Kiestinki

Kiestinki, or Kestenga, stands on the northern shore of Lake Topozero in White Karelia. One of the older settlements of the district, it is first mentioned in 1547. A decree of Tsar Michael in 1628 named it as the centre of the community around Topozero, and a monastery stood on the lake's shore in the seventeenth century. Its position placed it among the long waterways and forests of the northern Karelian interior.