Orenburg.

History

Ivan Neplyuev founded Orenburg in 1743, only at the third attempt, on the site of the Berd settlement near a river confluence. The fortress was meant to guard trade routes with the Kazakhs and protect the region from raids, and hides, furs, wool and grain passed through it. In 1773–1774 Pugachev's forces besieged it for months, and in 1833 Pushkin came here gathering material on the rebellion and met Vladimir Dal. From 1920 to 1925 Orenburg was the first capital of the Kazakh ASSR, and from 1938 to 1957 it bore the name of the aviator Chkalov.

Culture & traditions

The signature local craft is the Orenburg down shawl, including the gossamer-light pautinka, knitted by hand to be both warm and elegant. The city has the Gorky Drama Theatre and a musical comedy theatre, the Governor's Museum of History, a fine arts museum, and memorial apartments of Yuri and Valentina Gagarin and of the Rostropovich family. The Caravanserai is tied to the history of the local Kazakh, Bashkir and Tatar communities, and an ethnic village shows the homes of eight peoples of the region.

Sport

The city is represented by the football club Orenburg, the bandy club Lokomotiv with a 5,000-seat arena, the women's basketball team Nadezhda and the table tennis club Fakel Gazproma. Chess grandmaster Lev Alburt and tennis player Denis Istomin come from Orenburg.

Food & drink

City cafés mostly serve Russian food. Among local products, Orenburg beer and kvass are worth a try.

Practical information

Tsentralny Airport lies about 25 km east of the city. Orenburg is a major rail junction with direct trains to Moscow, Samara, Ufa and Yekaterinburg. Local time is two hours ahead of Moscow. The climate is sharply continental and dry, with long hot summers and long cold winters, so the mildest times to visit are April and October.

What to see

• Pedestrian bridge over the Ural — a walk from Europe to Asia
• Caravanserai — a monument to the region's Kazakh, Bashkir and Tatar history
• Ethnic village — traditional homes of eight peoples of the region
• Yuri Gagarin's memorial apartment — a chapter in the first cosmonaut's life
• Down shawls — the city's signature souvenir
• Remains of the 1743 fortress and its gate — where Orenburg's story began