Most monasteries are built on hills; this one is on an island. The Iversky Monastery stands on Selvitsky Island in Lake Valdai, a few kilometres from the town of Valday, and the sight of its white walls and gilded domes across the water is one of the great images of the Russian north-west. Patriarch Nikon founded it in 1653, copying the Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos, and the same ambition that created New Jerusalem is visible here, in the conviction that the Russian landscape could host a holy place as grand as any in the East.
The country around it is the Valdai Hills, the highest ground in the region, though that is not saying much, with the summits barely reaching three hundred metres. What makes them important is the water: the Volga, the Dnieper and the Western Dvina all rise in the district, and the many lakes, among them Valdai itself, are the legacy of glaciers. The land is thick with spruce, birch and aspen, and much of it is protected as a national park. The air is clean and cold, the lakes are clear, and in autumn the forest goes through every shade of red and gold.
Valday has another claim to fame: bells. When Ivan the Great crushed Novgorod in 1478 and carried off its veche bell, the symbol of the city's freedom, the bell was sent into exile in Valdai, and the town became a centre of bell founding. Valdai bells, small and clear, were once hung on the harnesses of post-horses, and they have been made here ever since. There is a museum of them in the town.
The road from Valday to the monastery is short and easy, and the highway that serves the area, the old Moscow to St Petersburg route, passes nearby, so traffic can be heavy with lorries. The side roads that wind between the lakes are far quieter and have a comfortable, rolling character, with decent surfaces and long views across the water. Valday has fuel, shops and cafes, and a population of about eighteen thousand. Boats cross to the island in the warmer months, so check before you plan. Early autumn is the time to come, when the forest is alight and the lake is calm.