The tourist master plan of Tobolsk
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
In the 19th century, the city lost its prominence to rapidly developing Tyumen, through which the Trans-Siberian Railway was laid in 1885.
During the Soviet era, Tobolsk received a second life with the construction of a major petrochemical plant (1974-1984). Today the enterprise is part of SIBUR, Russia’s leading petrochemical company, and continues to expand: in 2013 another large-scale facility, Tobolsk-Polymer, was launched here. In 2019, thanks to SIBUR’s multibillion-ruble investments, the city opened a fully modernized airport.
The specific request with which SIBUR approached Wowhaus in 2019 was as follows: “Help us add a tourism component to the city’s primarily industrial profile in order to ensure sufficient airport traffic – at the very least to cover its operating costs”.
Of course, the task went far beyond the airport. A comprehensive spatial master plan for the city had to be developed, including its infrastructure, in order to enhance Tobolsk’s appeal to top-level petrochemical specialists recruited nationwide. The goal was not simply to bring in professionals on rotational shifts, but to encourage them to settle and build their lives here.
The tourist master plan of Tobolsk
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
The idea of turning Tobolsk – a city of one hundred thousand built around industry – into a tourist destination was self-evident. Of course, today in Russia every other city dreams of becoming a tourist hub, but Tobolsk had real grounds for such ambitions. Still, there were complications.
Challenges
By the early 21st century, Tobolsk had effectively split into three distinct parts. On the high bank of the Irtysh stands the Tobolsk Kremlin, the city’s main historical landmark. After a presidential visit in 2003 and subsequent funding, the Kremlin underwent meticulous restoration and today presents a postcard-perfect image, housing the Tobolsk Historical and Architectural Museum Reserve within its walls.
At the foot of the hill lies the so-called “lower posad (settlement)” – the city’s former heart with its Market Square, monasteries, churches, and merchants’ estates. In recent decades, however,this area has lost its central function entirely: property values are stagnant, few people live there, and historic buildings remain unrestored.
The main life of the city, meanwhile, has shifted north of the Kremlin and the lower posad, along the high riverbank. It was here, in the 1970s–1990s, that residential neighborhoods were built for workers of the petrochemical plant. Today, around 70 percent of Tobolsk’s population lives there, along with schools, kindergartens, clinics, sports centers, shops, and, since 2022, the city’s largest shopping and entertainment complex, Sila Sibiri (“The Power of Siberia”).
The task was to breathe new life into the historic center and make it once again a key urban destination.
Opportunities
A major advantage of the project was the unusually broad coalition of stakeholders involved from the outset. Alongside SIBUR representatives such as Elena Belskaya, Director for Government Relations and Socio-Economic Projects, the effort included Tobolsk’s mayor, Maxim Afanasyev, as well as the Tyumen Region administration, represented by Deputy Governor Andrey Panteleyev and Minister of Tourism Maria Trofimova. Often, even large enterprises and cities lack sufficient financial or administrative resources for such large-scale transformations. In this case, however, no one had to play the role of supplicant – decisions were made collectively across all levels of authority.
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1 / 4The tourist master plan of Tobolsk. The priority projectsCopyright: © WOWHAUS
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2 / 4The tourist master plan of TobolskCopyright: © WOWHAUS
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3 / 4The tourist master plan of Tobolsk. The cable car location planCopyright: © WOWHAUS
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4 / 4The tourist master plan of Tobolsk. The tourist frameworkCopyright: © WOWHAUS
Specialists from Wowhaus made repeated trips to Tobolsk, meeting with the local business community, visiting key landmarks, conducting surveys of the city, observing it in different seasons, and presenting their ideas. These joint discussions helped both the designers and the clients gain a clearer understanding of the tasks at hand.
The Target Audience
Wowhaus co-founder Oleg Shapiro has often emphasized that a master plan is not an architectural sketch but a “spatial embodiment of a socio-economic development strategy and a framework for dialogue between government, business, and the community”. A master plan is subject to revision, and other plans will eventually need updating as well, but the master plan is more flexible and can be adjusted more frequently – every year if needed.
