It lays 170 miles north-east of St. Petersburg, on the bank of Svir, a beautiful river running from Lake Ladoga to Lake Onega, right on the way from the Baltic to the Volga. The village was completely ruined during WWII and disappeared from maps for long years. Verkhnie Mandrogi - New Life of A Russian Village In 1996 Sergei Gutzeit, St. Petersburg entrepreneur and patron of the arts, was struck with the idea to revive the village and make it a tourist destination for the many people taking river cruises from St. Petersburg to Moscow and Kizhi. First he built a small hotel. Made of pine logs, with a real Russian stove, and decorated with handmade woodcarvings, the hotel is unbelievably Russian in flavor, but is also equipped with private bathrooms, telephones, and direct Internet access that rivals any Western standard. It deserves to be in a list of the most unique hotels in Russia. Verkhnie Mandrogi - New Life of A Russian Village In six years Verkhnie Mandrogi developed into a street of 5 log cabins, each one nicer than the previous. The local museum of vodka counts more than 2000 bottles from all over Russia. Talented potters, weavers, carvers and painters work in their shops in the house of crafts and live upstairs in cozy dormitory rooms. They have a little zoo, horses, and a real moose farm, aiming to produce healing moose milk. Soon a post office with an Internet cafe will be finished. Among the plans for future development lie a fish hatchery, a museum of bread, and a nesting doll factory. This preserve just recently got official "village" status. So far all locals there work for the same company and live as one team.