Novosibirsk-Glavny Railway Station
If you arrive to Novosibirsk by train, the first building you see is the railway station, and even if you don’t see anything else in the city but this building, you will still see enough. The Main Railway Station (Novosibirsk-Glavny in Russian) is one of the main city attractions and one of the largest railway stations in the country with the total area of more than 29000 m2. Its shape resembles a locomotive heading eastwards. The construction of the building started in 1931, because the first station built in 1897 was far not enough for the city, which grew into a metropolis by the beginning of the 1930-ies. Besides, the first station was wooden and there was always a risk of a fire. The building belongs to the so-called Stalin Empire Style, which symbolized power and vastness of the Soviet Union during those years. In 2005 a building for passengers of short-distance trains was built next to the main one, its style and color being exactly the same. Today the railway station is not just a waiting room and a ticket office, but a place of interest for hundreds of visitors. On certain occasions it holds exhibitions and even music concerts, while outside you find some typical Soviet monument, a plate saying that soldiers departed for the Great Patriotic War here, and a model train, which was in use more than a century ago. The big square in front of the station bears the name of Mr.Garin-Mikhailovsky, an engineer who participated in the construction of the first railway bridge over the Ob River. |