Travel expert
Read about the city
Krasnoyarsk is one of the great cities of Siberia with over one million inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on the Yenisei River, which forms the border between Eastern Siberia and Western Siberia, and its central location makes the city an important site on the Trans-Siberian Railway between Moscow and Vladivostok.
The city was founded in 1628 by a group led by Andrei Dubensky, who established a fort in defense of tribes in what was then the border area of the time. The city began to grow faster with the establishment of a road connection to it in the 1730s and later as an important railway hub.
There are many things to see in Krasnoyarsk today. You can see everything from the typical wooden houses of earlier times to modern buildings. Here are also a number of beautiful churches, exciting museums and impressive squares and buildings, most of which have a grandiose Soviet-era feel.
The surroundings of Krasnoyarsk are characterized by beautiful taiga and the nature around Yenisei. You can sail on the Yenisei and experience the great river from the water, and nature starts almost just outside the city limits. Stolby Nature Reserve is a must, and not far from here you can see Krasnoyarsk's famous hydroelectric power plant.
Other attractions
- Museum Ship St Nicholas/Пароход-музей Святитель Николай: In the center of Krasnoyarsk you can see the museum ship St Nicholas. It is located on land on the banks of the river Yenisei. The ship was built in Tyumen in 1886 for the transport of goods and passengers by river. It was once Yenisei's fastest ship, and it sailed between Krasnoyarsk and Yeniseisk and on other routes. In 1891, the future Tsar Nikolai II sailed with the ship, and later Lenin was a passenger on board.
- Church of the Transfiguration/Церковь Преображения Господня: In 1911, the local architect, Vladimir Sokolovsky, designed this church, which was built as a Catholic parish church. The church was closed in 1936, and was instead used as a radio and television studio. A concert hall was set up in the church in 1982, and since 1993 the church has again been a church and at the same time the site of the regional philharmonic orchestra.
- Holy Trinity Cathedral/Свято-Троицкий Собор: In 1831, a group of citizens applied to build a church with an associated cemetery on this site. The plan was approved, and the church was inaugurated in 1836 and again in 1848, when the church's warm winter chapel was completed. The adjoining cemetery was taken into use in 1843. The architecture is a classicist-inspired exterior with that beautiful interior.
- Church of the Nativity/Храм Рождества Христова: This church is located in the populous Kirov district south of Yenisei. A church here was first proposed in 1989, and as all the town's churches were relatively small, the archbishop proposed a 100 meter/328 foot high church with room for 5,000 people. The project was scaled down to 46 meters/150 feet in height and with capacity for 1,000 visitors. The impressive church stands as a modern version of old Russian churches in Byzantine style. The church was consecrated in 2012 by the Patriarch of Moscow.
- Pushkin Drama Theater/Драматический театр им. А. С. Пушкина: A theater troupe visited Krasnoyarsk in 1852, and they performed an increasingly amount of plays in the city. This led to the founding of the city's drama theater in 1873, when the city government constructed a wooden theater building. It burned in 1898 and again in 1930 after a reconstruction. The current theater is from the 1950s, and there is ample opportunity to see performances in the theatre's varied repertoire.
- Krasnoyarsk Railway Bridge/Красноярский железнодорожный мост: The railway bridge over the river Yenisei is the place where the Trans-Siberian Railway runs between Western Siberia to Eastern Siberia. The first single-track bridge was built in 1896-1899, and it was supplemented by a new bridge in the 1930s, when the existing track was turned into a double-track railway. In the 1990s, a third bridge was built, and then the first one was demolished. The length of the bridges is about 1 km/0.6 miles each, and they are nicely seen from both the train and from the banks of the Yenisei in central Krasnoyarsk.
- Annunciation Church/Благовещенская церковь: This church is a beautiful example of early 19th century church architecture. Construction began in 1804, and in 1808 the lower winter church was completed. Four years later, the upper summer church could be opened; however, construction continued until the 1820s. In Soviet times, the church was used as a fur warehouse, until a fine restoration was carried out in 1983.
- House of the Roman Catholic Priest/Дом ксендза: The House of the Priest is a beautiful wooden house, built in 1911 as a parsonage for the contemporary neighboring building; the Catholic Church of the congregation. Today, the house is open as a music school.
- Krasnoyarsk Railway Station/вокзал Красноярск-Пассажирский: In the Siberian cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway, the railway stations are always important hubs, and the same is true in Krasnoyarsk. The railway station is located 4,098 kilometers/2,546 miles from Moscow and thus less than halfway to the terminus in Vladivostok. The first train arrived in the city in 1895. The impressive railway station building that can be seen today was built in 1961.
- Krasnoyarsk Town Hall/Администрация города Красноярска: The town hall building in Krasnoyarsk is one of the city's major institutional buildings. It is the town hall bell tower that is particularly well known and stands as one of the city's landmarks. It was inaugurated in 2001 and is also called the Big Ben of Krasnoyarsk / Красноярский Биг-Бен after the famous tower in London. Before Krasnoyarsk, only Moscow had an actual bell tower among Russian cities.
- State Opera and Ballet Theater/государственный театр оперы и балета: Already from 1897 you have been able to enjoy operas in Krasnoyarsk. At that time it was in the city's theater, and an actual opera troupe took shape from 1924. The opera and ballet in the city got their own stage with the current opera house, which was inaugurated in 1978.
- The Red Square/Красная площадь: The Red Square in Krasnoyarsk is a fine city space located as the western end of Karl Marx Street. In the middle of the square you can see a 27 meter/88 foot high monument erected in 1977 in memory of those who fell during battles in the city in 1919-1920. On January 7, 1920, 75 men fell here in the square in struggles for the establishment of the Soviet rule, and there is a mass grave for them as part of the square layout.
- Paraskeva Friday Chapel/Часовня Параскевы Пятницы: In this place, high above Krasnoyarsk, a watchtower was originally built. In 1805 a wooden chapel was constructed on the same site. In 1852-1855, the elegant stone chapel was built, as can be seen today. The place is one of the best vantage points in Krasnoyarsk and you have a panoramic view of the central part of the city from here. It was also here that the Russian painter V.I. Surikov often worked on his sketches.
- Church of Saint Nicholas/Храм святителя Николая Чудотворца: This is a small church, built in 1902-1907 as part of the complex at Krasnoyarsk Central City Hospital. From the 1930s to the 1970s, the church was rebuilt several times, while a partial restoration took place in the mid-1990s.
