Khabarovsk, far-east Siberia

A surprisingly elegant and european town in the far east of Siberia, close to China and Japan

1. The refined elegance of
Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk, pop. 600 000, is the
largest city of the Russian Far East.

2. Хабаровск, 48.5°N 135.1°E
Khabarovsk is located at the confluence of the
Amur River with its tributary the Ussuri River.
In spite of the location
just 25 km from China, it
looks quite European with
tree-lined streets and
graceful architecture of
the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
Khabarovsk

3. Khabarovsk lies on the
right bank of the Amur
river, 40 km below the
confluence of the Amur
and Ussuri.
These two rivers form a
natural setting for a
borderline between
Russia and China.
China

4. The Amur Bridge is located 4 km from the center of Khabarovsk.
Completed in 1916, it was described then as "the Amur wonder".
The total length of the bridge is 3,5 km.

7. Downtown
Khabarovsk is
mainly a set of
paralel avenues
running down to
the Amur river,
the two most
concurred being
those that start
at the Dinamo
park and the
main square
area
The old town
and cultural
quarter looks
over the river

9. From the town´s main square, decorated with fountains and gardens, starts the elegant
main street, Muravyov-Amursky boulevard.

10. The long avenue stretches from the square down to the river Amur.

11. The Government of the Khabarovsk Krai, the province of Khabarovsk.

12. A magnificent simetrical set of 9 fountains decorates the square

14. The two sets of four iron
carved fountains are the
square’s main attraction

18. Muravyov – Amursky blv.
The main street, where shopping and cultural life take place, and
where most of the best buildings are located.

19. The main street looks more elegantly old-fashioned than any other street
in Khabarovsk, and is a live chronicle of the city’s history.

20. Central department store L'Etoile (1914)
Nº23, Muravyov – Amursky

23. Entrance to the cafe
“Cup of tea", at the
Central department
store

24. Sovkino movie theater,
the oldest in Khabarovsk.
36, Muravyov – Amursky

27. The Old Duma, one of the oldest buildings in the city.
Nº 17-19 Muravyov – Amursky

30. “Tainy remesla“ : inside the Duma, a souvenir shop: ivory bone, caskets, dolls,
toys, goods made by native people of Far East, decorations made of stone, wood
and amber, ceramics.

31. Built in 1907-09

35. Theater for the young spectator, Khabarovsk Regional Youth Theater

39. Old “town hall”, 1909

41. Street scenes
Муравьева-Амурского Муравьева-Амурского

44. Café “Russia”
Russian cuisine
5-9, Muravyov-
Amurski

47. Nurse School house

48. The Nurse school
art-nouveau building,

Muravyov-Amursky
st.

49. Old town perspective

51. Lotus trade center, M-A 7

53. Trading center Kunst and Albers, with its summer esplanade

56. Downstreet to the river

58. Intersection with Ussuri and Turgenev streets

59. An elegant brick façade

61. Drugstore / pharmacy, M-A, 8

65. Far eastern State
library of science
(1900)
Muravyov – Amursky, 1
A Research library in
Khabarovsk.
Another intricate red-and-
gray brick façade.

68. Office Building of the Amur
River Shipping Company.
Built in years 1932-1934

69. Towers of
Khabarovsk

72. Cathedral Square, with Assumption Cathedral
( Komsomolskaya in soviet times) Muravyov-Amursky
Amur Shipping Co.
Shevchenko st. museums
Stairway
down to
the river

73. Shevchenko Street
Culture and achitecture
There is a fantastic cluster of museums along Shevchenko Street,
just behind the tall blue-domed Church on Komsomolskaya
square towards the river.
The museums also have their home in some impressive century
old buildings dating back to before the revolution.

75. Fine Arts Museum and Concert hall
7, Shevchenko st.
orthodox seminary

76. Concert hall of the
Khabarovsk Krai
Philharmonic,
founded in 1938

79. Art Museum
Ranks amongst Russia's best and has been awarded numerous
awards and commendations.

80. The museum has
an impressive
collection of
Russian and
European art
dating back to the
15th century, as
well as samples of
art by native
nationalities of the
region.

82. Rebecca al Pozzo
Tiziano Vecellio (1488-1576).
Among other precious works,
one from Canaletto pictures the
Santa Maria Maggiore a Roma
(1769).

83. A rich collection of early Slavic icons

84. The Local Lore Museum, or Far Eastern Arts Museum
11, Shevchenko Street

85. One of the oldest museums in the Russian far east, laid out in 6
sections in an impressive 1894 red-brick building.
http://hkm.ru/texts/view/54

87. Set up in 1931, at
present it holds
over 10,000 pieces
of Russian and
Western Arts, as
well as, a unique
collection of the
Far Eastern
aboriginal applied
arts, that includes
fish skin outfits,
beautiful carpets
and bone-engraved
items.

89. Nanai (round) and Oroch
(square) birch baskets
from the Khabarovsk region.
Hunter's hat called bogdo
from the village of Gvasiugi,
Amur River

90. Inupiaq pincushion
from Kotzebue, Alaska,1986,
of bleached sealskin, leather,
felt, sequins, and beads.

91. Archeological museum

92. The museum’s main feature are the reproductions and diagrams of the
wide-eyed figures found at the ancient Sikachi-Alyan petroglyphs. some
dating from 30 000 years ago.

95. The Petroglyphs of
Sikachi-Alyan
Travelling down the Amur
river, some cliff-pictures
can be found by the village
of Sikachi-Alyan. They are
the most valuable source of
cognition of history and
culture of the indigenous
peoples.
They have also been
added to the UNESCO
World Heritage list.

