Krasnoyarsk.

History

A fort was founded on the Yenisei in 1628 and received town status in 1690. The name goes back to the Khakas "Khyzyl char", or "red cliff", after the reddish bluffs of the Kacha valley. The Siberian Route reached the town in 1735–1741, it became the seat of Yeniseysk Governorate in 1822, and the railway arrived in 1895. During the Second World War many factories were evacuated here, turning the city into a major industrial centre; it has been the capital of the krai since 1934.

Culture & traditions

Krasnoyarsk is the birthplace of the painter Vasily Surikov, and the writer Viktor Astafyev and the opera baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky are also closely tied to the city. It has an opera and ballet theatre, the Pushkin Drama Theatre and a regional museum, and its public museum first opened back in 1889. The children's choir known abroad as the Little Eagles of Siberia comes from here. Siberian Federal University and a research centre of the Academy of Sciences make it one of Siberia's main student cities.

Sport

The city's great sporting tradition is bandy: Yenisey won the Soviet championship every year in the 1980s and later took national titles in 2001, 2015 and 2016. Krasnoyarsk is also a rugby stronghold, home to Krasny Yar and Yenisey-STM. In March 2019 it hosted the 29th Winter Universiade. Key venues include the Crystal Arena, Arena Sever and the Ivan Yarygin Sports Palace.

Practical information

Yemelyanovo International Airport lies about 27 km northwest of the centre; its new terminal opened in 2017. The Trans-Siberian Railway and the R255 Siberia highway pass through the city, which has buses, trolleybuses and trams. Local time is Moscow plus 4 hours. The climate is continental, averaging about −16 °C in January and +19 °C in July, and the Yenisei does not freeze here in winter because of the hydroelectric dam upstream. The best time to visit is late spring to early autumn, when the Stolby trails are at their best.

What to see

• Stolby Nature Reserve — some 470 km² of taiga with granite pillars up to 100 m tall.
• Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Chapel — a stone chapel of 1855 on Karaulnaya Hill, pictured on the ten-rouble note.
• The Yenisei in winter — an ice-free river through the city, thanks to the dam upstream.
• Communal Bridge — the historic Yenisei crossing that long served as the main link between the banks.
• Tatyshev Island — a large recreation area in the middle of the Yenisei, reached by the Vinogradovsky footbridge.
• Opera and Ballet Theatre — one of Siberia's leading stages, on the Yenisei embankment.