Kamskoye Ustye

The settlement was founded in 1650 as the village of Bogorodskoye and lived under that name for nearly two centuries; it took its present name in 1925 and town status in 1939. It stands on the right bank of the Volga exactly opposite the point where the Kama flows in: two great rivers meet here, forming a vast watery crossroads. Kamskoye Ustye is the base of the Volga's right-bank country: the pier receives Volga cruises, and from the settlement roads fan out to the district's main natural sights — Lobach hill with its panoramas, the Yuryevskaya and Konnodolskaya caves, and the Bogorodsky hills. In the settlement itself is the 'Holy Well' spring, known since the nineteenth century, with a chapel being restored, a district history museum, a mosque and the church of the Mother of God. Sixty-five kilometres from Kazan as the crow flies — yet it feels like another world: quiet streets above the bluff, a ferry crossing, fishermen by the pier and the Volga wind. It is the perfect base for a weekend on the right bank without a single traffic jam.