Bolshaya Kuzminka: HILLPARK and Local History

Bolshaya Kuzminka combines activities at HILLPARK with memorial sites and a rich local history. If you are looking for a holiday apartment, your interests can guide your choice: would you like to explore the leisure activities at HILLPARK or focus on the town’s memorials and history?

Water, Sports and Footgolf

The HILLPARK aquatics complex has a heated outdoor pool measuring 25 × 16 metres, with a depth of 1.5 to 1.8 metres. The seasonal heated children’s pool is 30 centimetres deep and has the “Osminog-1” slide. It is intended for children up to eight years old and no taller than 120 centimetres. Both limits are relevant when planning with children; the children’s pool is also explicitly part of the seasonal offering.

Away from the water, HILLPARK also offers opportunities for mini-football, beach volleyball, basketball, tennis and badminton. There is also a shooting range and GTO sports grounds. Another activity is footgolf: on a nine-hole course, players try to kick a football into each hole in as few shots as possible. This means you can tailor your stay to different interests—with swimming, various sports or the distinctive format of footgolf.

Memorials and Local History

A memorial to local residents who died in the Great Patriotic War was erected in Bolshaya Kuzminka in 2010. A bust of Nikolai Dmitrievich Valyaev, a Hero of the Soviet Union, stands at the memorial. The tribute to local residents and the bust commemorating a named individual give the site two connected points of reference.

A stone church with two altars was built in 1856 on the site of an older church that had been destroyed in a fire. This stone church was destroyed in the 1930s. Restoration of a church in honour of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Venerable Alexis, the Man of God, began in 2008.

A handmade sculpture of the Most Holy Mother of God was installed at the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God in autumn 2021. On 11 August 2023, a Divine Liturgy and a prayer service with a procession were held at the church. These dated events add more recent milestones to the older history of the church and the town.

Another historical theme dates back to the early 18th century: by decree of Peter the Great, an ironworks for manufacturing anchors was established in Bolshaya Kuzminka between 1703 and 1706. Alongside the memorials and church history, the town’s history also includes its former iron production.

More Places to Explore in Lipetsk Oblast

Looking beyond Bolshaya Kuzminka to Lipetsk Oblast reveals other natural and cultural highlights. The “Galichya Gora” Nature Reserve consists of six separate sections surrounded by developed and agricultural land. It protects characteristic forest-steppe communities and groups of rock-dwelling plants on Devonian limestone outcrops in the valleys of the Don, Bystraya Sosna and their tributaries. Devonian limestone cliffs shaped by water and wind rise along the right bank of the Don.

The nature museum at the reserve’s central estate includes, in its open-air area, an alpine plant display featuring rare species, a birds of prey breeding station and a medicinal herb garden. Check current visitor access before travelling. A very different highlight in Lipetsk Oblast is the “Kudykina Gora” recreational, landscape and dendrological park in Zadonsky District. Its “Zmey Gorynych” sculpture depicts a three-headed figure, 15 metres tall, with a pointed tail, claws and scales. The regional highlights are therefore quite distinct: one focuses on protected landscapes and plants, the other on a striking sculpture.

Discover more destinations: Usman, Gryazi, Krasnoye, Koptsevy Khutora, Argamach-Palna, Dankov, Donskoye, Lebedyan.

For the broader travel overview: Lipetsk Oblast.