Demidov Square, Square in Tsentralny District, Barnaul, Russia

Demidov Square is a square in the Tsentralny District of Barnaul, bounded by Polzunova Street, Pushkina Street and Krasnoarmeysky Prospekt. Its ensemble of Russian classicism was built between 1819 and 1852 by architects A. I. Molchanov, Ya. N. Popov, L. I. Ivanov and I. N. Shreiber. The buildings housed the mining school, the mining hospital and an almshouse for invalids of the silver-smelting plant with the Church of Dmitry Rostovsky. In the centre stands a 14-metre Demidov pillar surrounded by a public garden.

In 1818, mining chief P. K. Frolov proposed a square for an obelisk marking 100 years of Altai mining, on the former Konyushennaya Square by the pond dam. The ensemble was built between 1819 and 1852 in Russian classicism style. After the 1844 obelisk with a bas-relief of Akinfiy Demidov was installed, it was named Demidovskaya. Renamed Revolution Square in 1925, it regained its name after 1992.

The pillar honors workers in the mining industry and shows how central this labor was to the city's identity. You can see here a rare example of a Russian city celebrating its working population.

The square lies between Polzunova Street, Pushkina Street and Krasnoarmeysky Prospekt in the Tsentralny district, at the northern end of the factory dam on the left bank of the Barnaul pond. The 14-metre Demidov pillar stands in a small public garden in the middle, so you can walk around it and read the bas-relief of Akinfiy Demidov.

A kilometer marker on the plaza marks Kilometre Zero, the starting point for measuring all road distances in Altai Krai. This makes the square a geographic reference point for the entire region.