97. A petroglyph on a rock by the Amur river

98. Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Khabarovsk Scientific Center
9, Shevchenko st.

99. Institute of Applied Mathematics
Computer Center
Institute for Material Studies
Institute of Machinery and Metallurgy
Mining Institute
Institute of Water and Ecological Problems
Economic Research Institute
Institute of Complex Analysis of Regional Problems
Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics

101. The russian orthodox
Grado-Khabarovsk
Cathedral of Mother
of God’s Assumption
Constructed in 2002. to
replace the cathedral
destroyed in the 1930s.

107. The walkway
down to
Khabarovsk's
Amur River
embankment
reflects the city’s
order, elegance
and cleanliness

110. The city park

113. Amursky boulevard
Broad avenue with up and down tram lines, hotels and shops, starting
at the Railway Station and stretching down to the Amur river walk,
where it joins Shebyshev Street.

114. Khabarovsk Railway Station

117. The railways, from west and east, from north and south are coming together in
Khabarovsk. The Railway square is the Railway Gates of Khabarovsk City..

118. Ocean Express Okean, runs from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok

119. The Trans Siberian railroad

120. The Trans Siberian railroad, the longest in the world, goes through
Khabarovsk and connects the Far East with the central Russian areas

123. Bench in the platform

124. Привокзальная площадь
The Station
square, where
Amursky
boulevard
starts.

125. Tram lines run along the first part of Amursky blv.

129. Volochaevskaya street
crosses from Amursky blv. to Muravyov-Amursky st.

130. Restaurant “Khabarovsk”
Volochaevskaya street

131. Hotel Khabarovsk

132. Public art on a bench, Amursky blv

135. Seryshev Street

136. Far Eastern State Transport University
formed in 1937 as the Khabarovsk Institute
of Railway Transport Engineers.

138. “The arch”, a neoclassical building

139. Innokenti church (St.
Innocent of Irkutsk)
By the Amur River, this is the
oldest church in Khabarovsk.

140. The first wooden church in
Khabarovsk
Bbuilt in 1868, two years later it
was consecrated and named as
Innokentievskaya, in the honor
of the holy Innokenty, the first
bishop of Irkutsk city, patron of
Siberia and the Russian Far
East.

141. 30 years later, instead of the
wooden one, a new stone
building was constructed,
which is kept till now with
few changes.

145. Turgenev street

147. Turgenev street
aproaching the
cathedral

150. Cathedral church of the
Saviour’s Transfiguration

155. Only completed in
2004, at 83 meters
this is the 3rd tallest
church in all Russia

159. The spectacular set of the cathedral and the seminary makes this square the most
monumental in town.

162. The orthodox seminary

167. Perspective of the cathedral area and the Amur river.

168. City Hall of Khabarovsk
Close to Dinamo park

171. Far Eastern Railway Co.

173. Lions close to
City Park entry

174. Dinamo Park
Entry

176. Very popular on sunny days; the water ponds are searched for
splashing and cooling down.

183. Voronezhskaya street

184. Church of Princess
Elizabeth the Great
(railway hospital church)
Near Voronezhskaya st
(off center)

187. Volochaevskaya st.

188. Khabarovsk Circus
Volochaevskaya st.
The Circus is a popular place. It keeps going year round. Talented and
well-known circus groups from Moscow and St. Petersburg come to
Khabarovsk.

190. Khabarovsk circus had a brand new home constructed a few years
back, in a impressive building. There will usually be guest performances
from all over Russia or even China.

192. Old town wooden houses

197. Sheronov street

204. House with ghosts in the downtown of Khabarovsk. Nobody lives there,

206. The outdoor swimming pools

209. The Amur walk, the cliff and the beach

214. Ferry station Amur

215. In summer, boat cruises start from the beach.

216. Boat crusing on the Amur river

217. The Amur Cliff
(Utyos)

218. This is where the city was
founded in the spring of
1858: here the mighty
waters of the Amur River
break against a high cliff.

219. The historical origin of Khabarovsk, 145 years ago

220. The cliff facing the Amur is an
icon of the city; the building at
the top is now a restaurant -
Café Utyos - at the bottom of
Shevchenko street.

223. Utyos is located an
unusual art nouveau
building from the forties
on top of the tall cliff
dominating the waterfront.
It has a large balcony with
spectacular views of the
Amur,

224. Café Utyos, 15 Shevchenko St.

230. The Amur balcons, overlooking to China

233. Khabarovsk in Winter

242. The Ice Fantasy Festival
Annual ice sculpting competition that has been held in January every year,
the festival attracts some of the best ice-sculptors.

247. Khabarovsk at night

256. Around Khabarovsk

257. The Amur River sets the fronteer between Russia and China; but in places like
this, several islands and canals make the line dubious – and some conflict exists:
here the russians have buit in a hurry a little chapel to affirm their sovereignt…

261. Though from space it
looks like a impact crater
or the remnants of an
ancient volcano, the
Kondyor Massif, in
Russia, is an "intrusion."
An intrusion forms when
molten magma of igneous
rock crystallizes below the
surface of the earth, in
this case forming a
perfectly circular rocky
ring over a billion years
ago. It lies in the drainage
basin of the lower Amur
River in Khabarovsk Krai.
The intrusion is huge, five
miles in diameter, and it
occupies a vast
mountainous area along
the coastline of the Sea of
Okhotsk, an arm of the
Pacific Ocean.

263. The Amur tiger

264. Map

266. Sources:
Photos and text excerpts from
•http://www.trekearth.com
•http://www.panoramio.com/
•http://www.pbase.com
•http://www.flickr.com/
•http://picasaweb.google.com
•http://www.woophy.com/photo
© Mario Ricca, 2010