Marcial Waters

A local ironworks labourer reported that water from a spring here had helped him, the report reached Peter I, and after his physicians examined it he ordered a spa built - opened in 1719 as the first in Russia, named for Mars because the water is heavily ferruginous and iron was the metal of war. Peter came four times, with the court, and rules were posted governing how much was to be drunk and what could be eaten and done during a course. The wooden church of the Apostle Peter, of 1721, survives from that period and is the main historic building, small, with an interior said to include work by Peter himself. The spa declined after his death and was revived in Soviet times as a sanatorium, which still operates. Four springs are covered by pavilions and the water is drunk on the spot; a museum covers the eighteenth-century history. What the water does medically is a question for clinical literature and a doctor.

What you actually see

• The 1719 foundation - the first spa established in Russia, on Peter I's order.
• The 1721 church - a small wooden church surviving from the original spa.
• The four springs - covered pavilions where the iron-rich water is drunk.
• The museum - the eighteenth-century rules and history of the resort.

When to go

June to September. Two hours. It is a short detour from the Petrozavodsk to Kondopoga road.

Honest expectations

The site is small and quickly seen. The sanatorium is a working health facility, not open as an attraction. The water is strongly metallic to taste. Health claims attached to it belong with a doctor and the clinical literature, not with a travel note.

Nearby

Kivach waterfall is about 30 km north; Kondopoga is nearby.