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Perm is the capital of Perm Krai, a city of more than a million people on the banks of the wide Kama River, on the western edge of the Ural Mountains. It is one of the main industrial and cultural centers of the Urals, and the Permian period of geology takes its name from the region.
The city grew from a copper works founded in 1723 at the village of Yagoshikha, and it received city status and the name Perm in 1781. Standing on the Kama and on the old Siberian Route, it became a trading and manufacturing town. From 1940 to 1957 it was called Molotov.
Today Perm is known for its opera and ballet theater, which has staged every opera and ballet by Tchaikovsky, and for the family home of the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Visitors walk the tree-lined Komsomolsky Prospekt, see the old cathedrals above the Kama, and take photos at the famous Happiness sign by the river.
Happiness Is Not Far is a large art object of giant letters standing on the parapet of the Kama embankment in Perm, near the River Station. Created by artist Boris Matrosov and set up here in 2009, it became famous through films and television and is now one of the best-loved symbols of the city.
The Transfiguration Cathedral stands at the head of Komsomolsky Prospekt in Perm, and its tall bell tower rises above the Kama embankment. Built in 1793-1832, it is the city's largest church, held the Perm Art Gallery from 1932 to 2023, and on 31 December 2023 saw its first service in 90 years.
The Peter and Paul Cathedral in Perm is one of the first stone buildings of the city, built between 1757 and 1764 in a provincial Baroque style. It stands at the start of Petropavlovskaya Street, near the place where the town first grew up around the copper works, and became a cathedral in 1781.
Komsomolsky Prospekt is one of the main streets of Perm, running 3.6 kilometers from the cathedral on the Kama into the city. Locals call it Kompros, and its most striking feature is a long pedestrian alley in the middle, set between two rows of trees and an iron fence, ideal for a slow city walk.
The Gribushin House is a richly decorated mansion on Lenin Street in Perm, built in 1895-1897 by the local architect Alexander Turchevich. It mixes Baroque forms with Art Nouveau details and is named after the merchant Sergei Gribushin, who bought and rebuilt it in 1905 and lived here until 1915.
The Diaghilev House on Sibirskaya Street in Perm is the mansion where the impresario Sergei Diaghilev spent his childhood and youth. Built in 1852 and bought by his grandfather in 1862, it was known as the Athens of Perm for its musical evenings, and it now houses a gymnasium named after him.
The Perm Regional Museum is the oldest and largest museum of the Perm region, founded in 1890 and holding some 600,000 items. Since 2009 its main displays have been in the restored Meshkov House, a classical mansion first built in 1820 and later rebuilt for the merchant Nikolai Meshkov.
The Perm Planetarium is a domed star theater in the Motovilikha district of Perm, beside the Parade of Planets square near the Northern Dam. Its own building opened in 1967, and its round hall, 12 meters across under a 10-meter dome, was built to show the night sky to 140 visitors.
The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of Russia's oldest musical theaters, first opened in 1870, and its main building dates from 1874-1879. It is the only Russian theater to have staged all of Tchaikovsky's stage works, its ballet troupe is famous, and it began the Diaghilev Festival.
The Perm Theatre-Theatre is the city's main drama theater, founded in 1927 and housed since 1981 in a large modern building on the Esplanade. Known until 2007 as the Perm Drama Theatre, it stages plays, musicals, ballet and bold experimental productions on two stages throughout the season.
The U Mosta Theatre is a small independent theater in Perm, founded in 1988 by director Sergei Fedotov. Billed as the only mystical theater in the world and ranked by Forbes among Russia's ten best, it has won the Golden Mask award and toured widely in Europe and Asia.
The Esplanade is the open square in the center of Perm, between Lenin and Petropavlovskaya streets, from the Theatre-Theatre to the regional parliament. Laid out in the 1960s and 1970s, it is a popular open space for walks, and a monument to the heroes of the front and the rear stands at its heart.
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