Barlak: Church and Museum History

Barlak offers cultural and historical points of interest around a former church site and the private “Gornitsa” museum. The town’s history includes a religious dedication, a cross at the former church site, and the later use of the former church building as a school. The museum has a different focus: its history includes its opening by the Putinzev family and exhibits collected collectively. If you would like to give your stay a cultural focus, you can distinguish between local history, the use of buildings, and the history of the collection. The time span between the former church, the school’s use of the building in 1945, and the museum’s opening in 2024 makes these different layers easy to distinguish.

Church Site and Cross

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Barlak had a church dedicated to the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. A report from June 2025 describes a cross more than seven metres tall at the site where this church stood. This connects the cross with a specific historical place and a clearly named religious dedication. Its height gives the cross a concrete feature; its location links it to the former church. For culturally minded travellers, this connection offers a distinct way to explore local history. It brings together the former church’s dedication and the cross at its site, making Barlak’s religious history tangible.

The Former Church Building as a School

Another perspective concerns the former church building itself. In June 1945, it was being used as a school. This makes it possible to distinguish between the site and the building: the cross refers to the place where the former church stood, while the school use refers to the building at the time. The school period adds a later use to the religious history. If you explore Barlak through the history of its buildings, this dated use offers a concrete point of reference alongside the dedication and the cross.

The “Gornitsa” Museum

“Gornitsa” is a cultural and educational centre with a private museum. The Putinzev family opened the museum in September 2024; the exhibits were collected collectively. The opening and the creation of the collection are two distinct aspects: one tells the story of the museum’s founding, the other of the exhibits being assembled collectively. In this way, “Gornitsa” adds its own museum history to the history of the church and its building. The excursion associated with the centre is not currently scheduled. If you would like to include the museum in your travel plans, check in advance whether a visit is possible.

Cultural Highlights for Your Stay

This distinction may help you decide whether Barlak suits your cultural interests. The history of the church and school is a topic to explore if you would like to connect the religious dedication with the building’s later use. The museum’s history, by contrast, focuses on the opening of a private institution and the exhibits collected collectively. This lets you choose a cultural focus based on specific topics rather than looking only in general for a destination to visit.

Discover more destinations: Ordynskoye, Rybnyy, Lebedevka, Berdsk, Bobrovka, Karassuk, Koshevo, Novolugovoye.

See the broader travel guide: Novosibirsk Oblast.