Usolye-Sibirskoye is a Russian town, the administrative center of the Usolsky District in the Irkutsk Region.

The town is located on the Irkutsk- Cheremkhovskaya Plain and stands on the left bank of Angara, 67 km to the northwest of Irkutsk. It has a pier and a railway station. The town takes the area of 74 sq.km and has the population of 81 385 people (as of 2013).

It has sharp continental climate with the average temperature of - 23C in January and + 18C in July.

On the bank of Angara there is a same-name balneotherapeutic health resort with a sanatorium and water mud baths.

40 km away from Usolye-Sibirskoye, in the Usolsky District there is the balneal resort area New Usolye.

History of Usolye-Sibirskoye

It appeared in 1669 as the village of Usolye (i.e. “located near salt”) with its dwellers engaged in salt-works.

It became a town in 1925.

In 1940 it was renamed into Usolye-Sibirskoye in order to differentiate it from Usolye town of the Perm Region.

Till 1956 salt production was carried out in semi-handicraft way.

Architecture and Sights

The downtown is mostly built up with one-storeyed wooden houses.

The village of Thelma harbors the Kazan Church of 1816.

The town’s archaeological monuments include sites of the early men of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and the Iron Ages on the banks of River Belaya.