Tomsk, founded at the beginning of the 17th century, has a rich history. It is the oldest scientific and educational center in Siberia. The city began to be called "Siberian Athens" after the opening of the first university in Siberia here. It is an open-air museum famous for its unique wood and stone architecture.
The most ordinary walk along the streets of Tomsk can be a wonderful excursion. Walk through the historic city center. Along the old, dilapidated bridge, which was built by the exiled Decembrist Batenkov, then along the street called Obrub to the log fortress. A fire tower has been preserved here, climbing onto the observation deck of which you can see almost the entire city. Tomsk is famous for its wooden architecture, and Tomsk wooden Art Nouveau is included by Forbes magazine in the list of “Six sights of Russia that will soon disappear”. Each building is unique and beautiful. Here you can see wooden buildings in the Art Nouveau style, as well as stone buildings in the classicism and baroque styles. Walking around Tomsk, one cannot but pay attention to the interesting monuments. On the Tom embankment there is a monument to Chekhov, made by the Tomsk sculptor Leonty Usov. The famous barefoot "Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in Tomsk through the eyes of a drunken man lying in a ditch and not reading" Kashtanka " has become an unspoken symbol of the city. Only here there is a monument to the ruble. Wooden, more than two meters in size and weighing 250 kilograms. The Tomsk ruble is exactly 100 times larger than its metal counterpart. Do you know what happiness looks like? And Tomsk residents know, as they have a monument that perpetuates this concept. This is a well-fed wolf from the cartoon "Once upon a time there was a dog." If you rub his stomach, he, in the voice of Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, will utter one of the phrases from the cartoon. There are many museums in Tomsk. Visit the one-of-a-kind NKVD Investigative Prison Memorial Museum. It is located in a building that housed a prison in the 30s and 40s of the last century. In the former cells there are expositions such as "The Investigator's Office", "Execution Cross", "Great Terror" and others. There are museums of wooden architecture, local history and art museums in Tomsk. In addition, you can visit the unique Museum of Slavic Mythology or the Tomsk Forest Museum, which is the oldest in Russia. Lovers of Melpomene can enjoy performances at the Chamber Drama Theater and the Tomsk Regional Drama Theater. At the Camerata Center for Ancient Music, enjoy performances that are a kind of synthesis of theatrical action, vocal and instrumental music and poetry.
