Petrozavodsk - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

PETROZAVODSK, a town and episcopal see of Russia, capital of the government of Olonets, on the west shore of Lake Onega, 190 m. N.E. of St Petersburg. Pop. (1865), 11,027; (1897), 12,521. Two cathedrals, built towards the end of the 18th century, a mining school, an ecclesiastical seminary and a government cannon-foundry are the chief public buildings and institutions. Peter the Great founded ironworks here in 1703, but they continued in operation only twenty-four years. The cannon-foundry was instituted in 1774. Petrozavodsk became the capital of the government of Olonets in 1802.