Must-see attractions in Western Siberia

  • Top Choice
    Kremlin

    The centrepiece of the tower-studded, white-walled, 18th-century kremlin is the glorious 1686 St Sofia Cathedral. Less eye-catching from the outside, but…

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    Trinity Monastery

    Riverside Trinity Monastery is undoubtedly Tyumen’s most appealing architectural complex. Its kremlin-style crenellated outer wall is pierced by a single…

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    N.K. Rerikh Museum

    This museum is dedicated to the works and life of the painter Nikolai Rerikh (Nicholas Roerick), beloved in these parts because of his life-long passion…

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    Memorial Museum

    The gloomy basement of this former NKVD (proto-KGB) building is now a museum dedicated to the unspeakable horrors that took place here. Look out for the…

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    Deputy’s Palace Museum

    Tobolsk's best museum, and indeed one of the best museums in Siberia, occupies a beautiful 18th-century former administration on the southwestern edge of…

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    Regional Museum

    Housed in a wonderfully dilapidated 1912 merchant’s house with original art nouveau fittings, this fine museum is home to standing stone idols,…

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    Geyser Lake

    One of the more unusual sights along the Chusky Trakt is this sublime turquoise blue sulfur lake and geyser. This is no Yellowstone-style geyser erupting…

  • Top Choice
    A.V. Anokhin National Museum of Altai

    This well-put-together museum offers a good introduction to Altai culture with a range of ethnographic exhibits, wildlife displays and local art and…

  • Top Choice
    Novosibirsk State History Museum

    In an elegant mansion, the State History Museum has recently re-opened after renovations and is now by far the best museum in Novosibirsk. The well…

  • Top Choice
    University & Siberian Botanical Gardens

    The classically colonnaded main buildings of the university lie in resplendently leafy grounds, giving Tomsk the sobriquet ‘Oxford of Siberia’. Most of…

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    Riverside Promenade

    Tyumen's sleek riverside promenade runs northwest from the centre almost all the way to Trinity Monastery. The promenade offers great views of the…

  • Top Choice
    Altai Arts, Literature & Culture Museum

    The impressively eclectic – not to mention good-value – Altai Arts, Literature & Culture Museum occupies a restored, furnished 1850s mansion. There are…

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    Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

    The 1898 Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a red-brick Byzantine-style building with gilded domes and colourful murals. The cathedral was originally built as…

  • Top Choice
    Minsalim Folk Art

    Minsalim is a master bone-carver who turns mammoth tusks and antler fragments into detailed figurines related to myths and legends of the local brand of…

  • Top Choice
    War History Museum

    In an old brick house, the War History Museum is simple and all in Russian but the moving understatement of its Afghanistan and Chechnya memorials is…

  • Ploshchad Lenina

    Central pl Lenina isn’t really a square so much as a jumbled collection of beautifully restored historic buildings interspersed with banal Soviet concrete…

  • Tomsk Regional Museum

    Housed in the splendid Atashev Palace, this modest museum has a 2500-year-old bear amulet and an interesting exhibit on the Great Tea Trail. But it's the…

  • Gubernsky Museum

    Built in 1887 for the 300th anniversary of the founding of Tobolsk, the Gubernsky Museum has displays on the history of Tobolsk, a hugely impressive and…

  • Cathedral of the Ascension

    The gold-domed 1914 Cathedral of the Ascension has a wonderful, colourful interior with a soaring central space that’s unexpected given its fairly squat…

  • St Sofia Cathedral

    The glorious gold- and blue-domed 1686 centrepiece of Tobolsk's kremlin is one of the most inspiring religious buildings in Western Siberia.