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Orenburg is the capital of Orenburg Oblast in southern Russia, on the banks of the Ural River close to the border with Kazakhstan. The Ural forms the boundary between Europe and Asia here, so the city stands with one foot on each continent.
Orenburg was founded as a frontier fortress, and the town took its final place and name in 1743. It became a key center for trade with the Kazakh steppe and Central Asia, Pushkin came here in 1833 to research the Pugachev rebellion, and from 1920 to 1925 it was the first capital of the Kazakh republic. Between 1938 and 1957 it was called Chkalov.
Today visitors stroll the pedestrian Sovetskaya Street to the Belovka boulevard above the river and cross the bridge from Europe to Asia. The city has a striking Bashkir caravanserai, an old trading court, good museums, and the famous Orenburg shawls knitted from fine goat down.
Sovetskaya Street is the main tourist street of Orenburg, laid out in the mid-18th century inside the walls of the old fortress. Its first 1.45 kilometers, from the Belovka boulevard on the Ural, have been pedestrian since 2000 and are lined with a drama theater, museums and a library.
Belovka, also called Pushkin Boulevard, is the promenade along the steep bank of the Ural River in the historic heart of Orenburg. It is named after the merchant Belov, whose cafe once drew crowds here for evening music, and it is framed by buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Orenburg Gostiny Dvor is a classical trading court on the main street, built in the 19th century to serve the city's trade with the peoples of Asia. Its blank outer walls hid some 150 shops that all opened onto the inner courtyard, reached through gates on all four sides.
The Orenburg Caravanserai is a historic complex built in 1837-1846 for the Bashkir troops and their visitors, with offices, a hostel and a school. Designed by architect Alexander Bryullov in the manner of a Bashkir village, its centerpiece is an elegant octagonal mosque.
The footbridge across the Ural River in Orenburg links the city center with the far bank, and since the Ural marks the boundary of Europe and Asia here, a short walk takes you from one continent to the other. The crossing also gives fine views along the wide river.
The Chkalov Monument on the Belovka boulevard in Orenburg is a six-meter bronze statue of the Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov on a seven-meter pedestal, set up in 1954 for his 50th birthday. From 1938 to 1957 the city itself was named Chkalov, though the pilot never actually visited Orenburg.
Salute, Victory! is an open-air museum in Orenburg, opened on 6 May 2005 for the 60th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Second World War. Set in the old Frunze park, it displays tanks, armored cars and wartime trucks beside monuments to heroes, and is a branch of the regional museum.
Orenburg is famous across Russia for its downy shawls, knitted by hand from fine goat down on a thread base. The craft began here in the 18th century, and the finest lace shawls and cobweb-like kerchiefs are so light and thin that they are counted among the traditional symbols of Russia.
St. Nicholas Cathedral is the main cathedral of Orenburg, a stone church founded in 1883 by the Cossacks of the Orenburg stanitsa and consecrated in 1886. Closed in 1936 but never destroyed, it reopened in 1944, and it keeps the revered Tabyn icon of the Mother of God.
The Orenburg Governor's Museum of History and Local Lore was founded on 24 November 1830 by order of the military governor Count Pavel Suchtelen, and it was given the title of Governor's museum in 2012. Its building began as a private house of the 1830s, in the time of governor Vasily Perovsky.
The Orenburg Fine Arts Museum is housed in a building of 1814 by architect M. P. Malakhov that once held the city council and town magistrate. Run as a museum since the 1960s, its collection includes paintings by Lukian Popov, who lived and worked in Orenburg, and works from the Tretyakov Gallery.
The Museum of Orenburg History occupies a mid-19th century building of federal importance in Orenburg. Opened in 1983 and independent since 1989, it tells of the city's founding, the Pugachev rebellion, Pushkin's visit and daily life in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
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