English

Places to visit in Kaluga region 

Borovsk

Borovsk is a town and the administrative center of Borovsky District of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Protva River just south from the oblast's border with Moscow Oblast.

It is known to have existed since 1356 as a part of the Principality of Ryazan. In the 14th century, it was owned by Vladimir the Bold, but passed to the Grand Duchy of Moscow when his granddaughter Maria of Borovsk married Vasily II.

In 1444, the St. Paphnutius Monastery was founded near Borovsk. Its strong walls, towers, and a massive cathedral survive from the reign of Boris Godunov. Two famous Old Believers—archpriest Avvakum Petrovich and boyarunya Feodosiya Morozova—were incarcerated at this monastery in the second half of the 17th century.

The St. Pafnutius Monastery

Monastery is located on the left bank of the Protva river, 3 kilometers south-east of Borovsk – a town in Kaluga region, and in 83 kilometers south-west of Moscow. For nearly six centuries, the monastery was one of the major spiritual, cultural and economic centers of Kaluga land. The monastery was founded in 1444 by a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh – St. Paphbutius. In 1467, a new cathedral was built instead of wooden Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin – the five-domed white stone building, decorated by painters Mitrofan and Dionysius. In the second half of the XVI century, stone walls and towers were built. Construction of the monastery-fortress was of great importance for strengthening the south-western borders of Muscovy, so Moscow tsars and princes took care of the monastery from the groundbreaking.

During the years of Soviet rule, the monastery was nationalized and turned into a historical and art museum. In 1991, the Orthodox monastery was returned to the Church. Monastery library was collected and operates, and «Borovsk monastery Bulletin» is being published. Since 2000, the children’s Sunday school functions in the monastery.

Tsiolkovsky Museum in Borovsk

In the late 60s of the XX century, Tsiolkovsky museum was opened in the town of Borovsk, located in Kaluga region. It was in Borovsk, where the young scientist grew up, where he began his teaching and research activities. Here, Konstantin Eduardovich and Varvara Evgrafovna Sokolova made their family and gave birth to four children. Exposition of the museum features books, various instruments, and craft work of the scientist.

Maloyaroslavets

It was founded in the late 14th century by Vladimir the Bold and named Yaroslavets after his son Yaroslav. In 1485, the town was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow and renamed Maloyaroslavets to distinguish it from Yaroslavl. During the French invasion of Russia, the Battle of Maloyaroslavets took place near this town on October 12 (24) of 1812. The battle was commemorated by a roomy cathedral built at the Black Island (Chyornoostrovsky) Convent of Maloyaroslavets by 1843.

A number of fierce battles were also fought near Maloyaroslavets during the Battle of Moscow in 1941–1942. The town was captured by the German Army on October 18, 1941 and liberated by the Red Army on January 2, 1942.        

Military and Historical Museum

Museum staff is involved in studying of monuments and objects associated with the events of Patriotic War of 1812. By the initiative of the museum, since 1987 a Military Festival «Day of Maloyaroslavets Battle» is held in Maloyaroslavets. The museum offers a unique exhibits, books and documents which belonged to direct participants of the event: Russian and French arms, accoutrements and uniforms, coins, faleristics, subjects of military household, correspondence of field marshals, military miniatures, paintings and drawing by artists of the XIX-XX centures.

Kozelsk

It is a town and the administrative center of Kozelsky District in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Zhizdra River (Oka's tributary), 72 kilometers southwest of Kaluga, the administrative center of the oblast.

It was first mentioned in an 1146 chronicle as a part of Principality of Chernigov. Kozelsk became famous in the spring of 1238, when its seven-year-old prince Vasily, son of Titus, had to defend the town against the army of Batu Khan. The latter dubbed it an "evil town" because its citizens had been fighting the attackers for seven weeks in a row, killing around four thousand enemy soldiers during the siege. The citizens of Kozelsk were greatly outnumbered and almost all of them died in battle.

In 1446, Kozelsk was temporarily under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1494, the town was finally annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In 1607, one of Ivan Bolotnikov's units was located in Kozelsk and showed resistance to the Tsar's army.

