Founded in 1587, Tobolsk played a pivotal role in the exploration of Siberia and up until the late 18th century was regarded as the capital of a vast portion of the Russian Empire – stretching from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. Conveniently located on the high bank of the Irtysh River, the city was a hub of the fur trade and grew fabulously wealthy from it. Furthermore, Tobolsk became home to the only stone Kremlin east of the Urals. The local bishop held the title of Metropolitan – underlining his elevated rank as the chief spiritual leader for all of Asian Russia. And finally, a tragic yet powerful note in the city’s history was brought by the exile of famous figures – from Archpriest Avvakum and Alexander Menshikov to the Decembrists and Emperor Nicholas II with his family.



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 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.



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.



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.



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.

​Ivan Krasheninnikov, head of the Wowhaus project team

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.