The Church of the Archangel Michael — commonly called the Decembrists' Church — is the most visited sight in Chita, both for its role in the history of the 1825 Decembrist uprising and as one of the few surviving 18th-century wooden buildings in the city. It was built in 1776, and it was here that the Decembrist exiles worshipped after they were marched in chains from European Russia to serve out their sentences in Siberian labour camps.
The church now contains a small but well-curated museum about the Decembrists' exile — their lives in Chita, their relationships with local people, and the role their wives played in supporting them. Several of the wives gave up their titles, their property rights, and their children (under Russian law, any wife who followed her husband into exile forfeited her civil rights) to join the men in Chita. The museum includes portraits, letters, and personal effects.