Veliky Ustyug Old Town

Veliky Ustyug stands where the Sukhona and Yug meet to form the Northern Dvina, and it was rich - the route to Siberia and the White Sea ran through it, and its merchants financed Pacific voyages, with Semyon Dezhnyov, who sailed through the strait between Asia and America in 1648, and Yerofey Khabarov both from here. The money built churches, and the embankment carries a line of them along the river, along with the Michael the Archangel monastery and merchant houses, which together make one of the better preserved northern town ensembles. Since 1999 the town has also been the official residence of Ded Moroz, the Russian Father Frost, a tourism project that brings a substantial winter trade in children's visits, letters and a themed estate outside town - which is now the main reason most Russians go, and which sits oddly alongside the seventeenth-century churches.

What you actually see

• The embankment churches - a line of merchant-built churches along the river.
• The Siberian connection - the home town of Dezhnyov and Khabarov.
• The Father Frost residence - an official designation since 1999 with a themed estate.
• The confluence - the Sukhona and Yug joining to form the Northern Dvina.

When to go

June to September for the town; December and the school holidays for the Father Frost business, when it is full of families. A day.

Honest expectations

Very remote - a long way from anywhere with limited transport. The Father Frost operation dominates the town's visitor economy and is aimed squarely at children. Several churches are closed or in poor repair. Winter is severely cold.

Nearby

Totma is south-west along the Sukhona; Kotlas is east.