Solikamsk.

Solikamsk is the third largest city of Perm region. It’s located on banks of Usolka and Borovaya Rivers, 202 km from Perm.

We first heard of Solikamsk in 1430. Salt has been extracted in that province since ancient times. The town had initially the name Usolie on Kamsky, then Usolie Kamskoye, and since the 17th century - Salt Kamsky. In Soviet period Solikamsk became one of the islands of GULAG archipelago.

The mining and chemical industry holds cards in city economy. Construction and food branches, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, timber processing complex are also well developed.

The Voivode’s House is the oldest monument of civic architecture of Solikamsk. Initially it was a wooden construction, but the stone one-storeyed building has been erected after a fire on its place. The house had been constructing from 1673 to 1688. The top floor was built on at the beginning of the 18th century. This is a rectangular building; one can see the influence of Old Russian architecture in ornamental finishing. Window apertures are decorated with many-stage careen-shaped ogee gables. There are the corridors within the walls (which thickness is about two meters) connecting the first floor with ground floor and underpasses. Now the historical department of Solikamsk museum of local lore is placed in the building.

The Trinity cathedral is one more monument of architecture. It was built at the end of the 17th century on a place of old burned-down wooden church. The cathedral has been constructed on money of citizens, but considerable part had been offered from imperial treasury. In memory of it the imperial crown has been reverted on the western façade, which we can see and today. The Trinity cathedral was closed in 1929. The Solikamsk museum of local lore has been placed in the building. The five-domed cathedral has a square column-like form. Its walls are richly decorated. Architraves are also a beautiful decoration of the cathedral.

The salt museum is also an important place of interest of Solikamsk. It was opened on a place of the former saltery in 1986. Here one can see process of extraction and production of kitchen salt. Museum exhibits include factory constructions, and also the house of Ryazantsev, the large industrialist of the 19th century.