The much-venerated monastery, Optina Pustyn, is close by. In the 19th century, this hermitage gained wide renown for its "startsy". After the outbreak of World War II, a POW camp was established in the monastery for Polish officers taken captive by the Red Army during the Polish Defensive War of 1939. Between April and May 1940, the NKVD transferred approximately 5,000 of them to a forest near Katyn, where they were executed in what became known as the Katyn massacre. The remaining two hundred officers were sent to a camp in Pavlishchev Bor and then to Gryazovets. The town was occupied by the German army from October 8, 1941 until December 27, 1941 and was totally destroyed. It was rebuilt after the war.

Optina Hermitage

Optina Hermitage is one of the jewels of Russian Orthodoxy. In the 1820s, a John the Forerunner cell was founded next to the monastery, and the staretsdom is a unique phenomenon in the history of the Russian Church – unbroken succession of the elders` spirit for more than 100 years. These elders were visited by N.V. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, L.V. Chizhevsky and many others.

These people were in need of spiritual strengthing and often enlightening. Nowhere, except Optina, the holy brotherhood had such an extensive influence on sanctifying its people. Of particular importance was the publishing activity of Optina, which introduced a treasury of holy starets` wisdom to the broad reading public. In 1923, the monastery was closed, and resumed its activities only in 1988 – the year of the 1000<sup>th</sup> anniversary of Christening the Rus`

Shamordino

This convent appeared because of the works and care of Venerable Ambrose of Optina in 1884 in the picturesque area in 12km from the Optina Hermitage. On July 8, 1889 a stone cathedral has been laid, which was moved to Shamordino cemetery. Thanks to the patrons – spouses S.V. and A.Ya. Petrov, who deeply revered Father Ambrose and provided a charity to the Shamordino convent, a shelter, a hospital with 60 beds, an almshouse and workshops were built there.

On July 8, 1901, the community was awarded a title of a monastery and renamed to Stauropegial Convent of St. Ambrose and Our Lady of Kazan. The consecration of a new Kazan Cathedral, architecturally magnificent, was held on October 24, 1902. A complex of churches still operates at the territory of Shamordino monastery: Kasan Cathedral, Church in honor of Saint Ambrose of Optina, Trinity Church, and the Church of the Icon of the Mother of Gold. Also monastery buildings were preserved, such as refectory buildings, water tower, house of S.V. Perlov, almshouse, hospital, as well as the Life-giving Holy Spring.

Tarusa

It is a town and the administrative center of Tarussky District in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Oka River, 76 kilometers northeast of Kaluga, the administrative center of the oblast.

Tarusa is known to have existed since 1246, when it was the capital of one of the Upper Oka Principalities—the Principality of Tarusa. The first ruler of this principality was Grand Duke Yury Mikhaylovich, the son of Grand Duke Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov. Later, the local rulers moved their seats to Meshchovsk and Boryatino, and Tarusa was subjugated by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the late 14th century. Tarusa was used as a stronghold at the southern approaches to Moscow in the 15th-17th centuries.

Soviet authority in Tarusa was established on December 27, 1917. In the following years, the town's churches were closed and a monument to Stalin was erected on the central square. During World War II, German troops approached Tarusa and took it on their way to Moscow. The town was occupied by the Germans between October 24 and December 19, 1941. After that, the town was retaken by the Red Army which crossed the Oka River in winter under the frantic German fire and successfully attacked the German strongholds on the higher bank of Oka. Remnants of the town's fortifications and the town wall can still be seen today in the community park near the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

During the Soviet period, Tarusa became the place where many dissidents and people repressed by the Soviet authorities used to settle. Tarusa became the home place for such famous dissident figures as Anatoly Marchenko, Larisa Bogoraz, Gleb Yakunin, Pavel Litvinov, Alexander Ginzburg, Andrey Amalrik, Sergei Kovalev, Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Lev Kopelev, and Frida Vigdorova. The book Tarusa - the 101st kilometer by Tatyana Melnikova is devoted to the lives and fates of the dissidents who lived in Tarusa.

In 1961, Konstantin Paustovsky fought to publish his famous Tarusa Pages, which became the only book in the Soviet Union which escaped Moscow-based central party censorship and offered its pages for various free-thinking and dissident writers. After the book was published, it was declared ideologically harmful and removed from all bookstores and libraries. The director of the Kaluga publishing house was reprimanded, the editor-in-chief was fired, and other repressions were to follow. It was only Paustovsky's personal appeal to Nikita Khrushchev that stopped the wave of planned repressions. Nevertheless, the Tarusa Pages became a significant and meaningful event in the Soviet literature. The book introduced to the public such authors as Bulat Okudzhava, Vladimir Maksimov, Frida Vigdorova, Nadezhda Mandelstam, and Naum Korzhavin, who enjoyed immense popularity in the later years.

