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…
Must-see attractions in Eastern Siberia
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…
Eastern Siberia
The highlight at the National Museum is the atmospherically low-lit hall containing a striking exhibition dedicated to Khakassia’s wealth of standing…
Irkutsk
Irkutsk’s rapidly ageing Regional Museum occupies a fancy 1880s brick building that formerly housed the Siberian Geographical Society, a club of Victorian…
Eastern Siberia
Having moved into larger premises, the town’s friendly museum has exhibits on BAM railway history (workers’ medals, grainy black-and-white photos, ‘old’…
Krasnoyarsk
For some spectacular city views, climb Karaulnaya Hill (there's no bus) to the little chapel that features on the Russian 10-rouble banknote (now slowly…
Eastern Siberia
Chita’s main Buddhist temple lies just outside the centre, a 15-minute walk or R150 taxi ride along Bogomyagkova from where it meets ul Babushkina. It’s a…
Ulan-Ude
Built between 1741 and 1785, UU’s largest church was also the first stone structure to appear in the city. Used as a museum store from 1929 until the fall…
Eastern Siberia
Nizhneangarsk's Regional Museum chases the history of the region back to the 17th century and includes several Evenki exhibits. The museum often hosts…
Eastern Siberia
The top attraction in Novoselenginsk is its Decembrist Museum, which is housed in an unmissable 200-year-old colonnaded mini-mansion in the town’s centre…
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…
Eastern Siberia
The train station reflected in its gilt onion domes, Chita’s bright turquoise cathedral is the city’s most impressive building, though inside it’s…
Irkutsk
The grand old art museum has a valuable though poorly lit collection ranging from Mongolian thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist religious paintings) to Russian…
Krasnoyarsk
The cute Surikov Art Museum displays works by Russian 19th-century artist Ivan Surikov and his contemporaries. Its affiliate at ul Mira 12 houses a small…
Krasnoyarsk
Permanently docked below Ploshchad Mira art centre is the SV Nikolai, the ship that transported future revolution leader Vladimir Lenin to exile in…
Eastern Siberia
Striking gilded statues of soldiers adorn this landmark building that defines Chita as a military stronghold on the border with China. Walk through an…
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…
Tuva
Brightly coloured prayer flags flutter in the breeze outside this white pagoda-style Buddhist temple, but it’s disappointingly plain inside. There's a…
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…
Eastern Siberia
The small, informal school museum in Baikalskoe has hands-on exhibits which tell the story of the village from the Stone Age to the seal hunts of the 20th…
Krasnoyarsk
This pleasingly small old church dating from 1795 has an interior of unusually glossed and intricately moulded stucco framing haloed saints.
Eastern Siberia
One of the most appealing of the surviving churches in Yeniseysk, with an unusual metal floor and splendid antique icons.
Krasnoyarsk
Take bus 50 or 50A to this animal-friendly zoo near the Bobrovy Log Ski Resort to see numerous Siberian species.
Eastern Siberia
Yeniseysk boasts an unexpectedly good museum telling the story of Siberian merchants and their endeavours.
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery
Eastern Siberia
This walled 1731 monastery is one of the most appealing of the surviving churches in Yeniseysk.
Eastern Siberia
This interesting museum housed in a cottage-compound gives a taste of rural Siberian life.
Eastern Siberia
This elegant 1803 church is across the square from the superb Martyanov Museum.
Eastern Siberia
The house-museum of famous local writer Victor Astafiev, who died in 2001.
Eastern Siberia
Mikhail Butin, the local silver baron, built himself this impressive crenellated palace, furnished with what were then claimed to be the world’s largest…
Eastern Siberia
A ferro-concrete symbol of the USSR’s efforts to harness the might of Siberia’s natural assets, between 1967 and 1971 the Bratsk hydroelectric power…
Eastern Siberia
Leaving Tayshet’s dusty/muddy streets and loco whistles, an interesting excursion is to neighbouring Biryusinsk, once a prosperous timber-processing town…
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…
Eastern Siberia
Worth visiting just to experience a Siberian attraction that doesn’t charge admission. Train buffs will find the scale model of Abakan station in 1925,…
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…
Krasnoyarsk
The Surikov Museum-Estate preserves the house, sheds and vegetable patch of 19th-century painter Vasily Surikov (1848–1916). The heavy-gated garden forms…
Khangalov Museum of Buryat History
Ulan-Ude
Housed in a badly ageing Soviet-era structure, the historical museum has rotating exhibitions dedicated to Buddhism, shamanism and traditional costumes…
![Western Siberian Eagle Owl [Bubo Bubo Sibericus] in full flight](https://lp-cms-production.imgix.net/2019-06/531770715_high.jpg?auto=format&fit=crop&w=360&ar=1:1&q=75)
