Pechenga
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Pechenga (Russian: Пече́нга; Finnish and Swedish: Petsamo; Norwegian: Petsjenga; Northern Sami: Beahcán; Skolt Sami: Peäccam) is an urban-type settlement in Pechengsky District, Murmansk Oblast, Russia. As of 2002 Census, its population was 2,959 people, composing 6.4% of Pechengsky District's population total. The population increased from 2,671 recorded in the 1989 Census.
[edit] History
The Pechenga area was indigenously inhabited by Samis. In 1533 it became part of Russia (Archangelsk krai and guberniya), in 1920 part of Finland and part of the Soviet Union from 1944.
The settlement was founded as the Pechenga Monastery in 1533 at the influx of the Pechenga River into the Barents Sea, 135 km west of modern Murmansk, by St. Tryphon, a monk from Novgorod.
Inspired by the model of the Solovki, Tryphon wished to convert the local Sami population to Christianity and to demonstrate how faith could flourish in the most inhospitable lands. His example was eagerly followed by other Russian monks. By 1572, the Pechenga Monastery counted about 50 brethren and 200 lay followers. Six years after St. Tryphon's death in 1583, the wooden monastery was raided and burnt down by the Swedes. It is said that the raid claimed the lives of 51 monks and 65 lay brothers, bringing the history of Tryphon's establishment to an end.
