Where is the monument to Tula gingerbread? Note that you can find perfectly real historical and gastronomic evidence of confectionery skills in many shops of the city. However, the largest of them, albeit made of bronze, can be seen in the center of the Gingerbread Capital.
The monument to Tula Pryanik (imprinted gingerbread) is found on Lenina Square. It is located between the Tula Region administration and the Gostiny Dvor shopping center, right in front of the fountain.
If earlier guests, having arrived in the City of Craftsmen, simply could not leave without its sweet symbol, now the obligatory tourist program includes taking a photo of the monument to Tula Pryanik. This became possible in the summer of 2014, when a bronze symbol of the city weighing 1.3 tons, 2.7 meters in diameter, was installed on the main square on the Levsha Day and the All-Russian Tourist Forum.
The Monument to Tula Pryanik greets visitors with the following inscription: “For luck. Tula gingerbread. Renowned since 1685”. If you walk around it, you will see on the reverse side a poem dedicated to the sweet symbol of the city, composed by V.A. Poyarkov and A.V. Chizhov. The funds for the creation and installation of such an art object were allocated by arts patrons.
Now, let’s move on from the description of the monument to the Tula Pryanik to a brief history of the city’s main delicacy. As stated earlier, the sweet symbol of Tula is mentioned for the first time in the scribal book of 1685. For over three hundred years, production and recipes have evolved, factories competed with each other, creating more and more impeccable prints on gingerbread and dough recipes. Such rivalry led to the fact that in the 19–20th centuries the whole world knew about the sweet symbol of Tula. Gingerbread from the City of Craftsmen won awards at international exhibitions.
After the revolution, all the recipes for the main delicacy of Tula were forgotten and the production of Tula Pryanik was restored only by accident in 1954.
Legends say much about the sweet symbol of Tula. Songs and poems are composed in its honor. It was made in single copies for memorable events taking place in the Empire, be it coronation, war victory, or anniversary. In Tula, whole gingerbread dynasties of the Grechikhins, Belolipetskys, Kozlovs and others are well-known.
Today Tula gingerbread can be purchased in almost any pastry shop or souvenir shop. For those wishing to learn the history of the city’s main delicacy, there are museums and venues for workshops devoted to its production. The Pryanik Monument in Tula is included in most tourist routes on which guides work in the heart of the city It looks good and is popular with adults and children alike, who enjoy being photographed with it.
