Kirov (Khlynov, Vyatka) is a large city in Russia, the administrative centre of the Kirov Region. Kirov is a historical, cultural, industrial and scientific centre of the Kirov Region. It is also a historical city, once the "fur" and "peat" capital of Russia.

The city stands on River Vyatka, 896 km away from Moscow. The population of the city is 464 thousand people.

Right after its foundation the town was named Khlynov. After the year 1374 (the first record of Vyatka), however, the word Khlynov was not mentioned in any official documents or chronicles. The city was named “Kirov” after the murder in 1934 of the Soviet official Sergey Mironovich Kostrikova (Kirov), born in Urzhum town of the Vyatka Region. The active participant of the October Revolution, though, had never been to Vyatka personally. In 1934 dwellers of Urzhum expressed their wish to name the town after their famous fellow countryman. But the administration of Vyatka turned to be more persistent and appropriated the name of Kirov.

Sightseeing in Kirov

Museums

The Museum of Vyatka Folk Arts and Craft gives a full picture of the background, history and development of traditional folk arts and crafts of Vyatka, as well as shows the present situation with them.

V.М. and A.M.Vasnetsovs State Kirov Regional Art Museum founded back in 1910 is one of the oldest museums in Russia. Today its collections count around 20 thousand works of graphic art, painting, sculpture, and useful folk arts.

Museum Exhibition Centre "Diorama". The building facade reminds of an unfolded banner with bas-reliefs, and the exhibition hinges around the art canvass “Vyatka. 1917”.

Vyatka Kunstkammer is one of the most interesting museums in Kirov. It was opened in 1992 in a merchant’s manor of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. It presents the life of the provincial city of Vyatka of the turn of the 20th century.

Alexander Grin House Museum is dedicated to the well-known writer Alexander Green, the author of the famous story

“Crimson sails”. The future writer spent his childhood and youth in Vyatka.

M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin House Museum is opened in the house where the writer lived when in exile. The museum exposition acquaints visitors with the Vyatka period of creativity of the outstanding satiric writer.

Churches & Monasteries

Vyatka Uspensky Tryphon Monastery was founded by reverend Tryphon by order of Ivan the Terrible in 1580. Among the sights of the monastery is the five-domed Uspensky Cathedral (1864-1889).

Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Novodevichy Convent (1624) is one of the oldest architectural ensembles with the elegant Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Church (1696) and Freakish platbands John the Forerunner’s Church (early 18th century) famous for its fanciful architraves.

St. Seraphim Cathedral (1904) designed by the outstanding Vyatka architect I.A.Charushin is hailed as the “wonder of Vyatka”.

Nature & Architecture Sites

Monuments of secular architecture have remained in the old centre of Kirov; among them some administrative buildings in the style of classicism, as well as stone and wooden mansions of the local nobility and the shopping arcade.

Central Park of the city is the ancient Aleksandrovsky Garden that was created in honour of the visits of tzar Alexander I to the city. It is one of the most beautiful places in Kirov.

Zarechny Park is located over the right bank of Vyatka River, opposite to the historical city centre. Ecological path 3 km long runs across the most picturesque corners of the park.

Arboretum situated in the New Vyatka District of Kirov harbors valuable sites of natural forest vegetation that have remained here.

Botanical Garden located in the centre of modern Kirov is open for visitors from June till October. He is in the centre modern Kirovа. Over 180 sorts of trees and bushes and more than 400 species of plants are presented there.

The best viewing point in Kirov is the observation site on A. Grin Embankment.