# Keyboard Monument, Yekaterinburg > The Keyboard Monument is a concrete keyboard of 104 keys, 30 times life size, laid on the Iset riverbank in central Yekaterinburg by artist Anatoly Vyatkin in 2005. It's free and open around the clock. Plan on about 15 minutes — a quirky photo stop and a sit on the keys, a 10-minute walk from the Plotinka dam. Web page: https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/keyboard-monument - City: [Yekaterinburg](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg), Russia - YesGo score: 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 15 min - With kids: Fine with kids - Entry: Free — no ticket, no gate - Hours: Any time, day or night - Where: Iset embankment below Gorkogo St 14a, down a flight of steps - Nearest metro: Geologicheskaya ≈ 700 m, Ploshchad 1905 Goda ≈ 1 km - From Plotinka: ≈ 10 minutes on foot along Gorkogo Street - Time needed: 15 minutes, up to half an hour with a riverside stroll - Coordinates: 56.83233, 60.60757 - Facts checked: 30.10.2026 ## Key facts - **104 keys** — made of concrete — the same count as a full-size keyboard (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Tripster; Tonkosti Turizma guide) - **Anatoly Vyatkin** — the Ural artist who created it (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Rossiyskaya Gazeta; Tonkosti Turizma guide) - **5 October 2005** — unveiled during the Long Stories of Yekaterinburg art festival (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Tripster) - **30 : 1** — scale — thirty times bigger than a real keyboard (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Tripster) - **16 × 4 m** — the whole layout (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Tripster; Tonkosti Turizma guide) - **≈ 80–100 kg** — per ordinary key; the space bar is ≈ 450–500 kg (sources differ) (source: English Wikipedia (80 / 450 kg); Russian Wikipedia, Tripster, Tonkosti Turizma (100 / 500 kg)) - **Cyrillic + Latin** — a Russian ЙЦУКЕН / QWERTY layout, keys in their real order (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **36 × 36 cm** — an ordinary key, with 15 cm gaps between keys (source: Tonkosti Turizma guide; Tripster; Russian Wikipedia (gaps)) - **2011** — locals recast the stolen F1, F2, F3 and Y keys (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Tripster) - **End key** — carries a plaque to Yevgeny Zorin, a pioneer of the internet in the Urals (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Tripster; Tonkosti Turizma guide) - **2018** — The New York Times wrote about it during the football World Cup (source: Russian Wikipedia; E1.ru, July 2018) - **2025** — restored: keys lifted, sandblasted clean and reset on a firmer base (source: E1.ru, September and November 2025; Rossiyskaya Gazeta, November 2025) > **A fun photo stop, not a major sight** The Keyboard Monument is a playful art piece on a riverside lawn — great for ten minutes, not worth a special trip across town. The good news: it's a 10-minute walk from the Plotinka dam, so it slots neatly into a stroll around the centre. Sitting and jumping on the keys is fine — that's the whole idea. ## Where is the Keyboard Monument? It's **in the city centre, on the east bank of the Iset River**, on the embankment below Gorkogo Street, roughly halfway between the Plotinka dam and the State Circus. Look for house No. 14a, an old merchant's house known locally as the Crooked House; a flight of steps next to it drops down to the river, and the keyboard lies on the slope below. Nearby landmarks are the corner of Gorkogo and Engelsa streets and Malysheva Street just to the north. Across the river you'll see the Dendrology Park and the Ural branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, reached over the Splavnoy footbridge. In Yandex Maps — which works better than Google Maps in Russia — search for «Памятник клавиатуре» and the pin lands right on the embankment. ## How to get to the Keyboard Monument from Plotinka 1. Start at the [Plotinka dam](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/yekaterinburg-plotinka) — 5 minutes' walk down Lenin Avenue from Ploshchad 1905 Goda metro station. 2. Cross the dam to the east bank of the Iset, towards [Sevastyanov House](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/sevastyanov-house). 3. Turn right (south) onto Gorkogo Street and follow it along the river for about 600 m, past the Malysheva Street junction — 8–10 minutes. 4. At No. 14a, the old Crooked House, take the steps down to the embankment. The keyboard is right below. 5. Coming from elsewhere: from Geologicheskaya metro it's about 700 m over the Splavnoy footbridge; buses and trolleybuses stop at «ул. Малышева / Горького», 5 minutes away. For the metro or buses, pay with cash roubles or a Russian bank card — foreign Visa and Mastercard cards have not worked in Russia since March 2022. 