Yekaterimbourg, on the steps of Anastasia

LetiziaManzoni
Oct 2, 2019
3 min read

Updated: Apr 14, 2020

Covering more than one-eighth inhabited surface of the Earth, Russia is officially the largest country in the world. It is a transcontinental country, which means that it occupies the largest part of Eastern Europe and the whole North of Asia.

But where exactly the line dividing these two continents is traced?

The conventional boundary established during the nineteenth century and universally accepted today are made up of the range of Urals Mountains, that runs from the Russian coast on the Arctic Ocean till the Northern part of Kazakhstan. This area is mostly covered by forests and glaciers with the exception of a large city located at the 60° parallel: Yekaterinburg.

I didn't know much about Yekaterimbourg before starting my university's semester abroad in Russia. Being a student of the Russian language, however, my idea was to use those four months in the country to discover the most of it and to live every day as it was the most special of all. Yekaterinburg it is actually the third largest city of Russia, and directly follows Moscow and Saint Petersburg in terms of cultural richness, economy, and tourism. Located in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, on the Asian side of the Mount Urals, it was founded by Peter The Gret in honor of his wife Catherine I, as a factory for mineral materials and a key city for the access to Siberia. I arrived at Yekaterimbourg after a three hours flight from Moscow, in the early morning of half-November. Outside the airport, the air was fairly cold and there was a softy layer of snow laying on the ground. With an old but very cheap bus (costing 24 roubles, less than 35 cents) I reached the city center when I met my couchsurfer Ilya. He welcomed me to his house with a warm cup of tea, and let me take a short rest for recovering from the trip. When I woke up it was around 11 am. I put on my warm jacket, gloves, and scarf and we went out for a pleasant walk around the city. The snow was everywhere: and not just a layer but this time it was a lot. My boots could plug in it at every step and the atmosphere felt like a wintery Disney movie!

We walked around the city and inside the park Pavlika Morozova, where we saw some children sliding down the hills on their wooden sleds.

In the afternoon we met with Yulia, one of my closest Russian friends and we went all together eating delicious Pelmeni!

The Iset river, that splits the city, during winter months freezes completely, so people easily walk on the ice to reach the other size without having to use the bridge

Church of Anastasia

Yekterimbourg has an important role in the history of Russia. During the October Revolution of 1917, the Romanov family was obliged to escape from Saint Petersburg, threatened by the Bolsheviks. They were locked down in the House of Special Purpose in Yekaterimbourg where, after some months, they were all brutally killed. This historical site is now sacred and on the place of the House it was built an orthodox church. In front of the entrance stands a big cross upheld by statues of the seven members of the royal family: Nikolai, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and the little Alexei. In the basement of the church, instead, there is a museum, showing photos and memories of the lasts Tzars, and explaining the mysterious story of Rasputin.

Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center

Another curiosity of Yekaterimbourg is that it was the birthplace of Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, the first elected president of the Russian Federation. Yelstin started his mandate in 1991 and was held responsible for signing the papers declaring the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A huge and modern building has been placed to host a museum in his honor. It explains the life of Yeltsin and his arrival to power. It is an interesting way to discover how the URSS dissolved and the decisions that were taken to align the political liberalism that would approach in Russia to the West. Yeltsin's second mandate ended in 1999, after which he was followed by the current president Putin.

Border of Europe and Asia

Seventeen kilometers away from the city, deep into the woods, it is located the conventional border between Asia and Europe. A landmark displaying the line gives tourists the possibility to take a photo straddling the two continents! The emotions I felt in that place were unique. Yekaterinburg is also on an important railway junction, and it's one of the stops of the Tran-Siberian Railway crossing the whole Russia, so... it might be one of your next destinations!