Central pl Lenina isn’t really a square so much as a jumbled collection of beautifully restored historic buildings interspersed with banal Soviet concrete lumps. The frustrated Lenin statue, now relegated to a traffic circle, points at the ugly concrete of the Drama Theatre, apparently demanding ‘build more like that one’. Fortunately, nobody’s listening. Topped with a golden angel, in a second circle beside Lenin, is the Iverskaya Chapel, whose celebrated icon is dubbed ‘Tomsk’s Spiritual Gateway’.

　　The drama theatre is flanked by the splendid 1784 Epiphany Cathedral, the former trading arches, and the elegant 1802 Hotel Magistrat.