The area around Ploshchad 1905 Goda and the City Pond is Yekaterinburg's compact, walkable core. Soviet-era civic architecture (the City Administration, the Opera House) coexists with a handful of merchant mansions that survived the 1920s and 30s. The riverside embankment, lined with chestnuts and birches, is the favourite local promenade.
A short walk west takes you to the Yeltsin Center and the skyscrapers of Yekaterinburg-City; a short walk north reaches the Church on Blood and the Romanov sites. Most of the city's main museums, theatres and central restaurants are within this zone.