Nizhnii Tagil bus on Lenin Prospect © Gene Hyde

Monument to the fallen soldiers of Russia's wars
April 2000 © Gene Hyde

Ice fishing along the impounded Tagil River known as
"The Pond" Nov 2000 © Gene Hyde

Center of Nizhnii Tagil

Nizhnii Tagil, Russia

Nizhnii Tagil, Russia City Web Site

Nizhniy Tagil joined us as a sister city in June of 1996. It is an industrial city of 382,000 located on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in the Sverdlovsk Oblast (western Asia) some 25 kilometers east of the virtual border between Europe and Asia. Rivers and ponds take up one third of the city’s territory. The history of Nizhniy Tagil begins with the opening of the Visokogorski iron ore quarry in 1696. Founded in 1722, it has been a major center for mining, metallurgy, and manufacturing. The city produced the first bicycle and first steam locomotive in Russia. Nizhniy Tagil has air pollution worse than Chattanooga's old problem and has been declared an "environmental emergency zone."

Nizhniy Tagil looks at Chattanooga as an example of how to modify industrial practices to clean up the environment without losing its industrial base. Even though exchanges of information on environmental issues will take center stage, art and cultural exchanges as well as teacher and student visits will also be given high priority.

The year 2009 saw connections with the School # 5 in Nizhniy Tagil and Chattanooga's Barger Academy of Fine Arts (our area’s only school that offers Russian).

Pictures from Summer 2004 trip



Chattanooga, USA	Wuxi,China	Hamm, Germany	Givatayim, Israel	Gangneung, Korea	Nizhnii Tagil, Russia