Kirillov offers a range of travel experiences: the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery is the town’s most prominent architectural landmark, museums explore the town’s history and Soviet aviation, and boat trips along the monastery walls depart from Lake Siverskoye. You can explore cultural history, historical ways of life and a trip on the water as distinct highlights.
Museums: Town History and Aviation
The Evgeny Preobrazhensky Museum presents its multimedia exhibition complex in seven halls of Narodny Dom, at 3 Preobrazhenskogo Street. One exhibition project there is dedicated to Soviet aviation during the Great Patriotic War. This theme provides a distinctive historical focus within the museum’s offerings.
The Museum of the History of the Town and Kirillov District shows how people in Kirillov lived a hundred years ago. In a town house, it presents a restored interior, close to its original form, in the style of the 19th century. Its enfilade layout arranges rooms in a sequence. These include a living room, study, bedroom, kitchen, dining room and doctor’s office, furnished with objects from everyday life at the time. These rooms give the museum’s subject a tangible domestic dimension.
Another exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary of Kirillov’s founding in 1776. The temporary exhibition “Slovo o grade Kirillove” runs until February 28, 2027. This date is relevant to your planning if you would like to include this particular anniversary theme.
Monastery, Iconostasis and Boat Trips
The history of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery dates back to the late 14th century. It is Kirillov’s most prominent architectural landmark. The Dormition Cathedral in Kirillov houses a preserved iconostasis, created around 1497 and considered a unique monument of ancient Russian icon painting. The two dates highlight different aspects of history: the monastery’s long past and the creation of a specific work of art.
Boat trips and excursions on the motor catamaran “KUBENA” depart from Siverskaya Pristan on Lake Siverskoye. The route runs along the walls of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. These trips on the lake offer a different experience alongside the exhibitions and sacred art.
In the wider destination of Kirillovsky District
The wider destination of Kirillovsky District also offers cultural and landscape attractions distinct from the town portrait of Kirillov. The ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery is one of the exhibition venues of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum Reserve. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, the main church of the former Ferapontov Monastery, still contains murals by the Moscow artist Dionisy, painted in 1502 and preserved without overpainting. The monastery ensemble, including its murals, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List at the end of 2000.
Russky Sever National Park lies in Kirillovsky District, in the northwest of Vologda Oblast. The district’s major hills include Maura, Sandireva and Tsipina; they lie within the Kirillo-Belozersko-Andogsky landscape area. Sandireva is treeless and covered with meadows. From there, you can see the Volga–Baltic Waterway and the large islands in the waters of the Sheksna floodplains.
To access the national park, you can take a cruise ship along the Volga–Baltic Waterway to a landing stage in the village of Goritsy or the village of Kuzino. If you plan to use this option, check the schedules for your preferred date, as schedules and service availability may change.
Discover more destinations: Staroye, im. Babushkina, Nizhniye, Velikiy Ustyug, Kubenskoye, Belosersk, Lodeyka, Vichelovo.
View the wider travel overview: Vologda Oblast.
