“Irkutsk is a city of history. He plays a noticeable role in the history of Russia and in today's day in the country, it is not randomly assigned to the towns-museums, for saved a lot of antiquity, the romantic image of the stable power development, the splendor of the Church domes over the blue bubble of the Angara. The street of it — as the cutoff time, where the formed century, replacing each other” . These words begins the story of Irkutsk in the book "Irkutsk" his admirer and friend, the Honourable citizen of a well-known writer and poet M.D.Sergeev.It was established in 1661 served Cossacks pioneer and boyar's son Yakov Похабова as Ostrog — a wooden fortress on the junction of two rivers: the impetuous Angara and the power of the Irkut. From this river gave the name to the city.In 1675 via Irkutsk on the way to China passed the first Ambassador Nikolay Спафарий. Here is what he wrote in his “Memoirs”: “Irkutsk Ostrog… structure was very good, and residential Cossack and merchants courtyards with 40 and more, and the place of the хлебородное” . Picturesque Siberian expanses, the fertile lands, forests and rivers, proximity to places of habitat of Siberia — Buryats, Evenks, Yakuts contributed to the rapid development of Irkutsk fortress. In 1682 he becomes the center of the Voivodeship, in the same year came here from Moscow arrives the first commander Ivan Власьев. In 1686 receives the status of a city and a few years later receives its city coat of arms.