3 Days in Yekaterinburg: Plotinka, Constructivism & Ural Day Trips

Three full days give you enough time to walk every historic quarter around the City Pond, explore both Imperial Romanov landmarks and 1930s Constructivist architecture, and venture into the Middle Urals for a half-day or full-day excursion. All city stops on Days 1 and 2 connect on foot or via the Yekaterinburg Metro and tram network.

Day 1: Plotinka, Sevastyanov's House & Voznesenskaya Hill

1. Morning at Plotinka and Historic Square: Begin at the 1723 Plotinka dam on Lenin Avenue. Inspect the late-1890s hexagonal Water Tower, walk through the open-air Ural Mineral Garden of rhodonite and jasper boulders, and visit the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts to see the 1900 cast-iron Kasli Pavilion.
2. Midday along the Eastern Embankment and Voznesenskaya Hill: Cross Lenin Avenue to admire the 1866 corner rotunda of Sevastyanov's House (35 Lenin Avenue), then stroll through the wooden estates of the Literary Quarter up to the five-domed Church on the Blood and the 1794 to 1824 Rastorguyev-Kharitonov Palace with its 9-hectare English garden and island rotunda.
3. Afternoon & Evening on Vysotsky and Vaynera Street: Walk past the 1912 Opera and Ballet Theatre to the 54-storey Vysotsky skyscraper for sunset views from its 52nd-floor open-air deck at 186 metres, then finish with Ural pelmeni and shangi along pedestrian Vaynera Street near 1905 Square.

Day 2: Constructivist Icons, Shigir Idol & the Yeltsin Center

1. Morning at Gorodok Chekistov and the White Tower: Start at Gorodok Chekistov (69 Lenin Avenue) to see the 1934 semicircular Hotel Iset and visit the Museum of History and Archaeology of the Urals inside the former Dzerzhinsky Club (home to the 12,000-year-old wooden Shigir Idol). Afterward, ride the Metro north from Dinamo to Uralmash to see Moisei Reisher's 1929 to 1931 reinforced-concrete White Tower.
2. Afternoon at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center: Return to the western bank of the City Pond (3 Boris Yeltsin Street) to tour the nine halls of the Boris Yeltsin Museum next to the 209-metre Iset Tower, or take a tram east to the 300-million-year-old granite Shartash Stone Tents.

Day 3: Ganina Yama, Europe-Asia Border or Nevyansk

Spend your third morning visiting the seven wooden churches of Ganina Yama Monastery (15 kilometres north of the city in the Four Brothers forest tract) paired with the Europe-Asia border monument on the Novo-Moskovsky Trakt, or catch a morning train from Yekaterinburg-Passazhirsky Station 97 kilometres north to climb the 57.5-metre Leaning Tower of Nevyansk, test the acoustics of its fourth-floor Whispering Room, and hear its 1730 Richard Phelps musical carillon clock.