The Siberian metropolis Tomsk is the oldest educational and scientific center and open-air museum in Siberia: the city has preserved many monuments of wooden and stone architecture of the 18th – 19th centuries. Tomichi are proud of old mansions, beautiful streets and wide squares, and the embankments are called the most favorite place for walking. There are two of them in Tomsk - on the Tom River and on its tributary - the Ushaika River.
From Lenin to Chekhov
The main Tomsk embankment stretches from the square, named after the leader of the world proletariat, to the side street of 1905. The main attractions and memorable places of the kilometer-long embankment are present in all travel brochures of local excursion companies:
- The federal monument "Gogol House" was built in 1905. The red brick building housed the City Primary School.
- Former warehouses of the merchant and philanthropist V. A. Gorokhov.
- River station, from where the ships of the Tomsk Shipping Company depart. The building was built in the 70s of the last century and excursion trips around the Tom and Ob are organized here in the summer.
A favorite tourist attraction on the embankment of Tomsk is the monument to Chekhov, erected here during the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the city. The two-meter sculpture was cast with public donations and is a grotesque figure of a writer in ridiculous clothes. So the Tomsk residents "took revenge" on Anton Pavlovich, who spoke unpleasantly about their city during his stay in it in 1890.
Regular literary readings "Chekhov's Fridays" are held near the original monument, and its miniature images are the most popular souvenir bought by guests of Tomsk.
Today and tomorrow
On the embankment of the Tom River, there is a pretty alley of ranet apple trees planted by large families. It has become a symbol of joint work and responsible parenting, and on World Family Day, celebrated on May 15, parents and children will gather here.
The improvement of the embankment of the Ushaika River is still only in the project. Very soon, on the banks of the Tom tributary, a sports park and walking areas on two levels, a pedestrian bridge and an open-air stage for concerts and festivals, parkour and streetball grounds, car parking and changing rooms for those who play sports will appear. It will be possible to dine in a cafe, and to entertain the kids - in children's amusement parks.
