Staraya Ladoga
Renowned artist Nicholas Roerich painted his sketches there during the summer of 1899. He named this landscape the best of the Russian one. He wrote that a feeling of ancient Motherland could overfill the viewer when directing the look at Staraya Ladoga. Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev also worked there. Alexander Samokhvalov was in Staraya Ladoga many times in 1924–26. He took part in the restoration of St. George's Church. That experience gave a great deal to this artist: it helped him to understand the effect of joining a monumental painting with the architectural forms.