The Tobolsk master plan was conceived for several audiences at once. First, for tourists – from Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, Perm Krai, as well as visitors from Moscow and the Moscow region. The main goal is to extend their stay in the city to a realistic two or three days. Second, for the city’s own local residents, including SIBUR employees, for whom it is important to revive the lower posad, create a comfortable environment, and open new jobs. Third, for investors – primarily regional ones – interested in developing tourism and service infrastructure.
The tourist master plan of Tobolsk
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
Tobolsk is an accessible city: the flight from Moscow takes 2 hours 45 minutes, from Kazan an hour and forty-five, from Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk two hours, and from St. Petersburg three. By Siberian standards, this is hardly far. According to statistics, 55 percent of tourists arrive from Tyumen. Another 25–27 percent come from Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions and from Perm Krai. The remaining visitors are from Moscow and its surrounding region.
The Brand Name
The master plan called for a strong tourist brand, and one quickly emerged: “Tobolsk… The Key to Siberia”. The idea was to present the city not only as a historic settlement or a regional center but as a symbolic gateway to the vast Siberian world. The word “key” here is layered in meaning: it is both a tool that unlocks secrets, a cipher through which one can see the region anew, and a code without which its uniqueness cannot be understood.
The tourist master plan of Tobolsk
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
Thus, Tobolsk positions itself as the place where the exploration of Siberia begins – its history, culture, and nature.
The Circulatory System
The Tobolsk tourism master plan included four directions. The historical and cultural one is centered around the Kremlin, which concentrates a large number of museums and ancient architecture. The natural one reveals the beauty of the taiga and the Irtysh embankment, complemented by recreation at the Alimasovo ski resort and visits to Yermakovo Field Park, a private botanical garden with a greenhouse and landscape design. The industrial direction is aimed at businesspeople and involves tours of petrochemical production, introductions to industrial infrastructure, and the hosting of business events. The fourth direction shapes the image of a “cozy Siberian city”, and its key task is the revival of the Lower Posad: restoring historic buildings and creating public spaces.
First and foremost, we proposed creating a tourist transport framework – a system of routes and infrastructure connecting the city’s main attractions. From the Kremlin, five types of routes should branch out: pedestrian routes through the streets of the Upper and Lower Posad; cycling routes leading to Potchevash Field and the Alemasovo resort; eco-trails through the city forest and, for example, to the Yermakovo Field park; shuttle buses to the Abalak Monastery, the ski resort, and other destinations beyond Tobolsk; and river routes along the Irtysh to the village of Vinokurovo and the Abalak ethnographic complex.
As part of the master plan, 83 hectares of public spaces and 81 hectares of parkland are designed, along with 120 kilometers of cycling infrastructure with 13 rental points, 66 kilometers of eco-trails with 19 pavilions, a 65-kilometer water route with seven pontoon piers, and five bus routes totaling 115 kilometers with 25 stops. In this way, a kind of “circulatory system” of the city will be gradually formed, ensuring convenient movement of tourists and residents around Tobolsk and its surroundings.
Lower Posad
The master plan includes three priority projects. The first concerns the Lower Posad, which covers more than 120 hectares. It is proposed to carry out its deep and comprehensive revitalization, to restore the old and build the new, relying in this on the help and initiative of local businesses.
The tourist master plan of Tobolsk. The priority projects
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
The architects identified two main axes of the district. The first, historical, runs from the Kremlin through the Market Square, along Mira Street (formerly Pyatnitskaya), crossing Alexandrovsky Garden and reaching the Znamensky Monastery. Along Mira Street are strung important city landmarks: the Church of Zachariah and Elizabeth (1776), the Museum of the Family of Emperor Nicholas II, and the Kornilov House (1899), which now houses the Museum of the History of the Judicial System of Western Siberia.
The second axis – the natural one – runs along the Kazachy Descent – a steep slope from the Kremlin down to the Lower Posad. Along the entire slope stairways, observation platforms, and children’s play areas have been installed. The axis then continues along the landscaped embankment of the Kurdyumka River, skirts the Mendeleev Quarter, and ends at the Irtysh embankment with its Festival Square, concert hall, and Experience Center. In this way, historical, natural, and contemporary cultural points of attraction are combined into a single route.
