Listvyanka
Listvyanka’s best viewpoint, overlooking the source of the Angara, is named after Jan Czerski, a 19th-century Polish gentleman explorer. It is best…
Must-see attractions in Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Traders bring Mongolian herbs, spices, clothes and leather items from across the nearby border to this colourful makeshift market that stretches for a few…
Irkutsk
The duck-egg-blue and white home of Decembrist Count Sergei Volkonsky, whose wife Maria Volkonskaya cuts the main figure in Christine Sutherland’s…
Irkutsk
Stranded on the wrong side of a thundering roundabout, the 1762 Znamensky Monastery is 1.9km northeast of Skver Kirova. Echoing with mellifluous plainsong…
Irkutsk
What does a city boasting some of Siberia’s most impressive original timber architecture do to improve the visitor experience? Yes, that’s right,…
Irkutsk
Irkutsk’s second Decembrist house-museum emerged from a recent renovation with English-language information, touchscreens and tinkling background music…
Olkhon Island
The unmistakable Shaman Rocks are neither huge nor spectacular, but they have become the archetypal Baikal vista found on postcards and travel-guide…
Irkutsk
A small park on the edge of the historical centre contains a smattering of beautiful wood-lace buildings and arbours. These house exhibitions dedicated to…
Listvyanka
This garden near the St Nicholas Church is full of wacky sculpture pieces fashioned from old Soviet-era cars and motorbikes. You can check out a few…
Irkutsk
Opened in 2016, this lovely gallery puts in the spotlight Russian and Soviet sculpture previously kept in the city's main art museum and private…
Irkutsk
A large and sparkling new modern-art venue that most prominently features a collection of Dashi Namdakov’s sculptures inspired by Buddhist prayer dolls…
Lake Baikal
The Banya Museum displays four traditional timber bani lovingly fashioned by national park ranger and guide, Alexander Beketov, who also runs a very…
Irkutsk
Adorning the Angara embankment, a recast statue of Alexander III (a copy of the 1904 original) has the only tsar ever to visit Siberia looking as though…
Lake Baikal
Geology buffs should consider heading to the privately run Baikal Mineral Museum, which claims to exhibit every mineral known to man.
Listvyanka
One of only three museums in the world dedicated solely to a lake, this sometimes overly scientific institution examines the science of Baikal from all…
Taltsy Museum of Architecture & Ethnography
Lake Baikal
About 47km southeast of Irkutsk, 23km before Listvyanka, Taltsy Museum of Architecture & Ethnography is an impressive outdoor collection of old Siberian…
Irkutsk
This small museum filling six rooms of a former merchant’s house illustrates just why 19th-century Irkutsk was nicknamed the ‘Paris of Siberia’. Changing…
Irkutsk
Irkutsk’s rapidly ageing Regional Museum occupies a fancy 1880s brick building that formerly housed the Siberian Geographical Society, a club of Victorian…
Irkutsk
This fairytale ensemble of mini onion domes atop restored salmon, white and green towers first appeared on the Irkutsk skyline in 1718, but during the…
Irkutsk
The grand old art museum has a valuable though poorly lit collection ranging from Mongolian thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist religious paintings) to Russian…
Irkutsk
The 1758 baroque Raising of the Cross Church has a fine interior of gilt-edged icons and examples of intricate brickwork in a rounded style that’s unique…
Irkutsk
Constructed in 1706, this is the oldest stone-built church in Eastern Siberia and has remnants of the original murals on its facade. Until the late 1990s…
Museum of Circum-Baikal Railway
Lake Baikal
Housed inside the nicely restored train station, this new and informative exhibition tells the story of Circumbaikal Railway. Toy-train buffs will be…
Irkutsk
Despite its palatial 19th-century home (built by wealthy merchant Sibiryakov in 1884), what should be Irkutsk's main repository of the past is in fact a…
Irkutsk
Some 6km southeast of the centre, the 1956 Angara Dam is 2km long. Its construction raised Lake Baikal by up to 1m and caused environmental problems, most…
Irkutsk
Originally imported in kit form from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to carry Trans-Siberian Railway passengers across Lake Baikal (the trains went on her bigger…
Lake Baikal
Amid the nearby railway repair sheds and admin buildings you'll find this fascinating little museum housed in an ornate wooden building set back from ul…
Olkhon Island
Khuzhir’s small museum displays a random mix of stuffed animals, Soviet-era junk, local art and the personal possessions of its founder, Nikolai Revyakin,…
Irkutsk
The gigantic Kazansky Church is a theme-park-esque confection of salmon-pink walls and fluoro turquoise domes topped with gold baubled crosses. Get off…
Lake Baikal
Hidden in the village school and difficult to access, this small museum has some interesting Decembrist-related exhibits as well as the usual dusty rocks…
Listvyanka
Listvyanka’s small mid-19th-century timber church is dedicated to St Nicholas, who supposedly saved its merchant sponsor from a Baikal shipwreck.
Lake Baikal
Opposite the quaint little post office, the wooden-colonnaded former Uezdnogo Bank was once the grand home of Decembrist Mikhail Kyukhelbeker.
