Yekaterinburg offers two distinct themes for planning a trip: Lake Shartash and Shartash Forest Park lie to the east, while museums explore the city’s history from the fortress factory to the 1990s. You can explore nature and culture according to your own interests.

Lake Shartash and the forest park in the east

Shartash Forest Park and Lake Shartash lie in eastern Yekaterinburg. Together, they form a nature reserve of regional significance. The lake is also designated a natural monument.

According to scientists, Lake Shartash formed more than a million years ago. Most of the pine trees in the forest park are more than 120 years old. These are two different timescales: one age estimate refers to the lake’s formation, the other to the trees in the park.

City history in exhibitions and museums

At the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg, the exhibition “Nebesnyy kod Yekaterinburga. Klyuch k prochteniyu” features original 18th-century maps, plans and drawings, as well as a multimedia book. These materials illustrate how the city’s outlines, streets and building facades have changed. The exhibition also tells the story of the factory’s construction and everyday life at Yekaterinburg’s fortress factory. In this way, architectural changes and factory history are presented side by side.

Another exhibition in the permanent collection, “Yekaterinburg: ot zavoda k gorodu,” covers the city’s history from the granting of city status in 1781 to 1917, as well as the period of all-Russian reforms that significantly influenced its history. Its timeframe differs from the focus on maps, streets and facades in the exhibition “Nebesnyy kod Yekaterinburga. Klyuch k prochteniyu.”

The Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg’s locations include the Water Tower at Plotinka in the historic center, at 4v Gor’kogo Street. The Dom Metenkova Photography Museum at 15 Turgenev Street is also one of the museum’s locations. These places provide different settings for the city’s history, but they do not necessarily represent the same period or subject.

The Boris Yeltsin Museum focuses on the history of the 1990s. Documents, photographs and artifacts, as well as media programs and interactive information panels, present this period. A topic from the recent past thus complements the exhibitions on the city’s earlier history and industrial past.

Explore the city on foot

The nine-kilometer “Krasnaya liniya” walking route is marked on the pavement and is suitable for independent walks to Yekaterinburg’s main attractions. Unlike a museum visit, it does not focus on a single historical theme, but offers a marked route for exploring on foot. Its stated length gives you a practical reference when choosing a route.

Regional routes in Sverdlovsk Oblast

For a perspective beyond Yekaterinburg, the wider destination of Sverdlovsk Oblast offers approved road tourism routes. These include the Demidov Route between Yekaterinburg, Nevyansk and Nizhny Tagil. Another approved route, “Discover the Urals: Nature, History, Legends,” runs between Yekaterinburg, Irbit, Turinsk and Tavda. Both are regional road tourism routes, making them a different level of trip planning from local museums, attractions and walks.

The list of approved routes was published in 2026. Check route information before setting off.

Discover more destinations: Troitskiy, Kushva, Kadnikovo, Reftinsky, Belokamennyy, Berezovsky, Monetnyy, Kirovgrad

To the wider travel overview: Sverdlovsk Oblast.