Finnish Mill Ruins (Michurinskoye)

The Finnish mill ruins are the remains of a stone waterworks on a forest stream near the village of Michurinskoye in the Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast. Until 1940 the village bore the Finnish name Valkjärvi, and the mill, like many Finnish structures in the area, is a relic of pre-war life on the Karelian Isthmus.

History

The structure stands on a stream known in Finnish as Kortjoki. It links two lakes: Rosliva, now called Okunevoye or Zarosshee, and Saarijärvi, now Nizhne-Posadskoye. According to local historians, the waterworks belonged to the former Kortjoki estate.

Neither the dates of construction and destruction nor the exact purpose of the building are known. It is usually called a mill, but one version holds that it was a sawmill. The land here is fairly flat, so the stream had to be dammed and Lake Rosliva turned into a millpond to drive the wheel. Once the works fell out of use, the pond silted up and became a bog; today Lake Rosliva is known as Zarosshee ("Overgrown").

What to see

The main surviving feature is a massive stone arch built of boulders right across the stream bed. Foundations and fragments of stone walls can be found around it. Local historians say a small farmstead of several houses may have stood nearby and that a wooden dam once regulated the water level; almost nothing of it remains.

The ruins are one of many Finnish remains around Michurinskoye: farmstead foundations and stone cellars also survive near the village.

Getting there

Drive along the old Priozersk highway to Michurinskoye, then walk along forest paths following the stream. The site lies on the Petäjärvi to Michurinskoye hiking route. Reaching the arch means crossing the stream, so waterproof footwear helps.

Good to know

The ruins are unguarded and have no facilities: paths are boggy in places and the stones by the water are slippery. The stream rises noticeably in spring and after rain. Dry summer or early autumn is the best time to visit, when the arch is easy to see through the thinning foliage.