Yekaterinburg: between Europe and Asia (4,272)

If you ever decide to visit Yekaterinburg, I've got some very good advice for you: Neither your ticket or train ticket will feature the name of this fair city. Yes, one of Russia's few millionaire cities seems to deliberately hide itself under various pseudonyms. But in the case of air travel, passengers do not fly from one megapolis to another, but rather they depart from some quaint ‘village' like Sheremetyevo in order to reach an even smaller village, Koltsovo.' This is all general practice in the aviation business. But if you are going by train to Yekaterinburg, you will not see this name in your ticket. Instead, it lists ‘Sverdlovsk,' which was the name of the city during the Soviet era.

Even the Russian railways website does not show any matches for Yekaterinburg, redirecting browsers to Sverdlovsk without any explanation. But perhaps there is a far more intriguing question: doesYekaterinburg lie in Europe or in Asia? The best answer is neither, as the borderline is drawn along the Urals where Yekaterinburg is situated. Thus, if you leave the city and drive a bit westwards (Perm-Moscow highway) after about 20 km you will come across a rather pompous monument that allegedly marks the border between Europe and Asia. Stop there and do not drive further unless you want to get disappointed as you will find yet more border monuments and obelisks. There are rumors that the borderline was  designated in the  city center simply to attract tourists.

Yekaterinburg, which was founded in the 18th century, is relatively young; it mainly developed in the 19th century. In the year 1723, an iron works was commissioned on the banks of the Iset River. At this time, competition for Siberia's reserves was strong and the founder of the iron works, Vasily Tatishev, faced severe opposition from the side of the Demidovs, another family with an interest in Siberia's iron reserves. Upon the advice of George Wilhelm de Gennin, an expat of His Majesty, so to speak, the new settlement was called Yekaterinburg in the name Saint Catherine (Yekaterina, in Russian) which - let us consider it to be mere coincidence - was also the name of Peter the Great's wife and future Empress, Catherine I. The city developed more smoothly afterwards, and in Soviet times changed its name to Sverdlovsk.

Despite being one of the largest cities in Russia in terms of population, Yekaterinburg remains one of the most compact, thus, almost everything is close.

Better start your walk in the very heart of the city, which consists of the Historical Garden and the so-called Plotinka (‘small dam'). This is the place where the old iron works used to be. The dam separates the Iset River from the City Pond which is actually the same Iset but much wider. You can have a look at this small waterfall and have a very short walk down the main street, Lenina Prospect, up to the 1905 Ploshad (‘square'). A typical Lenin statue protrudes from the center and points to a newly built mall. Lenin holds a coat, as if advertising:  "Nice coats! Buy them here," as the locals jokingly say. Walk a bit farther and you will reach the pedestrian street Vainera Ulitsa, sometimes called Yekaterinburg's Arbat. This is the place for souvenirs, shops, cafes, calm strolls and all other types of entertainment. The street is decorated with statues standing just in the middle of the road as if they are part of the crowd. The statues represents friends, lovers, a banker and a peddler, which the locals believe brings luck. But nobody seems to know exactly how both rubbing his worn, shiny nose while depositing coins into his tray will do anything.

Return back to Plotinka and proceed farther up to Truda Ploshad. The square's eclectic look features the monument to founding fathers Vasily Tatishev and George Wilhelm de Gennin. The other landmark is Saint Catherine's Chapel. Erected in the 1990s, it stands on the place of the huge Cathedral that was built in the 18th century and then demo lished in the 1930s.

Don't miss the metal plate that shows the ‘zero point' of the Sverdlovsk region (the re gion was not renamed) in front of the post office on the opposite side of the street. Then, walk up Tolmacheva Ulitsa to visit the city's ultimate must-see and the symbol of Yekaterinburg's renaissance, the All Saints Church on the Blood.

By the way, the house where in 1918 the last Russian Emperor and his family were executed stood exactly on this spot. Demolished in the late 1970s, it returned in the early 2000s in the shape of a magnificent church worth seeing and visiting.

Other featured sights of Yekaterinburg include the old railway station built in a bright Russian tradition and the newly opened unique monument to computer keyboard. It is located to the south of Historical Garden on the bank of the Iset. The monument itself consists of huge concrete blocks in the form of buttons with corresponding symbols.

While being an ordinary Soviet to the bone city at first glance, Yekaterinburg does have something to offer curious tourists. Long standing industrial traditions and creative thinking come with good ideas.