In 1398, St. Therapont of White Lake, who arrived with Cyril, moved to a separate location, which later became the Ferapontov Monastery.

It also helped that the Sheksna River was one of the most heavily used waterways connecting central and northern Russia.

Vasili III of Russia, the Grand Prince of Moscow, and Ivan the Terrible, the Tsar, visited the monastery on several occasions.

Whereas the initial choice was to create the park in Vytegorsky District in the northwest of the oblast, to protect its karst landscapes, the area was finally decided to be too remote for mass tourism, and the location of the park was moved to Kirillovsky District.

The national park also includes Kirillo-Belozyorsky, Ferapontov, and Goritsky Monasteries, as well as stretches of the Northern Dvina Canal and the Volga–Baltic Waterway.

Sokolsky Bor is an area covered by pinewood forest and located on the bank of the Sheksna Reservoir.