Solovki

Archangel, Russia
for the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum
2001

The Solovetski Archipelago covers 300 square kilometres of islands set in the White Sea north west of Archangel close to the Artic Circle. It is a remote and magical place which has been sacred for over 7,000 years. Neolithic labrinths and burial mounds survive alongside on of Russia's greatest monasteries, founded in 1429.

Solovki is now a World Heritage Site. Historically the monastic complex was designed to host large numbers of pilgrims and could set the pattern for an exemplary kind of cultural and educational tourism. If restored and managed imaginatively, the historic cultural landscape should be able to conserve both the natural envirnoment and the historic monuments while sustaining the island population and economy in a way of life which has eveolved over many centuries and remains particularly relevant today.