Other sights in Siberia
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Ethnographic Museum
In a forest clearing 6km from central Ulan-Ude is the worthwhile Ethnographic Museum, an outdoor collection of local architecture plus some reconstructed burial mounds and the odd stone totem. Although lacking the pretty lakeside setting of equivalents in Bratsk and Irkutsk, it features occasional craft demonstrations, has a splendid wooden church and sports a whole strip of Old Believers’ homesteads. Marshrutka 8 from pl Sovetov passes within 1km and upon request will detour to drop you at the door for no extra charge.
reviewed
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Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam
The vastly more impressive Sayano- Shushenskaya Dam, Russia’s biggest and the world’s fourth in terms of energy production, is 15km further south. Privatised in 1993, it cunningly survived a recent renationalisation battle with the Khakassian government by nominally ‘relocating’ itself in Krasnoyarsk territory. No physical move was needed as the dam straddles the provincial border. To join by-appointment Russian-language tours of the dam’s turbine rooms you’ll need copies of your passport, visa and registration plus an invitation letter arranged by a local hotel or Sayanogorsk agency. Expect to wait around three days for permission to come through.
reviewed
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Taltsy
About 47km east of Irkutsk, 23km before Listvyanka, Taltsy is an impressive outdoor collection of old Siberian buildings set in a delightful riverside forest. Amid the renovated farmsteads are two chapels, a church, a watermill, some Evenki graves and the eye-catching 17th-century Iliminsk Ostrog watchtower. Listvyanka–Irkutsk buses and marshrutky stop on request at Taltsy’s entrance (look out for the roadside ‘ Музей’ sign), and the ticket booth is a minute’s walk through the forest.
reviewed
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A
Military Museum
The dry, Russian-language-only Military Museum is only for those with a passion for Eastern Siberia’s military history, though it does contain some semi-interesting exhibits on Beketov’s Cossacks, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and communist repressions. Each of the six floors bristles with weapons, and the museum’s collection of tanks and artillery can be seen by walking up the passage between the museum and the impressive Officers’ Club building next door.
reviewed
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FSB Headquarters
The FSB headquarters is worth a peek. The bearded dude in the courtyard is Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka, forerunners to the KGB and the current day FSB. A much larger monument to Iron Felix was torn down in Moscow as the USSR collapsed in 1991, and he is a very uncommon face indeed in modern Russia. Be sure to check out the large Soviet-era ‘Workers Unite!’ mural to Felix’s left. Taking photos of the FSB HQ is not advised.
reviewed
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Regional Museum
Leaving the park, directly opposite, on your left at the corner of Pionersky pr building no 24, the 80-year-old Regional Museum concentrates mostly on mining and steel industries, but also contains locally found mammoth remains and exhibits dedicated to the native Shortsi people, who dominated the area before the arrival of the Russians. The two cannons outside the museum date from the 17th century, a fact that many locals are disproportionately proud of.
reviewed
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Angaram Ice-Breaker
Some 6km southeast of the centre, the 1956 Angara Dam is 2km long. Moored nearby, the Angara Ice-breaker was originally imported in kit form from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to carry Trans-Siberian Railway passengers across Lake Baikal (the trains went on her bigger sister ship Baikal, which sank years ago). The steamer is now a less-than-inspiring museum reached by a permanent gangway.
reviewed
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Maral Deer Farm
Between Askiz and the iron-ore mining town of Abaza are hundreds of ancient standing stones, notably at km109/307, where remarkable concentrations stand right beside the A161. The curious can visit the roadside Maral Deer Farm in May when you can watch the traditional practice of cutting the animals’ antlers, valued for their aphrodisiac properties.
reviewed
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Museum
The delightfully eccentric museum retains its original 1922 hardwood exhibition cases full of pickled foetuses and pinned butterflies. Peruse musty displays of treasures salvaged from Soviet-plundered churches and datsany, bricks of tea, Buryat folk costumes and artwork brought back from trans-Asia expeditions by19th-century Russian gentlemen explorers.
reviewed
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B
Fine Art Museum
Built in 1887 for the 300th anniversary of the founding of Tobolsk, the delightful Fine Art Museum was renovated in 2004 and soon after visited by Vladimir Putin and later by his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Its celebrated collection of WWI-era Russian avant-garde canvases is arguably less interesting, however, than the fine display of bone carvings.
