Geography
The Pechenga District belongs to the Murmansk Region and is located in its western part. Its administrative centre is the Nikel urban settlement. The district’s area is 8700 sq. km (6 % of the territory of the Murmansk Region). In the north, the Pechenga District is washed by the Barents Sea; in the west, it borders on Finland (Lapland region), and in the north-west, on Norway (Finnmark county).
Administrative Structure
The Pechenga District includes 17 urban settlements – including the towns of Nikel and Zapolyarny and the townships of Pechenga, Luostari and Sputnik with a population of more than 1000 each. According to the 2019 census, its total population is 37,129, of which 79.22 % is urban.
Climate
The local weather is quite variable, affected by the Gulfstream current. There is considerable annual rainfall and snowfall, and snow may lie till May. Winter temperatures may fall to –22 °C. July is the warmest month, with temperatures that may reach 24 °C, and sometimes 31 °C, if rarely.
History
Early man’s sites and drawings appeared in the Pechenga District back in the Stone Age. In Russia, the Pechenga land became known in 1532—1533, when Right Reverend Triphon of Pechenga built an Orthodox church here and founded a monastery in honour of the Holy Trinity to convert the local people to Orthodox Christianity. The district was officially formed on 21 July 1945 in part of the territory of the Petsamo area that had belonged to Finland in 1920—1944 and was handed over to the Soviet Union after the Second World War. The Pechenga District was simultaneously included in the Murmansk Region.
Local Celebrities
Vladimir Baskov, Hero of the Soviet Union, the American actress Maila Nurmi, the writer and artist Andrey Monastyrsky and Igor Urazayev, Hero of Russia, were all born in Pechenga. The Russian rock musician Vladimir Kuzmin, People’s Artist of Russia, attended School No. 5 in Pechenga. In the late 1950s, the Earth’s first cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was serving at the Korzunovo settlement. His daughter Yelena Gagarina was born in Zapolyarny.
Places of Interest
- Pasvik International Nature Reserve;
- the world’s northernmost zoo;
- a German war cemetery;
- St. Triphon Pechenga Convent;
- church of Sts. Boris and Gleb;
- museum of Yuri Gagarin;
- the Kola Ultra-Deep Well entered in the Guinness Book of World Records;
- the Šuonijoki Waterfall;
- polar nights of the Russian North;
- and many others, see our portal for more information!