Lapland Taiga

Western Kola is a land of northern forest, lakes and rivers close to the Barents Sea. Sámi communities used the inland country and coast according to the seasons, while the Pechenga river provided access to a northern inlet. In 1533 the monk Tryphon founded a monastery by the river; its community grew through the sixteenth century before an attack destroyed it in 1589. The surrounding taiga stretches between the peninsula's coastal tundra and the forests farther south.