Monastery

There is a small island near the St. Petersburg, on the big water plain that used to be called the largest lake of Europe, and so there is an island there, rocks, hundred year old pine trees, stuff like that. And it used to be popular a lot among the monks who went there to keep their different pledges, like vow of silence. Since then they’ve built themselves a monastery there which became one of the largest and popular ones, even Russian Tsars have paid their visits to the island and a monastery. Couple of centuries ago it wasn’t that classy yet, the untouched nature, the wooden huts of monks – looked like a real hideout at that time.
And by the way on the top photo you can see the monk that vowed not to speak ever again, standing under some awesome pine tree of the past.

Source ; www.englishrussia.com