Deputy’s Palace Museum

Top choice in Western Siberia


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 the Kremlin. The Romanovs called in here during their brief stint in Tobolsk in 1917, and a section of this remarkably modern museum is devoted to their time here. Tactile multimedia exhibits profile the characters who shaped Siberia before the Bolshevik revolution, as well as hometown heroes such as Dmitry Mendeleyev, who created the first periodic table.

Most exhibits have English placards. The space-age multimedia displays are in Russian only but are fun to play with regardless. Visitors really emerge from here with a sense of Tobolsk's importance in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was the capital of all Siberia. There's an impressive collection of local art up on the 3rd floor.


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