Water Tower

About museum

The tower was built in the early 1890s to serve the needs of the railway workshops, which were housed in the premises of the Mint and the State Mechanical Factory. In 1946 a second production site of the Uraltransmash plant began operating on the site of the railway workshops. During the postwar housing shortage the tower was used as a residential building. Twenty years later the residents were rehoused. For the city's 250th anniversary in 1973 the area of the ironworks was redeveloped and turned into the Historical Square. The water tower was restored and turned into a souvenir shop. In 1995 the city commissioned the Museum of History and the well-known blacksmith Alexander Lysiakov to create an exhibition of Ural metal. Since then the tower has housed the "Metal Shop" exhibition. After a major renovation in 2018 the tower reopened in a new capacity. The first floor houses a café and the Yekaterinburg Guest Center: here you can have a cup of coffee, buy authentic souvenirs and admire the historic center of Yekaterinburg from the window. On the second floor there is an exhibition dedicated to the history of the Plotinka (the dam area) and to the tower's inhabitants. For the first time in its history central heating was installed in the tower, so it is open to visitors year-round.