6. Afterwards, walk back along the river to Plotinka, or head east along Malysheva to the [Vysotsky skyscraper](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/vysotsky-skyscraper), about 15 minutes. ## What does it look like? Picture a **giant computer keyboard pressed into the grass** of a riverbank. Each key is a separate concrete block sunk into the ground with its letter or symbol on top, and they sit in exactly the order you know: number row, letters, Shift and Enter, arrow keys, a numeric keypad on the right and a long space bar along the bottom. The labels are **both Cyrillic and Latin** — the standard Russian ЙЦУКЕН / QWERTY layout. An ordinary key is about 36 cm square, with 15 cm gaps in between, so you can hop from key to key. The whole thing measures around 16 by 4 metres. The best overall view is from the steps coming down from Gorkogo Street — from there the full layout fits in one frame. Down at key level you get the other classic shots: sitting on Enter, lying across the space bar or spelling out your name. ## Who made it, and why a keyboard? The monument is the work of **Ural artist Anatoly Vyatkin**. It was unveiled on **5 October 2005** as a special project of the Long Stories of Yekaterinburg contemporary art festival. The Atom construction group (then Atomstroykompleks) cast and installed the concrete and has kept it painted and patched for years. According to Wikipedia, Vyatkin first sketched something ironic — a "cemetery of ideas" with even bigger, ergonomic keys. The festival producers dropped the irony and kept it permanent: a monument to the one object most of us touch every day. Locals adopted it fast. When the F1, F2, F3 and Y keys were stolen, an initiative group recast them in 2011. Volunteer clean-up days and Sysadmin Day — the last Friday of July, with contests such as dead-computer-mouse throwing — are held here, and in 2018 The New York Times wrote about it during the football World Cup. ## Things to do at the keyboard - **Get the full-layout shot from the steps** — in daylight: the keys are plain grey concrete and the letters fade at dusk. - **Spell something out** — your initials, or stand on Ctrl + C while a friend takes Ctrl + V. - **Find the End key** with its plaque to Yevgeny Zorin, one of the people who brought the internet to the Urals. - **Press Enter with both feet** — local superstition says your wish then comes true. - **Walk the Iset embankment** — the riverside path runs both ways; heading north brings you back to Plotinka. - **Look around the neighbourhood** — the Beatles monument, the Museum of Naive Art and 19th-century merchants' houses are on the same bank. ## Tickets, hours and when to go **There's no ticket and no closing time** — the keyboard sits on a public embankment with no fence, kiosk or guard. Come early in the morning or late in the evening if you like, though the riverbank is dark at night and photos suffer. In winter the keys partly disappear under snow, so for the whole layout aim for May to October. Wet concrete gets slippery after rain — keep the key-hopping for dry days, especially with children. You don't need a guide here: there's no museum or signage to interpret. A walking tour makes sense if you want the whole centre with a story, with the keyboard as one stop. ## Before you go: checklist - [ ] Walking from Plotinka along Gorkogo Street — 10 minutes - [ ] Allowing 15 minutes, no more - [ ] Comfortable shoes for the steps and key-hopping - [ ] Going in daylight for the full-layout photo - [ ] Checked the weather — wet concrete is slippery - [ ] Cash roubles or a Russian card if I'll take the metro or a bus ## Is the Keyboard Monument worth it? Yes, if you're already walking around the centre: it's free, 10 minutes from Plotinka, and the silly photos and a sit by the river make a good break between museums. Kids love it, and so does anyone who spends their working day at a computer. No, if you only have a couple of hours and want the essentials: the [Church on the Blood](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/yekaterinburg-church-on-the-blood), the [Yeltsin Center](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/yeltsin-center) and Plotinka tell you far more about the city. Don't cross town just for the keyboard — it's a stop on the way, not a destination. ## Keyboard Monument vs Plotinka and Vysotsky | | Keyboard Monument | Plotinka | Vysotsky | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Concrete keyboard on the riverbank | Old dam and square — the city's heart | Skyscraper with a viewing deck | | Entry | Free, 24/7 | Free, 24/7 | Viewing deck — paid | | Time | 15 min | 30–60 min | ≈ 1 h | | Best for | Photos, kids | Everyone, especially evenings | City views | The keyboard and Plotinka are 10 minutes apart, so pair them. The Vysotsky tower is 15 minutes away along Malysheva if you want to see the city from above afterwards. ## Yekaterinburg's waterside sights compared Every waterside place in Yekaterinburg rated by YesGo. - [Keyboard Monument](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/keyboard-monument) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 15 min · Free - [Plotinka Dam](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/yekaterinburg-plotinka) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · Free - [Olenyi Ruchyi Nature Park](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/olenyi-ruchyi) — YesGo score 16/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 4 h · 557 ₽; free for Russian under-18s ## Central Yekaterinburg on foot in half a day The Church on the Blood, Sevastyanov House and Plotinka, then along the Iset to the keyboard and up Malysheva to the Vysotsky tower for sunset. 