Nyonoksa

Nyonoksa grew beside salt springs near the White Sea. Unlike salt boiled directly from seawater, its product came from underground brine drawn from wells along the Nyonoksa River. Salt boilers evaporated the water in large pans and stored the crystals for sale, making the settlement an important northern trading place.

In the sixteenth century the salt trade brought merchants and monastic interests to Nyonoksa. Production required wells, boiling houses, fuel and storehouses, and the salt travelled to markets beyond the coast. A fire in 1725 destroyed the old churches; local builders then raised a new wooden Trinity church in 1727. Its five tent-shaped roofs gave the church an unusual silhouette above the settlement. Salt-making continued to shape the livelihoods and fortunes of the people who lived beneath it.