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Chelyabinsk is the capital of Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia, a city of over 1.1 million on the Miass River just east of the southern Ural Mountains, famous as a great industrial centre and for the meteorite that exploded over it in February 2013. Founded as the Chelyaba fortress in 1736, it grew fast with the Trans-Siberian Railway and was nicknamed Tankograd for its wartime tank factories.
The centre is easy to walk: the pedestrian Kirovka with its bronze sculptures leads to Revolution Square, the Glinka Opera and Ballet Theatre and the red-brick Alexander Nevsky Church on the Scarlet Field. The History Museum of the South Urals shows the largest piece of the 2013 meteorite, and the Museum of Fine Arts holds Russian and European art.
Chelyabinsk is also a gateway to the southern Urals. Taganay National Park, the clear waters of Lake Turgoyak, the mineral-rich Ilmen reserve and the old metalworking town of Zlatoust all lie within a few hours by road or rail, and summer is the best time for hiking and lakes.
Kirovka is the pedestrian stretch of Kirov Street in the heart of Chelyabinsk, lined with restored merchant houses, cafés and shops. Playful bronze street sculptures stand along the way, making it the city's favourite place for an evening stroll, street music and photos.
Revolution Square is the main square of Chelyabinsk, bounded by Lenin Avenue, Kirov Street and Tsvillinga Street in the city centre. Once the town's southern edge, it now hosts parades and festivals, with a large Lenin monument and the Drama Theatre on its southern side.
The Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, named after composer Mikhail Glinka, opened on 29 September 1956 with Borodin's opera Prince Igor. Its stately building, begun in 1937, has a portico of paired columns crowned by sculptures, and the hall seats about 900.
The Alexander Nevsky Church in Chelyabinsk, designed by architect Alexander Pomerantsev, stands in the Scarlet Field park in the city centre. From 1986 it served as a hall for chamber and organ music with a German-built organ, and since 2013 it has been an Orthodox church again.
The History Museum of the South Urals in Chelyabinsk moved into a modern building on Truda Street near the Miass River in 2006. Its galleries trace the region from ancient times to the Soviet era, and it displays the largest fragment of the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteorite, weighing about half a tonne.
The Chelyabinsk Museum of Fine Arts, opened in 1940, is the only art museum in the region to show regional, Russian, Western European and Eastern art side by side. Its collection is housed in the historic Yaushev Brothers Passage, and it stages more than 25 exhibitions a year.
Gagarin Park is one of the largest parks in Chelyabinsk, set in a pine forest close to the city centre with granite outcrops and old flooded quarries. Locals come here for walks, cycling and rides in summer and for skiing and skating in winter, all within easy reach of downtown.
Scarlet Field, or Alye Pole, is a central park in Chelyabinsk named after the workers' rallies held here in 1905, and the setting of the red-brick Alexander Nevsky Church. Shady paths lead past memorials and flower beds, and the bronze Orlyonok statue of a young Civil War fighter stands here.
Taganay National Park, established in 1991 near Zlatoust about 160 kilometres west of Chelyabinsk, protects ridges of the Southern Urals rising to 1,178 metres. Trails lead through spruce and pine forest to rocky peaks, and wolves, lynx, brown bears and moose live in its forests.
Lake Turgoyak, near the city of Miass west of Chelyabinsk, is famed for water so clear you can see 10 to 17 metres down, often compared with Lake Baikal. Vera Island in the lake holds ancient megaliths and the ruins of a monastery, and resorts and camps line its shores.
The Ilmen Nature Reserve near Miass, west of Chelyabinsk, was founded in 1920 as a mineralogical reserve and is where 17 minerals, including ilmenite, were first described. Its geological museum is one of the largest in Russia, and trails lead through pine and larch forest on the Ilmen ridge.
Zlatoust is an old metalworking town on the Ay River, about 160 kilometres west of Chelyabinsk, founded in 1754 around an ironworks. It became famous for fine engraved steel and for the bulat blades first made here by Pavel Anosov, and it is the gateway to the Taganay mountains.
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