Novousmanskiy District: Forests, Marshes and Natural History

Novousmanskiy District combines forest landscapes with natural history and regional history. The grounds of the Venevitinovo Biological Centre form the southwestern part of the Usmansky Forest. The Venevitinovo ecological trail passes through several lakes and marshes, including the unique Klyukvennoye-1 raised sphagnum bog.

Forest knowledge between museum and trail

The Biological Centre introduces students and the wider public to the typical and unique natural complexes of the Usmansky Forest: in the nature museum and in the natural setting of the ecological trail. The collection and the landscape thus offer different ways of exploring the same subject.

The Usmansky Forest Nature Museum has about 1,500 objects. These include displays of taxonomic groups of invertebrates, showcases featuring their natural nests, and botanical objects from mycology, bryology and higher plants. Excursions must be arranged in advance.

Regional history in Novaya Usman

The Novousmanskiy District Local History Museum is located in the village of Novaya Usman, in a building dating from 1917. It adds a regional history perspective to the focus on nature: while the Biological Centre highlights the forest’s natural complexes, the local history museum is devoted to the district.

More themes in the wider destination of Voronezh Oblast

The territory of Khopyor Nature Reserve extends across the administrative districts of Novokhopersky, Povorinsky and Gribanovsky in Voronezh Oblast. The nature museum in the reserve presents the area’s wildlife and habitats in two halls. Its exhibition themes include beavers, the Russian desman, water-dwelling and predatory birds, as well as wild boar, elk, fallow deer and red deer. A large relief map complements the animal displays.

Khopyor Nature Reserve also offers two tours with different durations and activity levels: the five-kilometre walking excursion “Legendy Khopra” takes three hours and is closed during spring floods. The “Tur de Khopyor” cycling tour covers 26 kilometres and takes four hours.

The Divnogorye Museum-Reserve is known for its chalk landscapes, including bizarre chalk cliffs on steep slopes and large, ridge-like chalk ravines. Divnogorsky Canyon is about one kilometre long and up to 200 metres wide. Six cult caves and cave complexes are carved into the chalk massif on the right bank of the Tikhaya Sosna and Don rivers, stretching for about 8.5 kilometres. Stone Age settlements and the ruins of the medieval Mayatskaya Fortress add to the reserve’s cultural heritage.

At the Kostenki Museum-Reserve, the building of the Archaeological Museum completely covers a Stone Age settlement site. The area comprises 25 protected zones with about 60 Upper Palaeolithic sites across nine hectares. Kostenki therefore offers an archaeological focus alongside the forests and marshes of Novousmanskiy District and the chalk formations of Divnogorye.

When choosing a holiday apartment, the type of trip you have in mind is a useful first filter: if you want to focus on the Usmansky Forest, marshes and natural history, concentrate your search in Novousmanskiy District. Those particularly interested in chalk landscapes or Upper Palaeolithic sites will find different thematic highlights in other parts of Voronezh Oblast.

Other places in the district

Other places in the district: Podkletnoye, Orlovo.

Discover more destinations: Novousmansky District, Ramonskiy District, Anninskiy District, Voronezh, Bogucharskiy District, Verkhnekhavskiy District.

Go to the destination overview: Voronezh Oblast.