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Yoshkar-Ola is the capital of the Mari El Republic in Russia, on the Malaya Kokshaga River, and it is famous for its new riverside centre built in Flemish, Venetian and old Russian styles, with clock towers, a brick kremlin and the Bruges Embankment. About 281,000 people live in the city, whose Mari name means red city.
The town began in 1584 as a fortress founded on the orders of Tsar Feodor Ivanovich on the lands of the Mari people, and it was called Tsarevokokshaysk until 1919. The old wooden fort stood until 1696. Among the oldest buildings that survive are the merchant Pchelin's house of 1756 and the Ascension Church beside it.
From 2007 the centre was rebuilt with new squares, embankments and a cathedral, which earned the city the nickname a piece of Europe in the middle of Russia. Visitors stroll along the river, wait for the moving figures on the clocks, visit the National Museum and the opera house, and drive out to the lakes and forests of Mari Chodra National Park.
The Bruges Embankment in Yoshkar-Ola is a row of buildings on the Malaya Kokshaga River, opened in 2010 and named after Bruges in Belgium. Its houses of coloured brick have stepped gables, Gothic turrets, spires and sculptures, and they hold offices, flats and the Tower of Friendship of Peoples.
Patriarch Square in Yoshkar-Ola lies on the river beside the Bruges Embankment and is overlooked by a tall striped clock tower. A bronze statue of Patriarch Alexy II was unveiled here in 2010, and Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom stand at the head of a fountain with a bronze boat.
Obolensky-Nogotkov Square in Yoshkar-Ola opened in 2007 in a Venetian style and has a statue of the city's first governor on horseback. A half-size copy of the Tsar Cannon stands here, and each hour a donkey figure on the gallery clock carries an icon of the Mother of God.
Voskresenskaya Embankment in Yoshkar-Ola runs along the right bank of the Malaya Kokshaga River. A statue of Pushkin on a bench beside Eugene Onegin was unveiled here in 2011, Gogol stands nearby, and house No. 40 is the merchant Karelin's house of the mid-18th century.
The Tsarevokokshaysk Kremlin in Yoshkar-Ola is a red-brick complex built in 2009 on the site of the town's first fortress of 1584. It has four towers, three gateways, a three-tier chapel with a tent roof and a display of old cannons, and its yard is used for fairs, festivals and concerts.
The Annunciation Cathedral in Yoshkar-Ola was built in 2010 to 2014 by the river and consecrated by Patriarch Kirill in 2016. Modelled on the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood in Saint Petersburg, it is 74 metres high, has five domes and mosaic panels, and holds 2,000 people.
The Ascension Cathedral in Yoshkar-Ola is one of the oldest buildings in the city, built in the 1750s with money from the merchant Ivan Pchelin, whose house still stands next door. It was the main cathedral of the diocese from 1993 to 2016 and is protected as a monument of federal importance.
The Annunciation Tower is the 55-metre main tower of the riverside complex on the Square of the Republic and the Holy Virgin Mary in Yoshkar-Ola, built in 2007. Its clock is a smaller copy of the Kremlin chimes in Moscow, and its third floor holds the Bashnya centre of modern art and photography.
The National Museum of Mari El in Yoshkar-Ola opened on 3 April 1920 and is named after the ethnographer Timofey Yevseyev. It was the first museum in Russia to be called national, and in a building of 1903 on Sovetskaya Street it shows Mari history and folk life from over 233,000 items.
The National Art Gallery in Yoshkar-Ola opened on 4 November 2007 in a Renaissance-style building with a clock tower on Obolensky-Nogotkov Square. It shows works by artists of Mari El and hosts visiting shows, which have included Salvador Dali, Zurab Tsereteli and amber from Kaliningrad.
The Mari Opera and Ballet Theatre in Yoshkar-Ola opened in 1969 with Akpatyr, the first Mari opera, by the composer Eric Sapaev, whose name it has carried since 1994. The first Mari ballet, Forest Legend, followed in 1973, and the Bolshoi dancer Konstantin Ivanov took over its ballet in 1999.
Mari Chodra National Park lies about 60 km from Yoshkar-Ola and was set up in 1985 to protect 366 square km of forest, home to about 50 plant species rare in Mari El. Visitors swim in karst lakes such as Yalchik, follow the Ilet River and walk to Pugachev's Oak and Maple Mountain.
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