Unusual Russia

Valley of Hares: The Karelia Cliff Being Covered With 1,000 Rabbits

A man in Karelia is slowly carving 1,000 hares into a cliff — mostly through his own money, labor, and stubborn belief in the project.

About 20 miles from Petrozavodsk, there is a place where a rock face is slowly turning into a work of art. Here, under the open sky, hares appear on the stone: running, sitting, alert, funny, and all very different. This is the “Valley of Hares,” a large-scale land art project by Sergey Gapanovich. The sculptor began it in 2018 and continues working on it to this day.

The main thing in this story is not even the number, although the idea is impressive: on a rock face about 650 feet long and up to 33 feet high, there should eventually be 1,000 hares. As of spring 2026, there are already about 700 of them. What matters even more is something else: this is a rare example of a large contemporary art object that grew out of an idea one person truly believes in.

What Is the Valley of Hares?

The “Valley of Hares” is land art — art created not inside a gallery or museum, but directly in a natural landscape. In projects like this, the object itself matters, but so does its connection to the place: the terrain, the stone, the light, the weather, and the feeling of space.

In Karelia, the idea works naturally. The region is known for its forests, lakes, and rocky landscapes, so hares carved into a cliff do not feel out of place. They feel like they belong there.

The project was created by Sergey Gapanovich, a sculptor and contemporary artist from Petrozavodsk. He is known for complex work and close attention to materials. His sculptures are held in private collections in Russia and abroad, but the Valley of Hares became a project of a completely different kind for him — not a gallery piece, but a spatial and public work.

The Idea, the Labor, and the Personal Sacrifices

Behind the lightness of the image is very hard work. The rock face where the Valley is appearing reaches up to 33 feet in height. At first, Sergey literally had to work on ropes. Later, scaffolding was built. According to Sergey, it was once stolen. Tools have disappeared too.

“Everything comes down to money, and also the weather. If the summer is rainy, you can’t really get much work done.”

— Sergey Gapanovich, creator of the “1,000 Hares” project

At the beginning, Sergey expected the project to receive meaningful outside support. Many people liked the idea, and the promises sounded encouraging. But once the work began, it turned out that most of those promises remained only words.

As a result, the Valley is still largely supported by the personal investments of the artist and his family. From the outside, the scale of these expenses is not always visible, but stone requires equipment, supplies, transportation, and surface preparation. The rock has to be cleared, dangerous fragments removed, equipment ordered, and tools replaced as they quickly wear out under this kind of load. All of this costs a lot. To keep the work going, Sergey had to sell his Dodge RAM pickup truck.

How the Project Is Supported

One of the special things about the Valley of Hares is that anyone can become part of its story. The support system is simple: a person who helps the project financially gets a hare on the rock dedicated to them. A number is carved next to the figure, making it easier to find “your” hare. In this way, a person leaves a mark in a space that will outlive a trip, a vacation, and perhaps even an entire generation.

Support also comes with an NFT certificate — a digital confirmation of participation. At the same time, Sergey does not hide the fact that for a long time, the symbolic cost of support was far below even the actual cost of the work. Cutting discs wear out, tools break, equipment has to be transported, and the rock has to be cleared and prepared. Very quickly, a romantic art idea turns into a costly, hands-on construction project.

What Is Happening With the Project Now?

The Valley of Hares is a living process. Right now, the key task is to attract more funding for developing the site itself, not only for creating new figures. Sergey’s plans are ambitious: improve the territory, create a walking area, build better infrastructure for visitors, and at the same time preserve the project’s main principle.

Why You Should Visit

Even if you are not interested in contemporary art, the sight of hundreds of hares gradually appearing across the rock face is still impressive.

Second, the place is interesting because it is still unfinished. The Valley of Hares is not a frozen monument. It keeps changing as new hares are added, along with the names and stories of the people who helped make them possible.

Third, people come here for something real: to see how one person stubbornly brings a project into form almost despite the circumstances. These are the kinds of stories that create true points of attraction.

Sergey says it directly: “We can show young people that it is all possible to do it yourself. Yes, it will be hard, yes, it will be difficult, it will take a long time, but it is real.”

The most important thing is that the site remains free. There will never be a single barrier gate anywhere in the Valley of Hares. People will always be able to visit the hares freely and walk along the rock.

According to Sergey, he has already tested a format rarely found even at well-known tourist sites: free guided tours were held at the site, and the guide was paid by the project’s creator himself. This approach says a lot about the Valley and about the person behind it. The place was not conceived as an attraction, but as an open cultural point on the map of Karelia.