reviewed
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C
Art Gallery
The grand old Art Gallery has a valuable though poorly lit collection ranging from Mongolian thangkas (Buddhist religious paintings) to Russian Impressionist canvases. Behind a photogenic 1909 facade its sub gallery is strong on Siberian landscapes and petroglyph rubbings and has some superb 17th-century icons.
reviewed
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Staro-Vostochnoe Graveyard
Fans of Soviet graveyards and/or music lovers might like to take a trip (20 to 30 minutes) out to the city’s Staro-Vostochnoe Graveyard. Among the multitude of red-star–topped atheist graves is the final resting place of Yegor Letov, the father of Russian punk. His grave is in the middle of the cemetery, on the left.
reviewed
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Baikal Museum
Another 2km towards Irkutsk at Rogatka, tour groups are herded into the Baikal Museum, where gruesomely discoloured fish samples and seal embryos in formaldehyde are now supplemented with tanks containing two frolicsome nerpa seals and various Baikal fish that you’d otherwise encounter on restaurant menus.
reviewed
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D
Voznesenskaya Church
Olde-worlde charm continues up cobbled ul Bakunina (named for the 19th-century ‘father of anarchy’ who studied in Tomsk) towards the Voznesenskaya Church. This Gothic edifice with five gold-tipped black spires has great potential as a Dracula movie set. A truly massive bell hangs in its new lurid-pink belfry.
reviewed
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E
Archangel Mikhail Church
Two blocks east, the attractive Archangel Mikhail Church has a colourfully restored interior. The character of Tatiana Larina in Pushkin’s epic Eugene Onegin is said to have been modelled on Natalya Fonvizina, a Decembrist wife who prayed here when not cultivating pineapples in her hothouse.
reviewed
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Dauria Biosphere Reserve
From Borzya you could attempt to find transport into the Dauria Biosphere Reserve, whose vast, periodically emptying Torey Lakes attract rare crane species and where you’ll find the magical but very hard-to-reach Adon-Chelon Oboo (Buddhist-shamanist pilgrim stones).
reviewed
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Butin Palace Museum
Butin’s four mammoth mirrors form the centrepiece of the Butin Palace Museum, along with a delightful pair of hobbit- style chairs crafted from polished tangles of birch roots. Three-quarters of the palace, including the grand, triple-arched gateway (demolished in 1970), have yet to be rebuilt.
reviewed
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Altaysky Tsentr
Tthe Altaysky Tsentr comprises three Altai-style wooden ail huts with pointed metal roofs. One is an Altai library, another celebrates Churos-Gurkin’s ethnographic work, but most interesting is the traditional ‘home’ ail. Opening hours vary.
reviewed
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Martyanov Museum
The excellent Martyanov Museum is over a century old, its highlights include splendid archaeological and cultural exhibits, and the preserved little library in which Lenin occasionally studied while genteelly exiled at Shushenskoe. The museum’s gift shop sells town maps.
reviewed
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Ioanno Bogoslavski Chapel
Across a small canyon to a craggy island in the Katun River on which is perched the tiny wooden Ioanno Bogoslavski Chapel, rebuilt in 2001 to the original 1849 design. Beside it, the rock miraculously shaped like a Madonna-and-child sculpture is supposedly natural.
reviewed
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Tomsk History Museum
The well-presented Tomsk History Museum has resprouted its wooden lookout tower : try to spot the seven historic churches from the top. The stone just outside the museum entrance marks the founding of the city.
reviewed
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F
Museum
A moustachioed standing stone idol welcomes visitors to the interesting museum. There’s a reconstruction of a 2000-year-old Pazyryk grave pit and some intriguing archaeological finds from the Turkic and Dzhungarian periods.
reviewed
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G
Raising of the Cross Church
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 to Irkutsk and the Selenga Delta village of Posolskoe.
reviewed
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Hippodrome
The hippodromeis the venue for major festivals including the Surkharban in early June, the biggest Buryat sporting event of the year featuring archery, wrestling and exhilarating feats of horsemanship.
reviewed
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Tsechenling Datsan
Two blocks east stands the white pagoda-style Buddhist temple Tsechenling Datsan Brightly-coloured prayer flags flutter in the breeze outside but it’s disappointingly plain inside.
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