Наталья Терских - Ekaterinburg: our favourite places

Ekaterinburg was founded as a town-metallurgical plant, on the banks of the Iset’ river. The name of the river comes from Bashkir language and means “full of fish”. The first building in the city was Water Tower, it is still situated on its place.

Right in the middle of the city there is a Dam built in 1723! It is made from larch, so it has never been renovated! The Dam is one the most favourite places for walking, we tenderly call it “Plotinka”.

Next to the Dam there’s a monument of fathers-founders of the city: the Generals Vasiliy Nikitich Tatishchev and William George de Gennin.

They chose the name for their new town: after Russian tsaritsa-empress Ekaterina the First. The Saint Patroness of the city is St. Ekaterina, who is also the patroness of all the skills and science. The author of the monument is Pyotr Chusovitin.

On the City Day our Fathers-Founders appear as a sculpture made of sand.

On the Northern side, the Dam makes a City Pond. Every summer on its surface an International Yacht Competition is hold; it’s a very attractive show! We can see very impressive amazing fireworks on the City Day, Victory Day and other holidays.

During summer days you can boating or sailing here. But in winter the Pong is frozen and covered with ice, and people cross it, walking on the thick ice. Schoolchildren like to ski here.

In August, on the City Birthday there is an exhibition of the sand sculptures in the place of Plotinka. For example, there’s a sand sculpture of famous Urals author, fairy-tale-teller Pavel Petrovich Bazhov.

On the Southern side of the Dam the water falls down into the river as a small lovely waterfall; this place is a historical center of the town, the place where the town was started.

Its name is Historical Skver (public garden), it is located on the both banks of the Iset’ river.

It’s a pleasure to walk here, watching huge stones – the samples of the old Urals mountains. Or you can just sit on a bench watching the flowerbeds or the river flowing slowly, and smelling the fragrance of iodine and algae.

Let’s go for a walk from the City Centre called Plotinka (Dam), through the Historical Skver (public garden), to the West Part of the city. The Iset’ river is crossed over by several picturesque bridges.

Its banks had been neglected for a long time, but during recent years they have been improving. Every part of the quay from one bridge to another has its own romantic name, sometimes not one but two.

So the left side of the river from Malyshev street to the Circus in Kuybyshev street has a name An Alley of Kisses; in the back direction it has other name: An Alley of Culture.

On the left bank of the Iset you can see a unique “Monument to Keyboard”!

“Monument to Keyboard” is a concrete monument that duplicates computer keyboard on a scale of thirty to one. It appeared in 2005 and was the only one in the world. The project was made by Urals artist Anatoliy Vyatkin.

The Monument consists of 86 keys made from concrete. Their weights are from100 to 500kg. The keys are placed in the small “caves” with 15 cm distance from each other. Total square of the project is 16 х 4 sq.m. The key surface is flat with the same letters and signs, in the same order as on a real computer keyboard.

Opposite the Keyboard, on the right bank, there’s a beautiful old dendrological park with rare sorts of plants and a big lovely fountain.

Many people like to come to that park, to feel privately with Urals calm and peaceful nature. Some of them are walking, others are sitting on the river bank under the branches of the poetical weeping willows.

The river flows on, to the largest park of our city. The park’s name is Mayakovskiy Park in honour of famous Russian Poet of 20^>th century.

In the River near the park we can see ducks and in the Park we’ll be met by funny fluffy squirrels. They like eating from your hand!