Василий Поленов, Лев Толстой и оружейники: Тула и область за 2 дня

Arrival in Tula
Tula is a hero city, a love city, a dream city, a heart city.
The city that has been giving fire since 1146. Spacious, historical, industrial,
reacting to changes and not stopping at past achievements, he continues to move forward. Preserved provincial kindness, not infected
by metropolitan snobbery, the city is looking for its own ways without using others'
with maps. You don't have to love the city. Just like the city doesn't have to love you. But you can make friends with him. You just need to earn his trust. And how is it already there
If a relationship develops, it's a personal matter. Although about the capital
you need to know the gunsmiths, samovars and delicious gingerbread. Topics
moreover, each case is represented in Tula by a corresponding museum

The Museum of Arms
In any textbook collection "What you must see in Tula" you will find a "Museum of weapons". It doesn't matter at all whether you can distinguish a saber from a sword or confuse a hunting rifle with a Makarov pistol. You need to visit the Museum of Weapons. First of all, it is one of the most modern museums in the country, where the exposition is presented using multimedia technologies. No, no, the exhibits themselves are authentic and placed in museum showcases, but they are accompanied by interactive programs, not boring labels or excerpts from encyclopedias. It is important that in the huge (five floors) museum, weapons are treated primarily as an art form, considering its utilitarian functions last. Clear and constructive navigation, respectful of details and aesthetics. Much attention is paid to stories about brilliant craftsmen, legends, stories about rare technologies, collectible samples and antique curiosities. There are always many guests from different cities and regions, so plan your visit in advance. Whether to take a guide or not is up to you, but you won't be able to quickly see the museum, and most importantly, feel it.
Address: Tula, Oktyabrskaya str., 2.;

Samovar Museum
Each city has its own rules, which are not spelled out in any of the instructions. Well, for example, in St. Petersburg it is correct to say not "donuts", but "crumpets", the most delicious chak-chak in Kazan, and you can not come to Tula with your samovar. You can leave Tula with at least ten. And which of them you will take home, it is best to find out at the Tula Samovars Museum. It opened in 1990 and is located near the Kremlin in a building built at the end of the 19th century for the House of Educational Institutions named after Emperor Alexander II. The museum occupies two floors, there are more than 500 samovars in its collections, and they are all different: wicker from vines, wooden, classic and marching, in honor of anniversaries and significant dates, miniature and two floors in size, made of precious metals and glass. Of various shapes, volumes, engravings and applications. The museum may seem a little old-fashioned to some, now everyone is used to interactive technologies (by the way, they are in the museum), but it is precisely in its coziness, love of business and the incredible history of samovars that the charm of visiting lies. First of all, the story about samovars is not boring sightseeing information, but a real poem: here are the heroes of samovar dynasties, and almost a "diorama" of artisanal production, old catalogs, the layout, beauty and conciseness of which modern designers will envy. There is a separate room with a pastry shop, where items that no tea party could do without are presented: tin packages from pre-revolutionary confectionery factories, sugar loaves, candy molds, tongs, dishes, porcelain and much more. Believe me, if you have always considered the samovar to be something conservative from the distant past and it is not clear why it is necessary, then after visiting the museum you will really want to buy it. A souvenir shop with both modern and antique samples is also nearby. We strongly recommend you to visit, at least in order to sit on the summer terrace somewhere under the Tarusa on a clear July evening and drink a steaming aromatic blend from saucers, spreading currant jam on freshly baked jam.

Tula Gingerbread Museum
It would seem that the gingerbread museum in Tula should have existed since the construction of the Kremlin walls, but the paradox is, despite the numerous craftsmen, gingerbread dynasties and craftsmen, the first museum dedicated to the beloved dessert of the townspeople appeared here only in 1996. It's called the Tula gingerbread. It is concise, strict and can not be confused with any other gingerbread. Exhibits for the museum were collected from collectors, local historians, history buffs, flea markets, and many other places. Anyway, at present, the museum's collection has grown into two halls and is constantly being updated. The museum presents: the largest gingerbread in the country, gingerbread baked for anniversaries and significant dates (for example, a gingerbread made for the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II is kept here), a gingerbread presented to the personnel of the cruiser Varyag. In addition to the delicacy itself, you can also see the carved boards in which the gingerbread is baked. Actually, thanks to this technology, gingerbread cookies are called printed. Making a board is an art no less important than baking the gingerbread itself. Some shapes were cut specifically for exclusive gingerbread, and after cooking, the boards broke so that the second such product could not be repeated. It was called "breaking the seal." In addition to the above, you can see pre-revolutionary treat boxes, gingerbread confessions (now they would be called "valentines"), and also hear about the families of the great gingerbread dynasties.: Belolipetsky, Buckwheat and others. In general, if you still did not know who was the first to build a gingerbread house (the real one) in the center of Paris, before it became a "hallmark of fashion brands," we recommend visiting the museum. A souvenir shop with all kinds of varieties and shapes of gingerbread is, of course, attached.

Let's move from classic Tula to modern Tula, which has appeared in recent years with public spaces, creative clusters, event calendar, parks and the museum quarter.

Where to eat? 

Salden'S Porterhouse
Tula, Sovetskaya str., 11/1

Well Well Well kitchen & wine bar
Tula, Metallistov St., 13

Coffeehouse Chain Kofekult

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Kazanskaya embankment

The most cited public space in Tula (and absolutely deservedly so). Kazanskaya Embankment was opened in 2018. The name is given in honor of the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which was historically located here (now the college is located in the building of the former temple).

