Solovetsky Islands poised for revival

By Damian Grammaticas BBC correspondent in Solovki, Russia

The bells have rung out over the Solovetsky Islands since before Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Its monastery was founded by Orthodox Christian monks seeking solitude. So they built a formidable fortress to protect their faith.

Solovetsky is a prime destination for Orthodox Christians

Behind thick stone walls stand beautiful white churches, topped with a host of onion domes.

But when revolution came to Russia a century ago the monks were expelled and their churches turned into the first gulag.

When Prince Charles, on an official visit to Russia, arrives on Wednesday in Solovki he will find it dilapidated and crumbling.

Solovki desperately needs money to repair its heritage, but developing this sensitive site raises many problems.

"As far as Solovki is concerned, it's important to Russia because it's one of the most significant monasteries in the whole of the former Soviet Union," said Larissa Alexandrovna, in charge of restoration.

"It's definitely one of the top 10 places for Orthodox Christians to make pilgrimages to."

Tourist destination

The islands are becoming a tourist destination, attracting 15,000 visitors last year, both the pious and the curious drawn here.

At the top of the very highest hill in Solovki, there is a serene and beautiful spot, but also the site of the most painful memories on the island.

It is where the worst offenders were sent during gulag times.

Every place has its soul. Here it's defined by the faith of the monks and the humanity of the prisoners who survived the gulag. Mikhail Lopatkin Director of the Solovetsky Islands Museum

There is a beautiful, two-storey, white stone chapel, surmounted by a red onion dome. Next to it is a wooden staircase leading all the way back down a couple of hundred feet to the bottom of the hill.

The guards used to strap prisoners to logs and roll them down to certain death.

Almost half of the 100,000 political prisoners sent here perished.

Mikhail Lopatkin, Director of the Solovetsky Islands Museum, says any development must be sensitive to the past.

"Every place has its soul. Here it's defined by the faith of the monks and the humanity of the prisoners who survived the gulag.

"How we preserve that soul will determine the future of the Solovetsky islands."

Threat to environment

And it is also Solovki's natural heritage that is potentially under threat. This far north nature and man exist in a delicate balance.

Tourists are attracted to the historical and religious sites

The monks were extremely careful about the way they developed the islands.

In the centre of Solovki it is possible to row through some of the canals created by the monks. They were dug to link the hundreds of lakes on the island and drain the land.

The monks also created a sustainable system of agriculture, enabling them to exist here for hundreds of years without damaging the environment in this most fragile of climates.

Now diggers rip through the topsoil as a new hotel is being built, big enough to hold a hundred tourists. Hotel director Aleksander Brovin is hoping to attract visitors from across Europe and America.

Assessment needed

"There should be a scientific assessment of tourism on the islands. The environment here is very delicate.

"We might have to limit the number of visitors. For example, if too many people walk down a path and it is damaged it can take 40 years for the environment to recover."

Thirty monks have returned since the monastery re-opened a decade ago.

Slowly Solovki is beginning to recover from the most sombre period in its history.

The challenge is to do so without harming the heritage that has made this place unique.