Under the new rules, no more than 20 people can be on the island at a time.
Vera Island on Lake Turgoyak is one of the must-see points of tourist routes in the South Urals. However, recently it has become difficult to get there. "AiF-Chelyabinsk" found out why the island is gradually closed from tourists and what awaits it in the future.
Fairy tales and archeology
The forested island attracts people primarily with legends. One of them is about the beautiful hermit Vera, who supposedly came from a noble family, but refused to marry and spent her whole life on the island that later received her name. Whether the girl really existed, no one knows, but historians can say for sure that the skete on the island was, however, male. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, monks-Old Believers lived here, and the island itself was called Pinaev by the name of one of Yemelyan Pugachev's associates. In memory of the skete, a large metal cross is installed at the highest point of the island.
Megaliths of Vera Island are several thousand years old. Photo: AiF / Photo by Evgeny Talypov
Other structures on the island are much older - archaeologists estimate the age of the local megaliths at six thousand years. Burial chambers made of huge stones, cult sites with menhirs and a quarry inspire awe of antiquity. Unsurprisingly, some people refer to the island as a "place of power."
“Vera Island is included in the regional register of cultural heritage sites. At the moment, it has been transferred to the Main Department of Forests of the Chelyabinsk Region,”says the press secretary of the regional Ministry of Culture Victoria Oliferchuk.
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Strictly by appointment
Back in 2015, it was easy enough to get to Vera Island: two self-propelled ships departed from the city beach of Miass, each of which intervened several dozen passengers. In the summer of 2016, transportation was stopped at the request of the transport prosecutor's office. It turned out that the owner of the courts violated the law and worked without a license, putting clients in danger.
“The Ministry of Ecology restricts the visit to the island. The recreational load is 157 people a day. In addition, there is a law prohibiting movement on Lake Turgoyak on motor boats and catamarans, which makes it difficult to transport people to the island,”explains Viktoria Oliferchuk.
Now you can get to the island only on a sailing yacht that can accommodate no more than six people and departs from the territory of the Golden Beach Club Hotel. Tourists will have to pay two thousand rubles for each hour of the boat trip and another 200 rubles per person for the excursion.
“A journal of visits is kept, since no more than 20 people can be on the island at the same time, no more than 200 people can visit the island per day,” says Anna Kutsbakh, press secretary of the Golden Beach club-hotel.
At the same time, both the ministry and the organization of the AiF-Chelyabinsk correspondent were assured that no one has the right to take money from tourists just for entering the island - only for skiing and excursions.
“In the future, it is planned that the object will go to the historical and cultural reserve“Arkaim”, and the territory of the island will be declared a protected area,” notes Victoria Oliferchuk.
By the way:
In January 2017, residents of Miass were worried about the disappearance of a large metal cross from Vera Island. The residents of South Urals decided that someone had stolen the relic and sold it for scrap - in winter, one can get to the island on the ice on foot and by transport. The Ministry of Culture told the "AiF-Chelyabinsk" correspondent that the cross is a remake, has no historical value, but it was nevertheless restored.
Alena Talypova