Situated 90km southeast of Perm, Kungur is one of the oldest towns in the Urals Region. Boasting a well-preserved appearance of a merchant town of the late 19th century, Kungur is famous for its historical and architectural monuments, and especially for its unique nature reserve of the Kungur Ice Cave, which is Russia’s only cave equipped for excursions.

The town with the population of 68 thousand people and the total area of 68,7 square km is located in a large natural bowl where three rivers meet.

The present-day appearance of the historical centre of Kungur was taking its shape throughout the 18th -20th cc. Just like many other stockaded towns founded in the 17th century Kungur started from a wooden kremlin erected on upland. In 1700 building of the Annunciation Cathedral, the town’s first wooden construction, started inside the kremlin walls. In 1740 the Epiphany Cathedral was founded on the place of the wooden church of St. Paraskeva the Martyr. Unfortunately the ensemble of Kungur’s two oldest wooden cathedrals that once formed the dominating structure of the town architecture has not survived. In the early 1930s both the cathedrals were demolished by order of the town council.

Among Kungur’s attractions are the All Saints Church, the Regional Local Studies Museum, old governor’s house, dating from the 17th century, and a row of shops called Gostiny Dvor.

But the main attraction of the area is certainly the Kungur Ice Cave, about 5km away from the town. The place is famous for unique ice formations with frozen waterfalls and transparent lakes. A fascinating view of the town surrounded with vast expanses of fields opens from the above-cave karst hills beautified with sinkholes, pine and birch trees and rare plants.

Kungur with its unique landscape and geographical peculiarities has made a perfect venue for the annual air-balloons festival attracting aeronauts and viewers from all over Russia and abroad.

History of Kungur...