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Voronezh is the capital of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia, a city of more than a million people on the Voronezh River, about 12 kilometers above the point where it flows into the Don. A wide reservoir now divides the city into its two banks, and the old center sits on the high right bank.
A Russian fort was founded here in 1586 to guard the southern frontier against raids from the steppe. More than a century later Peter the Great built shipyards in Voronezh, and the Azov fleet built here from 1696 was the first regular navy of Russia. In the Second World War the city saw heavy fighting and much of it had to be rebuilt.
Today Voronezh honors its shipbuilding past with a full-size copy of Peter's first ship of the line moored by Admiralty Square. Its main avenue keeps fine 18th and 19th century buildings, and the city has a huge new cathedral, good art and history museums, and one of the oldest theaters in Russia.
The Goto Predestinatsia Ship Museum in Voronezh is a full-size copy of Russia's first ship of the line, opened in 2014 by Admiralty Square. The 58-gun original was launched here in 1700 to a design by Peter the Great and was built by Russian shipwrights without help from foreign experts.
Admiralty Square lies on the Petrovskaya Embankment in Voronezh, near the site where Peter the Great built his first fleet. It was opened in 1996 for the 300th anniversary of the Russian navy, with a rostral column and a triumphal arch, and it hosts public festivities and holiday concerts.
The Assumption Admiralty Church on Admiralty Square is the oldest surviving church in Voronezh, with a five-domed core dating from the 17th century. A church of the Assumption has stood on this riverside site since the town's early years, and a classical refectory and bell tower were added later.
The Peter the Great Monument stands in Petrovsky Square in the center of Voronezh, showing the tsar leaning on an anchor in memory of the fleet he built here. First unveiled in 1860, the statue was taken away during the war and recast in 1956 on its surviving granite pedestal.
Revolution Avenue is the main street of Voronezh, a 2.3-kilometer avenue once called Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya, laid out under a town plan of 1774. It is lined with 18th and 19th century buildings, including a palace of the late 18th century and the house where the writer Ivan Bunin was born.
The Stone Bridge in Voronezh is a small humpbacked brick bridge built in 1826, where Karl Marx Street crosses over Chernyshevsky Street. It is a beloved city mascot, and newlyweds come here on their wedding day to hang padlocks with their names on its railings for a long and happy marriage.
The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh is one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world, rising 97 meters at its highest point. Built in 1998-2009 in Russo-Byzantine style, it holds up to 6,000 people, and a bronze monument to Saint Mitrofan, the city's first bishop, stands in front.
The Alekseevo-Akatov Monastery is a convent in Voronezh and one of the oldest monasteries in the region. It grew from a church founded to give thanks after the town withstood a siege by Polish and Lithuanian forces in 1617, and it is named after Saint Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow.
The Kramskoi Regional Art Museum is the main art museum of Voronezh, set in a Baroque palace built in 1777-1779 for the provincial governor. Its more than 22,000 items range from an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus and Greek and Roman art to Russian icons and paintings by Ivan Kramskoi.
The Voronezh Regional Museum of Local Lore is one of the leading museums of Voronezh, first opened as a provincial museum in 1894. Its collection of more than 170,000 items includes ethnography, coins and medals, porcelain, old weapons and rare books that tell the long story of the region.
The Koltsov Drama Theatre in Voronezh is one of the oldest theaters in Russia, founded in 1787 and named after the poet Aleksey Koltsov, a native of the city. Its building was destroyed by bombing in 1942 and rebuilt in 1947, and it still stages classic and modern Russian plays.
The Voronezh Opera and Ballet Theatre stands on Lenin Square in the center of the city. It began in 1931 as a musical comedy theater, traces its modern history to 1961 and has carried its present name since 1968, with a repertoire of classic operas, ballets and operettas.
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