Since 1978, the Oblasa festival has been held every year, alternating between one of the national settlements in Nizhnevartovsky District. The changing venue is a tradition in its own right. If you plan to attend the festival, check the current location and date before travelling.

A route through Varyogan

The “Istoriya sela Varyogan” route runs through the streets of Varyogan. Its stops include the Varyogan Ethnographic Park-Museum and the Yu. K. Vella House Museum. This route brings together two museum stops as part of an exploration of the settlement. Confirm local availability and arrangements before your trip.

Encounters and collections in the district

Walking trips to Khanty camps are organised from the “Medvezhiy bor u reki Agan” site. Visitors can learn about their traditional way of life there; the programme also includes a visit to the Varyogan open-air ethnographic museum. Compared with the route through the settlement’s streets, this offering places more emphasis on an organised encounter with traditional life and also includes a museum visit. Confirm the current arrangements before travelling.

The “Muzey-usadba kuptsa P. A. Kaydalova” museum in Laryak holds more than 500 exhibits. Its collection, with its own distinctive scale, complements the routes and museum stops in Varyogan. If you plan a visit, confirm the current visitor arrangements.

Context within the wider destination of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

Within the wider destination of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Samarovsky Chugas Nature Park in Khanty-Mansiysk combines nature conservation with environmental education. It protects especially valuable natural complexes, rare plants and animals, pristine forests, and unique landscapes at the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh rivers. The park also aims to provide conditions for regulated recreation and environmental education. Nature conservation and learning are two distinct but related themes here.

The museums in Khanty-Mansiysk also have different focuses. The collections of the Museum of Nature and Man include more than 100,000 records of the history and culture of Yugra. The Museum of Geology, Oil and Gas displays minerals, materials relating to geological exploration, and palaeontological finds from the region. It also features equipment used by geologists and oil workers. This lets you explore regional history and culture on the one hand, and geological finds and exploration on the other, as distinct themes.

At the Torum Maa open-air museum, an educational excursion follows a hunting trail and covers hunting tools used by Indigenous peoples. The trail and the subject go hand in hand: the excursion uses a hunting trail as its setting, while the tools used are its main focus.

Another regional landmark stands in Surgut: the Monument to the Founders of the City is a bronze group of four figures—Prince Fyodor Boryatinsky, voivode Vladimir Onichkov, a Cossack carpenter, and an unnamed priest. Unlike museums and their collections, the monument portrays four people and roles in a single group.

Discover more destinations: Berezovsky District, City of Surgut, Nizhnevartovsky District, Surgutsky District, City of Nyagan', Surgutsky District, City of Yugorsk, Sovetsky District.

Return to the wider travel overview: Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.