We start our trip at 21 Gorkogo street (ulitsa Gorkogo, Rus. улица Горького), the Residence of Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, and go east along Prospekt Lenina (Rus. проспект Ленина) past the House of Trade Unions, one of the most beautiful estates of Ekaterinburg's historic center.

Originally, it was built for a rich merchant Nykolay Sevastyanov.

Nykolay Sevastyanov was believed to be very rich. People used to tell stories about how he asked for Russian Tsar’s permission to cover the roof of his mansion with gold.

The Sevastyanov's House - beautiful and very picturesque estate that was built in Gothic style

Later the estate was rebuilt by architect Aleksandr Paduchev who used many European styles. Today the Regional Trade Union center has occupied the estate (35 Prospekt Lenina).

Now we head east, to the Museum of History of Stone-Cutting and Jeweler’s Art, at 37 Prospekt Lenina. The museum is located at the historical centre of Ekaterinburg - in the building of a former mining drugstore - an architectural monument of early XIXth century.

Among exhibits are precious stones - malachite, jasper, and marble that were made in the XIXth century at the Ekaterinburg lapidary factory where stones were cut & polished.

Let's go further - our next stop is at the Central Post Office (39 Prospekt Lenina), a monument of architecture in the style of constructivism. Its main features are strict geometrical forms and functionality. Such a boom of constructivist architecture in Ekaterinburg resulted from the rapid growth of industry and building in the young Soviet republic, in the early 1920’s.

To the south goes Pushkina street (ulitsa Pushkina, Rus. улица Пушкина) with old houses. And we are standing next to a monument, at a plaza which used to be called Nurovsky alley, after the person who made it. Today it is called Popov public plaza (skver Popova, Rus. сквер Попова), because of the monument to the radio inventor Aleksandr Popov.

Aleksandr Popov's monument is a popular venue for students from the Ural State Technical University

To get to the Literary quarter, we go north, past the high white governmental building referred to as the Center of Documentation of Community Organizations of Sverdlovsk region.

At the corner of Popov public plaza and Pochtovy Pereulok (Rus. переулок Почтовый) is the Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, the Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. Before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the first Ekaterinburg city telephone station was located in this house.

We go northward. At 27 Pushkina street is a museum-house of a famous Ural writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak. The writer bought this house for his mother on the money he had earned from the novel The Privalov Fortune (Privalovskiye milliony, Rus. Приваловские миллионы), a story about life in Ural in the XIXth century.

In the museum you are back in the XIXth century. Visitors can see writer’s possessions and household items.

Monument to the great Russian poet Alexandr Pushkin located near the Literary quarter

From here you can take a short stroll to the museum-house of the Ural writer Fyodor Reshetnikov at 6 Proletarskaya street (ulitsa Proletarskaya, Rus. улица Пролетарская), in the west corner of the Literary quarter.

Fyodor Reshetnikov was born in 1841 in the family of a postman. Among the exhibits of the museum are kitchen utensils, a Russian stove, wooden benches and trunks, a long table in the coachman’s room, winter sleds, postman’s uniform, and a postman’s cab of the XIXth century.

Across the road, at 3 Proletarskaya street, you can see and visit former Zlokazov’s mansion. Fyodor Zlokazov was the owner of cloth and brewery factories.

The house is a landmark. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Red Army military tribunal worked there.

The Reshetnikov Museum - a XIX-century mansion that was turned into museum

Museum leads a busy life, hosting exhibitions, meetings with writers, literature readings, discussions over a cup of tea from the Russian samovar (a Russian urn for making tea, with an internal heating tube to keep water at boiling-point).

People come here to celebrate traditional Russian and Christian holidays - Christmas, the Pancake week, etc.

If you visit the Literary quarter in summer, you can listen to a band or drink tea with bread rings (Russian pastry, Rus. - baranki or sushki) in the coachman’s room.

A calm & cozy green area near the Chamber Theater (Little Theater)

In the Literary quarter, like in a little national park, you can enjoy the atmosphere of the old city with its old-fashioned street lamps and fences that are made of cast-iron, pavements made of solid marble plates, quiet yards with water wells, stone walls, stables and barns. You can stroll in the shady park which attracted local people 200 years ago.

In the North corner of the Literary quarter, at 18 Proletarskaya street, is the Chamber Theater (Little Theater, Kamerniy Teatr, Rus. Камерный театр).

This little, cozy theater is popular for its unique XIX-century style architecture and friendly atmosphere.

Street lamps & cast-iron decorations made in XIX-century-style

At this point you can either end the tour or take a stroll westward, to Gorkogo street (ulitsa Gorkogo, Rus. улица Горького), and enjoy the scenic view of the City pond.

To the north-west from the Literary Quarter is another landmark of the historic downtown area of the city – the Dynamo sports centre, built in the early 1930’s in the style of constructivism. The building of a ship with captain’s bridge, decks, and portholes on the stern made terrestrial Sverdlovsk looks like a port.

The Ural Literary Life Of The XXth Century Museum - the copy of a typical wooden & brick mansion of the XIXth century. On the back: the Church on the Blood.

Photo: E1.RU users 719, Leonty, Ekamag, Alexey Sokhovich-Kanarovsky; Anastasia Shamakina; The Ural Writers Museum Holding’s official web-page