Krasnoyarsk Krai.

History

The first town on the Yenisei was Yeniseysk, founded in 1619; it was the key to Russia's push into East Siberia in the 17th and 18th centuries, and explorer Semyon Dezhnev served here in the early 1630s. In 1628 a frontier fort was built where the Kacha meets the Yenisei, and it grew into Krasnoyarsk. Chekhov called it the most beautiful city in Siberia. In 1908 the Tunguska event flattened forest over more than 2,000 square kilometres, and the krai in its present form was created on 7 December 1934.

Culture & traditions

Painter Vasily Surikov, who became a major figure in Russian art, was born in Krasnoyarsk. The regional museum is built in the style of an ancient Egyptian temple, and the city's children's choir is known internationally as the 'Little Eagles of Siberia'. The 1804 Chapel of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa on Karaulnaya Hill appears on the 10-rouble banknote. The north is home to indigenous Dolgans, Nganasans and Evenks, and the old town of Yeniseysk is on Russia's tentative World Heritage list.

Nature

Right outside Krasnoyarsk begins Stolby National Park, with syenite pillars up to 100 metres tall such as Grandfather, Plumage and Lion's Gate; they were first protected in 1925. Far to the north lies the Putorana Plateau, some 800 by 500 kilometres: its more than 25,000 lakes hold Russia's second-largest freshwater reserves after Baikal, and Talnikovy Falls is one of Asia's highest. The Putorana Reserve became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 and shelters snow sheep and the world's largest herd of wild reindeer.

Sport

Krasnoyarsk is a bandy stronghold: Yenisey has been national champion many times since the 1980s. The city also has the rugby clubs, Krasny Yar (founded 1969) and Enisey-STM (1975), and it hosted the 2019 Winter Universiade. Stolby is the birthplace of 'stolbism': for more than 150 years locals have climbed its rocks freestyle, creating routes of their own.

Food & drink

The food is Siberian, and pelmeni are seen as Siberia's great contribution to Russian cuisine: they were frozen outdoors and carried into the taiga. In the colder north, venison is the traditional filling.

Practical information

The main gateway is Yemelyanovo Airport, 27 kilometres from Krasnoyarsk, one of 26 airports in the krai. The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the Yenisei at Krasnoyarsk on a historic bridge. Local time is four hours ahead of Moscow (UTC+7). The climate is strongly continental, with long winters and short hot summers; on Putorana July averages only about +8 °C, and Norilsk, the gateway to the plateau, is a restricted-access city. Summer is the best time to travel.

What to see

• Stolby — syenite rock pillars and the home of stolbism just outside Krasnoyarsk
• Putorana Plateau — thousands of lakes and waterfalls in a UNESCO reserve
• Yeniseysk — the first town on the Yenisei, with a historic old town
• Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Chapel — Krasnoyarsk's emblem from the 10-rouble note
• Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum — housed in an Egyptian-temple-style building

Cities on the map

• Krasnoyarsk 1,205,473
• Norilsk 176,735
• Dudinka 19,309