Novosibirsk

No reviews yetCity Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia

Krasny Avenue 38, Novosibirsk 01, Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia

Банк Красный проспект, 26 Новосибирск 1, Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia

Sibselmash Stadium 1, Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia

Novosibirsk Planetarium, Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia

About Novosibirsk

Barely more than a century old, Novosibirsk grew from a settlement for the builders of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge over the Ob into Russia's third-largest city and the capital of Siberia. Its rapid rise shows in the grand Soviet avenues of the centre, where Krasny Prospekt runs past Lenin Square and the vast domed Opera and Ballet Theatre.

The city has a surprisingly rich cultural life, with theatres, a philharmonic, good museums and one of the largest zoos in the country. Older layers survive too: the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the city's first stone building, and the small Chapel of St Nicholas, rebuilt on the spot once said to mark the centre of the Russian Empire.

South of the centre lies Akademgorodok, the science town founded in the 1950s among pine forests, next to the huge Ob Sea reservoir with its summer beaches and an open-air railway museum. Winters are long and very cold, summers short and warm, and the city is a natural stop on a Trans-Siberian journey or a gateway to the Altai mountains.

Best seasonJune to August for warm weather; December to February for a true Siberian winter

Ideal stay2-3 days

ArrivingTolmachevo Airport west of the city; Novosibirsk-Glavny station on the Trans-Siberian Railway

12 Ways to Experience Novosibirsk

Arts 1

Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre

Crowned by a huge silver dome, this theatre on Lenin Square is the largest theatre building in Russia and the cultural symbol of N...

Landmarks 1

Lenin Square Novosibirsk

The central square of Novosibirsk is framed by the Opera and Ballet Theatre and Soviet-era buildings, with a large monument to Len...

Temples and Shrines 3

Chapel of St. Nicholas Novosibirsk

Standing in the middle of Krasny Prospekt, this small, brightly painted chapel was first built in 1915 on a spot then said to be t...

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral Novosibirsk

Completed at the end of the 19th century for the railway builders' settlement, this red-brick cathedral near the Ob River was the...

Ascension Cathedral Novosibirsk

The main Orthodox cathedral of the city stands a little away from the busiest streets, recognisable by its clusters of blue domes...

Museums 2

Novosibirsk State Museum of Local History

The regional museum occupies a handsome historic trade building on Krasny Prospekt and covers the nature, archaeology and history...

Novosibirsk Museum of Railway Technology

In the south of the city near the Ob Sea, this open-air museum gathers dozens of steam, diesel and electric locomotives, carriages...

Family 1

Novosibirsk Zoo

Set in a forested area within the city, Novosibirsk Zoo is one of the largest in Russia, with a big collection of animals and a st...

Neighborhoods 1

Akademgorodok

Founded in the late 1950s as the Siberian centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Akademgorodok is a leafy town of research inst...

Nature 1

Ob Sea

The Ob Sea is a vast reservoir created by the dam of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric station on the Ob River, stretching far to the...

Parks 2

Mikhailovskaya Embankment

This renovated riverside promenade follows the right bank of the Ob River near the railway bridge, close to the Alexander Nevsky C...

Central Siberian Botanical Garden

Run by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences near Akademgorodok, this large botanical garden combines collections...

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Photo: Novosibirsk travel on Al-Ashraf, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: К.Артём.1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

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