Yeniseysk Old Town

Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 and for a century was the centre of the Siberian fur trade, the collection point for sable coming out of the taiga and the base for expeditions east. It had a large fair, dozens of merchant houses and a great many churches for a town of its size. Then the trade moved on, the Trans-Siberian railway went through Krasnoyarsk instead, and it stopped. What remains is a small town of about eighteen thousand with an eighteenth-century centre out of proportion to it: the Spassky monastery, the Assumption church, the Trinity church, merchant houses in brick along the river, and a large amount of restoration done for the town's four hundredth anniversary in 2019, which has fixed some buildings and left others waiting. The Yenisei here is very wide, and the town sits low along it.

What you actually see

• The fur trade centre - the collection point for Siberian sable in the seventeenth century.
• The eighteenth-century churches - more of them than a town this size would build now.
• The merchant houses - brick fronts along the river from the wealthy period.
• The Yenisei - a very wide river with the low town strung along it.

When to go

June to September. Half a day in the town. It is about five hours by road from Krasnoyarsk.

Honest expectations

Restoration is uneven and several churches remain shells. Museums keep short hours. The town has few places to eat and limited accommodation. Getting there is a long drive with nothing in between, and winter closes much of it.

Nearby

The Yenisei runs north towards Turukhansk; Lesosibirsk is the nearest larger town.