50 kilometers from Izhevsk, on the banks of a huge and very picturesque pond, Votkinsk is located. The sights of this small town are very interesting and worthy of attention. After all, it was here that world-class musical genius was born and grew up - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Votkinsk: the face of the city
The history of Votkinsk as a whole is quite typical for the cities of the Ural region. In the middle of the XVIII century, Empress Elizabeth signed a decree on the construction of a metallurgical plant (or, as they said then, an ironworks) here. The enterprise on the banks of the Votka River was already built in 1759. Soon a town grew nearby, which got its name from the local watercourse.
Today, about 100 thousand inhabitants live in Votkinsk. The city is part of the Republic of Udmurtia. Votkinsk is a city with a very motley ethnic structure of the population. Here Russians, Tatars, Udmurts and representatives of at least forty other nationalities coexist peacefully.
The climate in Votkinsk is quite severe. On the other hand, there is great ecology. Thanks to green spaces and forests, the air in the city is very clean.
Several dozens of industrial enterprises operate in Votkinsk. But the main city-forming is Votkinsk Plant. Every fourth able-bodied resident of the city works at this enterprise. By the way, one of the products manufactured at this plant is the Topol-M intercontinental missile.
How can the city of Votkinsk surprise tourists and local historians? Attractions are also present here. First of all, travelers go here to visit the house where the great composer Tchaikovsky was born.
Votkinsk: attractions. Photo and list of tourist sites of the city
“The Nutcracker”, “Ondine”, “Swan Lake” - it is difficult to find a person who would not hear about these immortal musical works. And the surname of the author of these works is familiar, perhaps, to everyone. But the small homeland of Pyotr Tchaikovsky is precisely Votkinsk.
The sights of the city are not limited to objects related to the life and work of an outstanding composer. There is still a lot of interesting and remarkable!
So, let's try to list the main attractions of the city of Votkinsk. Here they are:
- House-Museum named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
- The city embankment and the dam of the Votkinsk "sea".
- National Museum of Local Lore.
- Annunciation Cathedral of the beginning of the XIX century.
- Panteleimon Church (end of the 19th century).
- The old (Nikolaev) building of the Votkinsk plant.
- Monument to the poet and musician Vladimir Vysotsky (opened in 2016).
Worthy of attention and study is the pre-revolutionary low-rise building of Votkinsk. Dozens of pretty brick and wooden houses will surely impress fans of traditional Russian architecture. In addition, most of the historic buildings of the city are in a decent and quite presentable form.
It will be difficult to describe in detail all the attractions of Votkinsk in this article. But we will certainly get to know the most interesting of them later.
Tchaikovsky House Museum
A modest two-story yellow house on the banks of the Votkinsk pond - it was here that in 1840 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born - a Russian composer, conductor and critic. The man who left a very significant mark in the global musical culture.
Tchaikovsky’s father was the director of a local ironworks. And he, by the way, was not happy about his son's interest in music. Ilya Petrovich saw him in the future as a famous lawyer or official. True, when the young Tchaikovsky fled from the Ministry of Justice to the conservatory, the father did not put his son in the wheel of a stick.
Alas, only the central house of the Tchaikovsky estate has survived. The remaining buildings of the estate were recreated in our time. This is a carriage yard, a greenhouse, a gazebo with a colonnade, a vegetable pit and other structures.
Museum-estate named after P.I. Tchaikovsky is the most popular tourist attraction in the city. Tens of thousands of tourists visit it annually. The museum presents photographs, documents, as well as personal items belonging to the Tchaikovsky family. The estate regularly hosts theatrical shows and music festivals.
Embankment and city monuments
Votkinskaya embankment starts from the Tchaikovsky house and stretches for almost 3 kilometers along the pond. At the beginning of the embankment in 1990, a very organic monument to Peter Tchaikovsky was erected. They say that the composer madly liked the landscapes of his native Votkinsk. It is possible that the prototype of his "Swan Lake" was precisely the local pond.
If you go a little further along the promenade, you can see another famous city monument. This is a huge 167-pound anchor. And it is no coincidence here, because at the local plant, anchors began to be produced back in 1837.
Five hundred meters from the giant anchor is the Votkinsk dam. This unique monument of architecture and engineering is the same age as the city itself. The dam was built in 1759.
There are other monuments on the streets of the city. For example, in 2016, a bronze sculpture of Vysotsky was inaugurated in a park near the Yubileiny Palace of Culture. And on the central square of Votkinsk since 1958 there is a miniature V.I. Lenin. True, against the background of the massive Annunciation Cathedral, the tiny figure of the “leader” looks a little ridiculous.
Orthodox shrines of the city
What else is interesting in Votkinsk? The sights of the city are not only museums and monuments, but also its magnificent temples.
In the historical center of Votkinsk, the Annunciation Cathedral rises. It was built in 1819. Snow-white columns on the facades, in combination with a high pointed bell tower look very solemn and majestic. It was in this cathedral in 1840 that Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was baptized.
A little further south is another shrine of the city - Transfiguration Church. The church was initially wooden. But until our time she did not live - the Pugachevites burned the temple when the city was captured. In the 19th century, the church was recreated in stone.
Finally…
The main attractions of Votkinsk are, of course, the P.I. Tchaikovsky, city embankment and monuments on it. A pleasant addition to this list will be the expositions of the local museum of local lore, beautiful Orthodox churches of the city and nice old buildings in the center. Therefore, it is better for a tourist to come to Votkinsk for the whole day to have time to visit all the interesting objects and places of this city.