and reopening, and a spring with a long history of local renown.
Art and Memorial Sites
Eleven small bronze figures by sculptor Denis Tretyakov, a graduate of the Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, can be found on Yekaterininskaya Street. A larger-scale work is the art installation “Mendeleev’s Dream” on the boulevard named after Mendeleev. It depicts Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev on a tall plinth, appearing to float above it, with chemical elements seeming to surround him. The work was inspired by the story of his fateful dream. The small figures and the depiction on a tall plinth offer two different ways to encounter public art in Murino.
In Medvezhy Stan, the sculpture group “Bears for Medvezhka” was unveiled on Oboronnaya Street in 2015, on the settlement’s day. A bear-breeding station stood at this site in the second half of the 18th century. The “Aviators of the Baltic” memorial at 19 Aviatorov Baltiki Street commemorates the efforts of the defenders of besieged Leningrad. There is also a monument in the form of a real L-39 “Albatros” training aircraft on Aviatorov Baltiki Street.
Another historical landmark is the water tower in Medvezhy Stan. It was commissioned in 1907 and supplied water to the Izhor Regiment. Together with the church, wooden house and memorial sites, it adds the history of an earlier water supply system to the picture of Murino.
Discover more destinations: Pervomayskoye, Korobitsyno, Ushaki, Voznesenye, Yanino, Shapki, Korostel', Peski
For the regional travel overview: Leningrad Oblast.