The tourist master plan of Tobolsk
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
For the area to truly come alive, it must also be in demand among the city’s residents. Therefore, the architects proposed not to limit themselves to attracting tourists but also to build new residential houses and bring people back to the district. At the same time, they suggested abandoning the construction of slab blocks, as was common in the 2000s, and moving toward the creation of low-rise quarters that harmonize with the historic buildings.
Furthermore, it was also important to increase the density of the development itself. Today, houses in the Lower Posad stand sparsely, with huge empty spaces between them. Wowhaus proposed the following strategy to the city authorities: if an investor agrees to restore a historic building, they should be given an adjacent plot of land for new construction, so that the investor can offset expenses and the city can build up its architectural fabric.
The Riverside Boulevard
The next important task is the improvement of the Irtysh embankment. Surprisingly, for a city founded on a river, it still lacks a proper waterfront recreational space. It is envisioned that the embankment will stretch along the Irtysh for thirteen kilometers and cover an area of about 40 hectares. Conceptually, it is divided into two parts: an active urban area and a protected natural park with ecological trails.
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The tourist master plan of TobolskCopyright: © WOWHAUS
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The tourist master plan of Tobolsk. The riverside boulevard of the Irtysh RiverCopyright: © WOWHAUS
At the level of the Lower Posad, along the water, there will be an urban promenade with a pier for ships, a dock for private boats, cafés and restaurants, fishing spots with a covered pavilion, platforms for yoga and birdwatching. A little farther, in a flood-free area, there will be a children’s playground with a skate park and pump track, an open-air swimming pool with a city beach. Next to the embankment will be built an Event Square, a concert hall, and an Experience Center. The city will gain a new important public space.
Moving north, the embankment will flow into a recreational zone where in winter an ice rink will be created, and then into a natural park. Residents and visitors will see Tobolsk and its nature from new perspectives, with new eyes.
The tourist master plan of Tobolsk
Copyright: © WOWHAUS
The project also takes into account the possibility of building a cable car that will connect the embankment park with the Upper Posad.
The Experience Center
Last but not least is the construction of the Experience Center. It is conceived as the emotional core of the tourism brand “Tobolsk… The Key to Siberia”. Its goal is to inform and engage, to create vivid emotions that convey the city’s and region’s identity. For example, it will tell the story of the “four-story taiga” and of the place where an ancient glacier once stopped, shaping the steep relief above the Irtysh. The project heavily relies on state-of-the-art interactive museum technologies.
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The tourist master plan of TobolskCopyright: © WOWHAUS
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The tourist master plan of TobolskCopyright: © WOWHAUS
The main building of the Center (2,200 m²) will be located on the embankment next to the Concert Hall and Festival Square. In addition, a network of small pavilions will be created at key tourist sites: the Water Tower in the city center, Potchevash Field, and the so-called Razlom (“Cleavage”) by the Siber River—a natural cliff in the Irtysh floodplain linked to archaeological and historical finds. These sites will serve as intermediate stops along the tourist routes, offering the visitors places to rest and discover new stories about the local nature and history.
In this way, the Experience Center will unite different parts of the city into a single cultural and tourism system.
The Results
Developed in 2020-2022 and launched in 2023, the tourist master plan of Tobolsk is designed for fifteen years. It is expected that by 2030 the city will be able to attract up to 850,000 visitors annually.
Key historic landmarks of the Lower Posad have already been restored, including the Kremlin Water Tower, the Nevodchikov House, Alexandrovsky Garden, and others. Work has begun on the Irtysh embankment and the construction of the concert hall. Plans include developing a recreational forest trail, launching tourist shuttles, and improving the infrastructure and amenities of the Lower Posad.
Wowhaus is satisfied with the pace of implementation. They recognize that transforming a city is a gradual process, but are pleased to have helped the authorities identify directions and anchor points – a coherent strategy capable of reviving historic districts, strengthening ties with the natural environment, and shaping a modern, dynamic urban landscape.
