The village was once the largest village on the Kola Peninsula. And although now only a little more than 300 people live in the village, the grandeur of the wooden architecture monuments of Varzuga reminds of the importance of the village in the old days.

Varzuga was first mentioned in a charter of 1466: a resident of the village, Timofey Ermolinich, transferred his lands on the Varzuga River to the Solovetsky Monastery. The courtyard of the Solovetsky Monastery was built here, as well as the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker – possibly the first Orthodox church on the Kola Peninsula (the temple was closed during Soviet times and is still used as a store).

And in 1674, a Pomeranian master named Clement built the 34-meter Assumption Church. Many researchers of Russian church architecture consider this tented temple to be one of the most remarkable monuments of wooden architecture in the Russian North.