The Russian “mini-enclave” on the west side of the Pasvik river will soon be possible to visit for groups of tourists coming by river boat from Norway. Photo: Trude Pettersen
Very few visitors have been to the chapel in recent years. The beautiful red chapel is located on the river banks of what today forms the Norwegian Russian border. Due to its location in the border zone, Russians also need special permission to visit the holy area.
Now, a joint governmental working group says it will be possible to visit the BorisGleb chapel for tourist groups coming by river boat from the Norwegian side of the border.
Given permission, the chapel is less than a 30 minutes boat tour away from the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes. Without any needed visa, such river boat visit to the Russian chapel will be very popular among Norwegians and foreign visitors to the border area.
The first chapel was built by Trifon the Holy, a evangelise monk that lived among the Saami people in the area in the 15th century, long before the official Norwegian Russian border was established.
When the border came in the Pasvik river in 1826, the chapel and its surroundings became a kind of Russian mini-enclave on the west side of the river.
The potential for tourism to the chapel in BorisGleb is large. Every day, the Norwegian Coastal steamer brings hundreds of tourists to the port of Kirkenes, and many of the travellers want to have a “taste of Russia.” Today’s visa-regime and lengthy passport-procedures at the only official border-crossing point hinders such possibilities.
The question on opening the border to the chapel for river boat tourists is listed in the joint work plan for strengthening the Norwegian-Russian cross-border cooperation, and is said to be solved in 2011.
BarentsObserver is aware of several tourist companies that want to start river boat tourism from Kirkenes to the chapel in BorisGleb.
