Wooden houses Decembrists

It is the only city in Siberia that has preserved its traditional architecture, "izbas" or old wooden houses, which once were a feature of Asiatic Russia. These wooden houses also called Decembrists, are the result of waves of deportees and exiles who were sent to Siberia, because of the backlash against the Tsar Nicholas I, and the name comes for the month in which the riots took place in San Petersburg. There are not many wooden houses still left standing, as the fire of 1879 reduced much of the city to ashes, but they are well worth a visit.