Konevets

thumb|The pilgrims on Konevets Island|275px Konevets (; or Kononsaari) is an approximately 8.5-km² island famous as the site of the Konevsky Monastery. It is located off the southwestern shore of Lake Ladoga near the village of Vladimirovka. The island is part of the Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast. The nearest town is Priozersk, which is located 40 km away from the island. The island of Valaam is 60 km away and Saint Petersburg is 170 km away by boat. There is a ferry link from Vladimirovka that makes the 6.5-km trip in 40–50 minutes.

==Geography and environment== thumb|right|250px|Sandy beach typical of Konevets The island is 6.5 km long and generally slightly less than 2 km wide. At its widest point near the monastery on the south end of the island, where it is approximately 3 km wide. The island is completely covered in sandy soil. The majority of the shore is covered in fine sand beaches. Topographically, the island is mostly level. The terrain of sandy heath slopes gently up from the shoreline towards the interior of the island, where two cliffs, Svyataya and Zmeinaya, rise up out of the ground to 34 m and 29 m above sea level respectively. The steep cliffs are the result of erosion when the water level in Lake Ladoga was slightly less than 20 m above the current sea level, thus reaching the base of these cliffs, thousands of years before the Neva emerged. The majority of the island is uninhabited, and covered by coniferous trees. The average annual temperature is 3.5 °C. The island experiences a short summer season, from mid June to the latter half of August. July is the warmest month on the island. Winters can be quite harsh, and it is possible to walk to the island across the ice then.