Yoshkar-Ola Embankment

Between roughly 2007 and 2013 the regional administration rebuilt the centre of Yoshkar-Ola along the Malaya Kokshaga in a manner that has no local precedent whatever: a row of stepped-gable brick facades copied from Bruges and Amsterdam on one bank, a stretch of red wall with towers copying the Moscow Kremlin on the other, a copy of the Doge's Palace housing the ministry of the interior, and a scatter of monuments including Grace Kelly and Rainier of Monaco, an Italian bridge and a large clock from which figures of a donkey carrying an icon emerge on the hour. Behind the facades are ordinary buildings. Local opinion is split between pride and embarrassment, and outside architects have been blunt about it. It is genuinely strange to walk, photographs well, and is the reason most visitors stop in a city that otherwise has the Mari national museum and not much else on the tourist route.

What you actually see

• The Flemish facades - stepped gables copied from Bruges along the river.
• The Kremlin wall - a red brick copy of Moscow's wall on the opposite bank.
• The donkey clock - figures emerging on the hour from a large mechanical clock.
• The monuments - an assortment including Grace Kelly and Rainier of Monaco.

When to go

May to September. Two hours; the clock figures appear on the hour.

Honest expectations

Everything here is new construction in borrowed styles, and nothing is historic. Building quality has been criticised and some sections show wear already. Behind the facades the city is ordinary. There is little else for a visitor beyond the national museum.

Nearby

The Mari national museum is in the centre; Kazan is about two and a half hours south.