Franz Josef Land is an archipelago located in the far north of the Russian Federation. The Land is situated in the Arctic Ocean to the north from Novaya Zemlya and to the east from Spitsbergen (Svalbard), and administratively it belongs to Arkhangelsk Region. Franz Josef Land consists of 191 ice-covered islands with a total area of 16,134 square kilometers and these islands are mostly not inhabited. Read more
The Spitsbergen archipelago is a group of big and small islands, located in the western part of the the polar area. It is washed by the Barents Sea, by the Norwegian Sea and by the Greenland Sea. The total area of the archipelago is about 63 thousand square kilometers. Almost 60 per cent of the territory is covered with ice. The most important mineral, which is mined on the archipelago, is coal. Read more
Severnaya Zemlya is located in the Arctic Ocean and is divided from the mainland by the Strait of Vilkitsky, between the Kara Sea to the west and the Laptev Sea to the east. Administatively the archipelago belongs to Krasnoyarsky region. The archipelago consists of 4 big islands and 70 smaller ones, with the total area of 37 000 square kilometers. The largest islands are October Revolution Island, Bolshevik Island, Komsomolets Island and Pioneer Island. Read more
This Baroque masterpiece was initially built as “Schloß Altenau” under the reign of Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606. It was a present for his concubine Salome Alt and most famous for its splendid gardens. Read more
