Holiday in Novosibirsk

About Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is the third largest city in Russia and the unofficial capital of Siberia. With over 1.6 million inhabitants, it is the economic, scientific, and cultural center of West Siberia and an important hub of the Trans-Siberian Railway — the city is almost exactly in the middle between Moscow and Vladivostok. Novosibirsk is an astonishingly young city: founded in 1893 as a railway bridge point over the Ob, it grew into a million-city in just 100 years through the Trans-Siberian Railway. The broad-gauge railway is still the backbone of the city, and the Novosibirsk-Glavny train station building is one of the largest in Russia. The Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is the largest opera house in Russia and one of the largest in the world — its silver dome dominates Lenin Square and is larger than that of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Ballet and opera performances at world-class level at astonishingly low prices make it a cultural gem of Siberia. Akademgorodok ("Academic Town"), 30 km south of the center, is a science city built in the birch forest: founded in the 1950s as Siberia's Silicon Valley, it houses dozens of research institutes, Novosibirsk State University, and an intellectual atmosphere reminiscent of Western campus towns. The Ob Sea, a huge reservoir on the Ob, is Novosibirsk's recreational area: in summer, there are bathing beaches and sailing, in winter, ice fishing and cross-country skiing. The extreme Siberian winters (down to -40 °C) and hot summers (up to +35 °C) create a temperature difference of 75 degrees between the seasons — one of the largest temperature contrasts of any major city in the world.