Sernur

Sernur (Mari. Shernur, Finn. Sernuri) is a Uralican city, located in Mari El, roughly 90 km northeast of Yoshkar-Ola. It is the last major stop on Highway UH-8 within Mari El going eastbound, before it enters Kirovski Rayon and ends in Ürzhüm.

Its notoriety within Uralica and the surrounding area stems from a massive population boom stemming from the discovery of large quantities of silver nearby. But it is still a large food-production market as well, as it was prior to this discovery, and it has some smaller sectors like heavy machinery manufacturing and the production of industrial-strength cleaners.

Culture
The Mari people form an overwhelming majority in the town, even more so than Yoshkar-Ola. The largest minorities are Finns and Tatars, with very few Russians living in the general area. This may be due in part to the backlash from the Uralic Purges predating Uralica's actual formation, and even though the anti-Russian sentiment of those times is long gone, most of the Russians that did live in the area have moved east.

Originally known as Makarsola, the name "Sernur" comes from "Sherdezh," the Mari name of the small river running through the town, with nur "field" added to the end, and in the past it was a centre of the Mari pagan religion, which came under heavy pressure from both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, but disappeared quite suddenly in early 2008. Remnants of holy places from this religion are on display in Sernur's historical museum.

There are many beautiful Orthodox churches in the area, of the Old Russian style, but also a few new churches (mainly UEB) that are worth taking pictures of.