(Source: http://trip-suggest.com/russia/vologda/vytegra)

 Vytegra and its surroundings attract tourists with their ancient northern architecture, clear waters of Lake Onega and the possibility to pass the rivers of Vologda region that are full of rapids on catamarans. People became to inhabit this land in VIII-V millennia BC – these were Finno-Ugric tribes Chud, Ves, Lop.

Vytegra means “lake river” in one of Finno-Ugric languages— the town stands on the eponymous river. The settlement on the place of the modern town is mentioned in the chronicles in the year 1710 under the name of Vyanginskaya Harbor. It had a staging post on the skid trail from Rybinsk to St. Petersburg.

From 1710 the village of Vyangi became known, which was transformed into the town of Vytegra in 1773 by the Decree of Empress Catherine II. In 1710 by the Decree of Peter the Great the Scottish engineer John Perry performed exploration works on the watershed between Onega Lake and Beloe Lake and designed the projects of the future Canal.

The Tsar Peter himself was choosing the route of the future highway here during ten days in 1711. In 1715 a State Shipyard was created there, it constructed vessels until 1847. In 1810 the first vessels sailed along the Mariinskaya water system. Volga-Baltic Canal was built already in XX century. Since that time Vytegra became the port of the five seas.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 all the jewels and valuable items from the Imperial Hermitage and the Cabinet of his Majesty were removed to Vytegra on 22 vessels.