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Round Tower
Other relics of Vyborg’s Swedish times are found in the squat Round Tower , which now houses a restaurant; the Pantserlaks Bastion , dating from 1574, which contains a gallery; the City Hall Tower , which looks like it’s crowned with a giant metallic wizard’s hat.
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Church of the White Trinity
Amid a quaint neighbourhood of old wooden houses with carved eaves and window frames, west of the market on ul Bragina, you’ll find Tver’s oldest building, a stately stone church dating from 1564 that miraculously escaped the usual fate during the Soviet years.
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Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism
A humble Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism stands in the little garden southeast of the notorious Lubyanka Prison. This single stone slab comes from the territory of an infamous 1930s labour camp situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.
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Museum of Oppression
The tiny and obviously underfunded Museum of Oppression has touching dog-eared photographs of those who disappeared in the Stalin years. Across the grass is the chest-puffing statue of a Nepokorenny (‘undefeated’) Aldan Maadyr martyr in his pointy slippers.
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Levitan House Museum
Works by the master and his disciples are displayed against the background of the Volga. The artist moved to this dacha from a poor potter’s hut when money from sold paintings started trickling in. Walk down ul Kalashnaya, turn right and follow the embankment.
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SV Nikolai
Permanently docked below an ugly brown-concrete exhibition centre (formerly the Lenin Museum) is the SV Nikolai, the ship that transported future Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich to exile in Shushenskoe and the future Tsar Nikolai II across the Yenisey in 1891.
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Wooden
Rapacious redevelopment has destroyed much of Barnaul’s older architecture. Nonetheless, centuries-old remnants are dotted between the shopping malls. A few splendid examples include those at ulitsa Korolenko 96 , ulitsa Pushkina 80 and ulitsa Polzunova 31 and 48 .
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Landscape Museum
See how the same landscapes inspire contemporary artists in this museum at the far end of the embankment. Nearby, a bronze Chekhovian lady examines the environs through the empty frame of an easel. Head down ul Kalashnaya, turn right and follow the embankment.
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Chapel
Nearby, the resplendent Chapel-at-the-Well was built over a spring that is said to have appeared during the Polish siege. The five-tier baroque bell tower took 30 years to build in the 18th century, and once had 42 bells, the largest of which weighed 65 tonnes.
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Museum of Fire Fighting in Simbirsk
This excellent museum traces the history of firefighting in Simbirsk and modern Ulyanovsk. The towns most serious fire was in 1864, ushering in the era of brick-and-concrete construction. Highlights are a firefighting motorcycle from the 1980s and a truck from 1938.
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Ulan
Occupying the merchant’s house where imperial heir Nicholas II stayed in 1891, this small museum has exhibits examining Verkhneudinsk’s role in the tea and fur trades, the huge fairs that took place at the trading arches and several other aspects of the city’s past.
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Kozlova Zaseka
This ye olde train station was where Tolstoy set off for his final journey in 1910. It’s now maintained as a one-room museum by a charming bunch of ladies. To get here from where the Tula bus stops on the main road, walk 3.5km in the opposite direction to Yasnaya Polyana.
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St Alexey of Akatov Women’s Monastery
This restored nunnery, founded in 1674, is near the river on lovely grounds, which include a tiny graveyard surrounded by colourful, lopsided cottages. The interior of the church is covered entirely with frescoes. If youre lucky, youll catch the nuns choir in action.
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Nikolsky Monastery
This attractive walled complex dates to the 12th century and is still in the process of being rebuilt following its decommissioning during the Soviet years. The main church and bell tower now look quite handsome. Nearby is a pontoon from which you can swim in the river.
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Petri Shemeikka
Those interested in the Kalevala epic poem will want to pay their respects to the kantele -plucking statue of Karelian rune singer Petri Shemeikka that sits in a leafy square. Though he was Finnish, the Kalevala is central to the spiritual history of Russian Karelia also.
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Shaman Rocks
A short walk north of Nikita’s, the unmistakable Shaman Rocks are neither huge nor spectacular, but they have become the archetypal Baikal vista found on postcards and travel-guide covers. A long strip of sandy beach lines the Maloe More (Little Sea) east of the rocks.
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Memorials
Just northwest of the river terminal is the impressive WWII memorial , which features stoic faces chipped from stone, with nearby pillars marking the years of WWII. Other memorials include a garbage-strewn sculpture park dedicated to Gulag victims (near pr Lenina 1).
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Victory Memorial
Kursks Arc de Triomphe dominates the northern entrance to the city. The soaring arch is surrounded by military paraphenalia including tanks and heavy artillery from WWII; theres also an eternal flame and a memorial to those who died on the submarine Kursk in 2000.
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Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady
Legend has it that St Anthony took just three days to sail down Europe’s rivers from Italy to Novgorod on a rock in 1106. You can view the supposed boulder – which apprently has healing properties – at the entrance to this church on the grounds of the Antoniev Monastery.
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Lovers Bridge
A short walk from the monastery on the way back into town, Lovers Bridge is a local landmark covered in appropriately romantic graffiti. Some guy called Sasha had just declared his everlasting love for a certain Katya when we were in town (the paint was still wet!).
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