Now the Embankment is the most popular place in Tula, and only lazy did not write about how good the embankment is. Yes, and the lazy one, frankly, wrote it too. To understand the enormity of the transformation of space, let's start with a short story.
Until 2017, the area along the Upa River occupied by the embankment was owned by the Tula Arms Factory and was closed to the public. Simply put, metal waste, construction debris, plastic, barrels, etc. have been stored in the wasteland behind the Kremlin walls for decades. Naturally, the canal of the Upa River was not that polluted, there was practically no water in it. Actually, there was no exit to the territory from the Kremlin. In 2016, a large-scale reconstruction began, the river channel was deepened, cleaned (more than 70 tons of garbage were removed), new communications were laid, A landscape park was laid out on the shore of the Upa, and a comfortable access to the water was made. They filled the space with pedestrian bridges, walking areas, bike paths, and an amphitheater. Sports and playgrounds, summer stages and a lecture hall, and cafes were organically built in. The architectural bureau was responsible for the transformation Wow House. In 2018, on City Day (just a year and a half later), the Embankment received its first visitors, by the way, more than 180 thousand people visited the space on the opening day. Now it seems that Tula has always had the Kazan Embankment, it fits so naturally into the fabric of the city. With all the beauty of the embankment, we must pay tribute to the fact that it did not attract the attention of citizens and tourists from the architectural dominants located around (the Kremlin, the Museum Quarter), but rather emphasized them.

Museum Quarter

The street was once called Pyatnitskaya and was one of the richest streets in the city. The famous Tula merchant dynasties built their houses on it. They also set up their production and trade here: from gingerbread shops to a candle shop. After 1917, the street lost some of its prestigious status, and the buildings of the mansions were transferred to Soviet public organizations and residential apartments. So at the beginning of the 20th century, in house No. 5, which once belonged to the Fitzs merchants, a society was formed where members of the Tula branch of the Moscow Society for Metalworking (Union of Metalworkers) held meetings. In honor of this union, the street got its modern name. Over the decades, the street lost its beauty and architectural appearance, and by the beginning of the 21st century, it found itself outside the city's tourist routes. In 2014, the restoration of the street space began, but the main work to return the Metalworkers to their original appearance was carried out after 2018.

Metallistov Street is now the only pedestrian street (known to us) in Tula, which houses museums, restaurants, workshops, tea shops, coffee shops, souvenir shops and gingerbread shops. The second name of the street is "Museum Quarter". A branch of the State Historical Museum, the Archeology and Restoration space of the Kulikovo Field Museum, the Museum of Soviet Toys, the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts, the estate of Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov - the Family History Center, Yasnaya Polyana – L.N.T. and others have already opened their doors here. On Fridays, you will definitely meet friends here who are clearly aiming to go out into the night and pick you up to look for a "bright youth". Having preserved the history on the facades, the past in the courtyards, and already loved by locals and guests, it is perhaps not yet the Tula "heart", like Pokrovka for Nizhny Novgorod or Bauman for Kazan, but it will definitely be soon. Give me some time.

Tula Kremlin
Remember, at Yerofeyev's Broom, the hero went to the Kremlin, and came to the Kursky railway station. In Tula, however, all roads lead to the Kremlin. According to an established but unknown tradition, any journey in the hero city begins with him. The Kremlin is not just a "visiting card of Tula," as guidebooks like to write, it is the heart of the city, its main love, pride and, if you will, the attitude of the citizens. The Kremlin walls have never been conquered by the enemy, as any Tulyak knows. In addition, everyone has their own bright memory connected with the territory of the Kremlin; someone's grandmother worked here, someone's father played football on the local field as a child (yes, there was a stadium on the territory of the Kremlin for a long time), someone searched for treasures here, ran from the guards and invented their own legends.. But that's all mythology, now to the facts. The Tula Kremlin was built in the period from 1517 to 1520 by decree of Ivan the Terrible to repel the Crimean Tatar raids. The total area is 6 hectares. The Kremlin walls are lined with white and red bricks and are crowned by 9 towers. There are two cathedrals on the territory, the Assumption and the Epiphany, part of the 19th-century shopping malls with an enfilade gallery, a chamber-like but very friendly private museum of international gingerbread, an archaeological window, courtyards, the building of one of the country's first power plants (now reconstructed into the atrium of the Tula Kremlin Museum). The Assumption Cathedral– one of the most beautiful in Tula, was built on the territory of the Kremlin at the end of the 18th century, but in 1936 its main dominant, the bell tower, was severely damaged and destroyed by fire. In 2015, it was completely restored with donations from residents and local businesses. A small temple was also opened in it, consecrated in honor of Dmitry Donskoy, who was especially revered in the Tula land. Inside the cathedral, the multi-tiered carved iconostasis, the work of Yaroslavl craftsmen, attracts great attention. Next to the Assumption Cathedral is the Epiphany Cathedral, built in honor of the memory of the soldiers who died in the war of 1812. Currently, the cathedral building is one of the buildings of the Museum of Weapons, which houses a small part of the exposition and there are no plans to give the cathedral its original appearance, despite the fact that restoration work is underway. Well, and a couple more interesting figures to begin to understand the Tula Kremlin a little better.:

The bricks that make up the walls of the Kremlin are called two-handed and weigh eight kg. The perimeter of the walls is 1 km, the wall thickness is 4 meters, and the wall height is 11 meters. There is a legend that under the Ivanovskaya Tower there was an underground passage to the river, which could be used to replenish water supplies in case of a long siege. As a rule, the Kremlin is crowded, especially on weekends. It is better to come in the morning and take a quiet walk around the territory.

Address: Tula Kremlin, 12B Mendeleevskaya St.

Where to stay? 

SK Royal Hotel Tula 5*
Tula, Sovetskaya str., 29

AZIMUT Park Hotel Tula 4*
Tula region, Shchekinsky district, Yasnaya Polyana village, 112 block of Yasnopolyansky forestry, 4

The Key Hotel

Tula, Sovetskaya St., 58

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