Ekaterinburg, the city on the Iset river

7 August 1723 is the official day of the birth of Ekaterinburg, the industrial and military centre of the mining administration and important stronghold set up by the government of Peter I for the colonisation of the vast expenses of the Ural and Siberia. The town owes to its origin to a metallurgical and metalworking plant which rose on the banks of the Iset river.

The builders of the town worked in extremely hard conditions led by talented Russian mining experts: general Genin and captain Tatishchev. This prominent statesman and noted scientist headed the construction. The town was surrounded by wood and all buildings were wooden. But the town grew and developed and, with the time, Ekaterinburg began to play an increasingly important role as an administrative, mining and all-Ural machine-building centre, though it was a provincial town.

A great contribution to the further development of the town was made by Malakhov, the prominent Ural architect. The city has changed its name several times in its history: Ekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk-Ekaterinburg, but it was the centre not only of the Ural but the country as well.

Nowadays it is a big industrial centre of the Russian Federation. It has always been and remains traditionally the centre with dominating branches I of industry as machine-building and metal-working. There are more than 100 industrial enterprises, among them the Verch-Iset metallurgical and metal-working plant the biggest in the Ural.

Ekaterinburg is a scientific centre. There is the Ural branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a lot of scientific and project institutes there.

Ekaterinburg is a city of students. There are more than 16 state institutions of higher education, a lot of colleges, private and state schools. The oldest is the Ural State Mining University founded in 1912. The biggest and the most famous is the Ural Federal University (UrFU) founded in 2010.

Ekaterinburg is also a theatrical centre. There are many theatres, cinemas and palaces of culture and variety shows. The oldest among the theatres is the Opera House, which was built in 1912. One cannot but mention our museums and picture galleries. The Ural Geological Museum is a real treasure-house of the Ural Mountains. It enjoys truly a great popularity because it contains very rich collection of rare minerals and precious stones, which cannot be found anywhere.

Ekaterinburg is a sport centre of the country. There are many stadiums and sport-grounds. Different kinds of sport are very popular among our citizens. Our beautiful nature in winter provides opportunities for winter sports that is why they are the most popular. No wonder that Ekaterinburg is called "the capital of the winter kinds of sports”. Our sportsmen take part in different sport competitions and very often win the first places. Different national and international championships are held in Ekaterinburg.

Our city is constantly changing, its outer appearance and its reconstruction will be made on an unprecedented scale. Nowadays much attention is being paid to the improvement of public transport facilities, the extension of the network of medical establishments. It is planned to change radically the city centre by its reconstruction. Apart from the construction of a metro, multistoried blocks of flats will be built in different districts of the city.

So, Ekaterinburg is one of the largest and the most important cities of Russia. It can be referred to the historical Russian cities because there exists a lot of monuments of architecture, history and culture. The citizens of Ekaterinburg are proud of their native city, its past and present and believe in its future.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2175