1. [Church on the Blood](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/yekaterinburg-church-on-the-blood) — YesGo score 55/100 (Yes, go) · 45 min · Free entry to the church 2. [Sevastyanov House](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/sevastyanov-house) — YesGo score 39/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · Free, outside only 3. [Plotinka Dam](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/yekaterinburg-plotinka) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · Free 4. [Keyboard Monument](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/keyboard-monument) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 15 min · Free 5. [Vysotsky Skyscraper](https://yesgo.io/russia/yekaterinburg/vysotsky-skyscraper) — YesGo score 41/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · 600 ₽, children 5–12 400 ₽ ## Good to know Locals call the monument «Клава», slang for keyboard. If you ask for directions, «памятник клавиатуре» (pah-MYAT-nik kla-vi-a-TOO-reh) is the phrase that works; most passers-by on Gorkogo Street will point you to the steps. ## Tips - Shoot the full layout from the upper steps — from below it never fits in one frame. - For the classic joke photo, stand on Ctrl + C and put a friend on Ctrl + V. - Make it a loop: Plotinka, down Gorkogo Street, the keyboard, then back north along the river path. - With kids, come on a dry day: wet concrete is slippery and the gaps between keys are 15 cm. - In winter the keys get buried in snow — for the full layout, visit between May and October. ## Questions ### Where is the Keyboard Monument in Yekaterinburg? On the Iset River embankment in the city centre, below Gorkogo Street by house No. 14a, between the Plotinka dam and the circus — about 10 minutes' walk from Plotinka. ### How many keys does the Keyboard Monument have? 104, like a full-size keyboard, with a Russian Cyrillic and Latin QWERTY layout in the real key order. ### Who made the Keyboard Monument? Ural artist Anatoly Vyatkin, for the Long Stories of Yekaterinburg art festival. The Atom construction group cast and installed the concrete. ### When was it built? It was unveiled on 5 October 2005 and restored in autumn 2025, for its 20th anniversary. ### Is it free to visit? Yes. It's on a public embankment with no gate or ticket, open around the clock, and you're welcome to sit on the keys. ### How big is it, and what is it made of? Concrete, at a 30 : 1 scale, about 16 × 4 m in all. An ordinary key is 36 cm square and weighs roughly 80–100 kg; the space bar about 450–500 kg. ### How do I get there? Walk 10 minutes from Plotinka along Gorkogo Street. By metro, Geologicheskaya is about 700 m away over the Splavnoy footbridge, and Ploshchad 1905 Goda about 1 km. ### How long do I need? About 15 minutes for photos and a sit on the keys; half an hour if you add a walk along the river. ### Is the Keyboard Monument worth visiting? As a quick stop on a walk around the centre, yes — it's free and fun, especially with kids. It isn't worth a special trip on its own. ## How we checked Free, round-the-clock access follows from what the place is — an unfenced lawn on a public embankment — and is confirmed by travel guides; there is no official source for hours, so nothing on this page carries an “official” badge. Artist, date, material, key count, scale and size were checked against English and Russian Wikipedia, Tripster and the Tonkosti Turizma guide. Weights disagree: English Wikipedia gives about 80 kg per key and 450 kg for the space bar, Russian sources about 100 and 500 kg — we show both. Sources give different sums for the 2025 restoration fund, so we leave the amount out. Tripster lists the address as Gorkogo 14, the Tonkosti guide as by No. 14a; we use 14a and mark it “verifying”. Metro distances come from the guide; walking time from Plotinka is estimated from the ≈ 650 m distance. ## Sources - English and Russian Wikipedia: Keyboard Monument / Памятник клавиатуре; Wikidata Q2037145 - Tripster, article on the Keyboard Monument (2026) - Tonkosti Turizma travel guide: Keyboard Monument in Yekaterinburg — location and directions - E1.ru, 23.09.2025 and 14.11.2025: the monument removed for restoration and returned - Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 27.11.2025: residents restored the art object - E1.ru, 04.07.2018: The New York Times writes about Yekaterinburg - Visa and Mastercard statements on suspending operations in Russia, March 2022 --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.