Znamenskoye

Znamenskoye lies on the Irtysh in the forest country north of Tara. Local history associates its beginnings with the seventeenth-century settlement of the river valley, although the precise year is debated. A chapel built in 1700 was dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, from which the village took its name. The Irtysh connected this settlement with Tara and other communities along the great Siberian waterway.