The Sights of Izhevsk.

The Sights.
The image of any city above all consists of impressions of its architectural-artistic appearance. It has to have something which makes it unique and peculiar. For Izhevsk these are its large pond (such a large one that foreigners usually call it a lake ) with an ancient plant building on the bank, a wonderful esplanade with a splendid monument Druzhba Narodov ( peoples friendship ) and, certainly, rapidly growing residential areas.
There are not so many monuments in Izhevsk as in other ancient Russian cities and towns, but all of them are remarkable for both their specific peculiarity and noble composition. All the best historic monuments of Izhevsk were built in the classical style: The main plant building, the Arsenal, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
The Main Plant Building.
The main plant building was built in the years 1809-1815 (the architect S. E. Dudin). Together with the Admiralty in St. Petersburg (the architect A. D. Zakharov) it is thought to be the best and the largest production building in the Russian architecture of the first half of the 19th century. The building of the Plant of Izhevsk was the first multi-storey production building in Russia. In the architecture of the building one can trace the influence of the ideas of a French architect Ledu. These ideas were indirectly passed on to S. E. Dudin through his teacher A. D. Zakharov. The building of the arms plant is more than a third of a kilometer long and it is crowned with a many-tiered 50 meters high round tower. According to the idea of the triumphal pillar an image which became extremely popular after the war of 1812 the tower was finished by a Doric column, topped with a double eagle on a sphere.
The Monument to A. F. Deryabin.
The monument was erected on the occasion of the centenary of the plant construction on the dam opposite to the main building. The monument was unveiled on the 10th of October, 1907. The sculptor was I. N. Sitnikov a self-taught artist, a worker of a shop. The lamps and the chained pedestals were erected in 1956.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In the years 1820-1823 S. E. Dudin constructed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral according to the drafts of Andreevsky Cathedral in Kronshtadt made by A. D. Zakharov. That is a magnificent building with a classic portico and a many-tiered bell tower topped with a steeple. The motives of this bell tower are the same that were used by A. D. Zakharov in the Admiralty.
Troitskaya Cemetery Church (Devoted to the Trinity).
The church has classical proportions and a harmonious silhouette. It was constructed by S. E. Dudin in 1814, afterwards it was reconstructed by I. A. Tcharushin a province architect.
The House of Lyatushevitch.
This house is yet another building by S. E. Dudin and one of the examples of Russian classicism. The House of Lyatushevitch was built in 1807; it is the oldest building in Izhevsk still preserving its original appearance.
The Esplanade and the Pond Embankment.
The greatest achievement of the architects and artists of Izhevsk is the ensemble of the esplanade and the pond embankment (the authors of the plan are architects G. E. Alexandrov, B. S. Tchichkin, V. P. Orlov, N. I. Nelyubina, D. F. Kalabin).
The ensemble is a system of boulevards and squares with a park area along the pond. It serves as the city and republic centre.
One of the main sights of the city is the Pond of Izhevsk. It is an artificial pond, 14 km long, dug by hand about 200 years ago. Originally the water was used to quench the metallurgical production; today the pond is quite clean and it is popular with the city inhabitants.
The pond embankment was constructed in 1972, it is more than 3 km long.
The Monument Druzhba Narodov ( peoples friendship ).
The monument Druzhba Narodov is the principal ideological-artistic element of the city centre ensemble. It was erected in 1972 on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Udmurtia s joining Russia (the sculptor A. N. Burganov, the architect R. K. Topuridze).
The monument has taken on special town planning significance it is the composition core of the architectural ensemble of the embankment.
The Square of the 50th Anniversary of the October.
The Square of the 50th anniversary of the October has a memorial character: it testifies the fact that the Ural has always been the smithy of Russian arms, the supporting territory of the country . On this square the monument of the military and labor glory with the eternal fire is situated (constructed in 1976 by architects G. S. Ponomarev and A. G. Miftakhov, the sculptor B. K. Volkov, the painter R. K. Tagirov). The monument has a statue: a soldier who holds a battle flag without a staff above his head. The statue is well separated from the residential constructions by a curved stele.
The square also includes one of the oldest, most beautiful and most important sights of the city the Arsenal.
In the years 1823-1825 S. E. Dudin constructed the Arsenal building. It is a low stretched, square-shaped building. Its fronts are decorated with six-column Doric porticos of exquisite proportions. Compositions of knightly armors and arms are placed in the porticos.
The Arsenal building is partly occupied by the Museum of Local Lore.
Beside the northern corner of the building a small area is arranged with a memorial plaque in honor of bodies of troops formed on the territory of Udmurtia.
The Bust of the Double Soviet Union Hero E. M. Kungurtsev was built in 1950 according to the project by a sculptor L. M. Polyakov. It was placed then near Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (The Koloss cinema at that time); in 1967 the bust was replaced and put in the park of The Eternal Fire monument.

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