The Old Town is a small reconstructed quarter of wooden buildings and a wooden watchtower in the centre of Yakutsk, built to evoke the original Cossack stockade that became the city. Some of the buildings are genuine 19th-century timber houses moved to the site, others are recent reconstructions.
It is not a large area — you can walk through it in twenty minutes — but it is a good correction to the impression that Yakutsk is all Soviet apartment blocks and steam pipes. Cafes and a few small shops line the boardwalks.