Slyudyanka Marble Station

Slyudyanka I station stands at kilometre 5311 of the Trans-Siberian and grew out of the Circum-Baikal road's needs: a junction with a locomotive depot was required. The station was meant for Kultuk, but the villagers refused to give up their land — so it was built further south, beyond the Shaman cape, on the shore of Slyudyanka bay; the settlement of Slyudyanka was born there in 1899. The station was built from 23 May 1903 to 1904 at a cost of 89,218 roubles. It is the only building in Russia (by other accounts, in the world) constructed entirely of white and pink unpolished marble: Baikal stone laid in coursed and cyclopean masonry, the facade strictly symmetrical. The architect is believed to have been an Italian; the contractor Gessel Shmerling directed the works. The station is a heritage site within the federal monument 'The Circum-Baikal Railway Complex'. A waiting hall operates inside; generations of passengers — from the Trans-Siberian builders to today's Circum-Baikal walkers — have laid their hands on the marble walls.