Smolensk's appeal lies almost entirely in its history, and the physical record of that history is extraordinary. Start with the Smolensk Kremlin Wall — walk the surviving sections and climb the towers for the best views of the Dnieper and the city. The Dormition Cathedral on Cathedral Hill is the architectural centrepiece, its Baroque facades and golden domes rising above the kremlin wall.
For a deeper understanding of the city's layered religious history, visit the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Catholic, Jesuit, from the Polish period) and the Choral Synagogue (a surviving trace of the city's Jewish community). The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is one of the oldest standing buildings in Russia, a 12th-century Romanesque-influenced church on a hill across the Dnieper. The Smolensk State Museum provides essential context for understanding the city's military and cultural history.