City walk · City history · Wooden architecture

Irkutsk Through Its Streets and Courtyards

Apartment houses, the central market, pedestrian Uritskogo Street and quiet Jerusalem Hill

Photo: Sergio Tittarini from Shanghai, China, CC BY 2.0

Duration: 2.5–3.5 h
Distance: ≈ 4.8 kmcalculated on the OpenStreetMap footpath network
Difficulty: Easy
Best season: All year
Getting around: On foot
Start: The Bryantsev house, Lenina St 13
Finish: Jerusalem Hill park

This route is about the everyday city: where people in Irkutsk shopped and still shop, how the streets changed after the fire of 1879, and how the stone centre gives way to wooden suburbs. It ends in the park on Jerusalem Hill, a former cemetery with a view over half the city.

The best way to understand Irkutsk is to watch how people live here now. The central market, pedestrian Uritskogo Street with its shops, apartment houses with archways into courtyards, old trading rows — all close together. Courtyards are private: look through the arches, but do not walk in uninvited, and do not photograph people without asking.

The route line was calculated on the OpenStreetMap footpath network and has not been checked on the ground by our editors. The map mirrors the list of stops below; all information is available without the map.

Step-by-step itinerary

Stop 1 · Time here: 10 min

The Bryantsev house and the Hašek plaque

The Bryantsev merchants’ apartment house on Lenina Street is typical of the stone buildings that rose in the centre after the fire of 1879. A plaque commemorates Jaroslav Hašek, author of The Good Soldier Švejk, who worked in Irkutsk in 1920.

What to look for
The gateway into the courtyard, and how the building holds the street line with an unbroken facade.

Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS
Stop 2 · Time here: 30 min

Karl Marx Street

Getting there. Turn onto Karl Marx Street and head north.

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0

The city’s main street: banks, former shops and apartment houses from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many archways lead into courtyards where outbuildings and service buildings survive.

Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS (approximate location)
Stop 3 · Time here: 25 min

Pedestrian Uritskogo Street

Getting there. Turn right into Uritskogo Street.

A short shopping street turned pedestrian zone and one of the liveliest spots in the centre. A good place for coffee and people-watching.

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Stop 4 · Time here: 40 min

The Central Market

Getting there. At the end of Uritskogo, about 400 m.

The central market shows the whole geography of the region: nuts and berries from the taiga, dairy from suburban villages, fish, Siberian herbs and spices. A good place for a snack.

Tip
Ask stallholders where things come from — many are happy to tell you.

Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS (approximate location)
Stop 5 · Time here: 15 min

Karl Liebknecht Street and the synagogue

Getting there. North along Chekhova Street to Karl Liebknecht Street, about 600 m.

Karl Liebknecht Street links the stone centre with the wooden suburbs. It has the nineteenth-century synagogue and houses once lived in by merchants, craftsmen and exiles.

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Stop 6 · Time here: 20 min

The courtyards of Dekabrskikh Sobytiy Street

Getting there. East, about 500 m.

Photo: Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0

Wooden houses with front gardens and gates show what Irkutsk looked like beyond the stone centre. Through open gates you glimpse courtyards with outbuildings, sheds and woodpiles.

Tip
Do not walk into the courtyards: they are private.

Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS
Stop 7 · Time here: 30 min

Jerusalem Hill

Getting there. South, about 1.2 km with a climb.

A historic memorial park on the site of the old city cemetery, where people of Irkutsk were buried for more than two centuries. It is now a quiet park with avenues and views over the centre. Treat it as a place of remembrance.

Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS