Panoramic view . Photo: Kungir city official web page

Kungur is an ancient Russian city. It is a historical, architectural reserve, and the administrative centre of the Kungur area. It is located 80 kilometers to the south-east of Perm.

In translation from the Tatar language, the word “Kungur” means "swarthy".

In the winter of 1647-1648, General Prokopy Yelizarov from Solikamsk found people who had escaped from Stroganov’s land and charter-lands. They were transferred to the bank of the river Kungurka.

In 1648, 1,222 people were settled on the bank of the river. They were given the right not to pay taxes for three years and each family was given a lot. Later, other peasants started to come and settle on this land.

26 villages and 10 small settlements appeared near the city. Their general population was more than a thousand people. In 1662, the Bashkir and Tatar troops ruined neighboring villages of Russians, and took the city by storm.

In 1663 a fortress was established. This date became “a new birthday” of Kungur. During the city construction, a great attention was given to the defensibility. For the place of a future city a high stony cape near to the joining of the Sylva and the Irena rivers was chosen.

By the end of the XVIIth century there were 136 shops and 2 925 inhabitants there. By the middle of the next century, Kungur became one of the largest settlements of the Ural region. In a year the Big Siberian Highway and “the Great Tea Way” had passed through it.

Due to the effort and activity of Kungur’s merchants and tea sellers, the city became a tea capital of Russia in the XIXth century.

Approaching Ermak Mountain. Photo by SNoGo @ E1.RU

The city also turned into a major center of transit trade. Kungur was the home of three large fairs: the Bogoyavlenskaya, the Pyatnitskaya and the Mininskaya. The city was famous for its tanning manufacture.

By the end of XIXth century, craft manufacture of leather footwear, coats, gloves and mittens successfully developed in the city. Many merchants were actively engaged in charity and patronage of arts. Since 1720 a special institution appeared in the city. It was responsible for the managing of a great number of mining districts in Ural.

Since 1759 there was a Perm management of mining factories in this city.

In 1774 the city sustained a siege by the Yemelyan Pugachev’s troops.

The economic structure of the city was determined by the development of Kungur as a centre of development of the industry to meet the needs of people who live in Ural and neighboring territories. Such big enterprises as a dairy complex, a meat-packing plant and a beer factory were established in Kungur.

The Kungur machine-building factory that appeared on the basis of industrial and technical schoolы makes the oil-field equipment (chisel installations, turbo-drills).

Kungur is proud of the stone-cutting craft.

It originates from the times of Vasily Nikolayevich Tatishev who established the first state workshop for stone dressing. The works “Uralsky Samotzvety” (Russian semi-precious stones) is based on this workshop.

In the territory of the city there is a unique geological monument that called the Kungur Ice Cave.

It is the largest plaster cave in Ural, the sixth in the world by extent and one of the largest karstic caves of Russia.

Kungur Ice Cave. Photo by mus1 @ E1.RU

Its length is 5,600 meters. There are 60 lakes in the Ice Cave. Now the Kungur Ice Cave is a nature sanctuary and a unique cave that contains all necessary equipment for excursions. Today the excursion route is about 1.5 kilometers.

The Museum of Local Lore is situated in the building of the city council. It was erected in 1762 and represents a monument of architecture of the XVIIIth century. Here one may see well-known pig-iron plates with the nominal text that were molded in the Nevyansk factory.

The Kungur Historical, Architectural and Art Museum is situated in a mansion of merchant Yuhnev. The mansion was constructed in 1890. The museum exhibits samples of a stone-cutting craft and pottery.

Shopping arcade (“Gosliny Dvor”) that located on the Pugachev square became a symbol of a merchant’s Kungur. Its construction was conducted from 1865 till 1867. This is a two-storied building. One of the distinguishing features is the oblique corners and arches into the court yard. It is a monument of the trading architecture that is remained intact.

Also among the architectural monuments are the Dormition of God Mother Church, the mansion with a winter garden of merchant Kuznetsov, the Stone Tikhvin Church and the Preobrazhensky Temple.

Every year Kungur hosts a unique Ural festival of aeronautics “Heaven Fair”.

How to get to Kungur?

By car: Perm-Ekaterinburg highway (P242). Distance from Ekaterinburg to Kungur is 300km. Take access road that comes from the West (Perm direction).
By bus: you may take a bus to Perm direction from South Bus Terminal and in Perm take a bus to Kungur. Approximate time: 6 hours.
Or: bus №528 Chelyabinsk-Izhevsk till turn to Kungur. Bus goes daily from the North Bus Terminal at 22:03 (local time);
By train: daily trains to Perm direction (they usually go to Ekaterinburg and Moscow directions)have a compulsury stop in Kungur.

Information of the official Kungur website is used