Voronezh is in the middle of the M4 or «Don» highway, between Moscow and the resorts of the Caucasus. There are many interesting sights in the city and its environs.
Voronezh is a rather young city being founded only in 1586. But it became a million plus city in 2013. All the main sights of the city are located on the right, high bank of the Voronezh River. When in Voronezh you must visit the restored Annunciation Cathedral. It is one of the biggest churches in Russia.
The Admiralty square is on the embankment. It is there that Peter I began to build warships for the war with Turkey in 1696. The Admiralty shipyards of Voronezh is the birthplace of the Russian Navy. The first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia (God`s Predestination, literally The Providence of God) is moored at the embankment. It was built in Voronezh in 1700.
Peter`s public garden is near the Annunciation Cathedral. This small but very cozy public garden is a favorite place of the citizens. And opposite the public garden, in the yard of a large high-rise building in the style of Stalin`s Empire (the office of «Southeastern Railway») is the Kramskoy Museum of Fine Arts. There you can see the most valuable collections of ancient Greek amphoras and the findings from ancient Egyptian burials of 5-10 centuries B.C.
The environs of Voronezh are of even greater interest, comparing to the city sights. Two cave monasteries, Kostomarovsky and Divnogorsky monasteries, appeared in the local chalk mountains several centuries ago. The monasteries are about 50 kilometers from each other.
Apart from the Assumption monastery, a natural museum reserve is in Divnogorie. The latter is not far from the monastery. At the natural museum reserve you can see the Divy rocks, the ancient Mayatskaya fortress, the chalk canyon, feather-grass steppes and the cave church of the Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God. And of course, there you can have splendid views on the valleys of the rivers Don and Tikhaya Sosna (Quiet Pine).
Kostomarovsky cave monastery is a quite special place. It is located in a small valley in the chalk mountains. In one of the mountains called Golgotha, in the divy rocks there were dug out the cathedral of the Holy Image of the Saviour Not Made by Hands and the church of Seraphim of Sarov. There several monk`s cells along a pilgrimage path running up the slope of the mountain. The Cave of Repentance, which is famous all over Russia, is also there.
A curious palaeontological museum is also in the village Kostenki in the environs of Voronezh. There you can see the dwellings of ancient people made of the bones of mammoths, as well as numerous labor implements and the bones of ancient animals.
Quite near the Voronezh-Moscow highway is the village Ramon, where there survived the palace of the princes of Oldenburg, the relatives of the tsar`s family. The neo-Gothic palace externally is in a very good condition, but its interior is yet to be restored.
