Since the end of the 18th century in the southern Priozezhje has been a few fields of quartzites, the most intersting one of which is located near a Veps settlement Shoksha. Old quarry and outcrops of quarzites are nature monuments of the federal importance.
Shoksha quartzities are small-grained, solid, durable ornamental and facing stones, which are amenable to bright finish. Dark-crimson quartzites, called "Shoksha porphyrys: were especially valuable. From the blocks of these stones, which were presented to France by Russia in 1847, a funeral monument on the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris, the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai the First and columns of the hall of the Old Hermitage in Saint-Petersburg was made.