Zhukov 

It was founded in the early 17th century. It has been known as a settlement of Ugodsky Zavod (Уго́дский Заво́д) since 1656 due to the construction of an ironworks. In 1974, it was renamed Zhukovo (Жу́ково) in honor of Georgy Zhukov, the most decorated general in Russian and Soviet military history, who was born there. In 1996, Zhukovo merged with neighboring Protva, was granted town status, and renamed Zhukov.

 Meshchovsk

It was first mentioned in Russian chronicles in connection with the Mongol invasion of Rus' in 1238. During the Middle Ages it was the patrimony of Princes Mezetsky.

Catherine the Great granted it town rights in 1776.

During World War II, Meshchovsk was occupied by the German Armyfrom October 7, 1941 to January 7, 1942.

KALUGA

The cathedral was first mentioned in 1610. The ancient church burned and was reconstructed many times, but in the XVIII century this cathedral was newly built, and since that time its appearance has not changed. The author of the new project of the cathedral was a provincial architect Ivan Yasnygin. In Soviet times, the local authorities many times reworked the church with a long history to the House of defense, theater, concert hall, school, or even into a zoo. There was even a proposal to blow up the cathedral. But, fortunately, it did nit happen. Now, Kaluga Cathedral is regaining the status of the «Heart of Kaluga».

Shopping arcade

Ensemble of the shopping arcade, built in the late 18^th century, beautified Kaluga for many years, becoming almost a symbol of the city, the main historical attraction. The group of buildings «Shopping arcade» has the shape of a quadrangle, and consists of 14 buildings, three of which are connected by arches.

Shopping Arcade is the only facility in Kaluga, which combines the motives of pre-Petrine Russian architecture of the time, the Baroque and the Gothic Style. Despite numerous attempts by researchers to establish the name of the author of the original ensemble, it is still unknown. Construction of the Shopping Arcade began during the life of P.R. Nikitin with the erection of two southern buildings (1785-1789), continued when I.D. Yasnygin lived, and the last building was completed in 1824 by N.F. Sokolov.

During its existence, the ensemble of the arcade has undergone many reconstructions. During the Great Patriotic War, a considerable damage was inflicted to the complex. The last major restoration works were carried out in 1974-1975. Currently, the Shopping Arcade is undergoing capital renovation, and, thanks to it, almost all buildings are upgraded.

Obninsk 

Obninsk is a city in Russia, the first “naukograd” (“the city of science”) of the country, located in the north of the Kaluga region, about 80 km to the south-west of Moscow. The population of Obninsk is about 109,300 (2015) people.

Obninsk was historically established as a city of science directed to implementation of strategic federal programs in research and development. In the beginning of the city’s history, scientists, engineers, construction workers, teachers, and many others brought their families to Obninsk from all over the Soviet Union. The blending of people, ideas and cultures made Obninsk a wonderful city in which to live, a trend that continues to the present day.

Obninsk developed as a scientific city specializing in nuclear physics and nuclear power engineering, meteorology, radiology, radiation chemistry, and geophysics. In 2000, Obninsk became the first Russian city which received the official status of Naukograd (Science City).

The main attractions of Obninsk are:

• Obninsk nuclear power station - the first nuclear power station in the world. Construction started on January 1, 1951. The first grid connection was made on June 26, 1954. The power plant remained active until April 29, 2002 when it was finally shut down. Today, it is used as an experimental and research base as well as an excursion place and a museum (Bondarenko Square, 1);

• Obninsk History Museum also serving as a local history museum and an art museum as well as the main exhibition area of the city (Lenina Avenue, 128);

• Bugry, an estate built in the 19th century, located in the park in the southeastern part of the city. Many famous Russian artists have spent their vacation in Bugry dacha, among them S.Rakhmaninov, F.Shalyapin, P.Konchalovsky, K.Korovin, P.Korin, A.Dovzhenko, A.Nezhdanova, A.Fadeev.  In the 20th century, it was the dacha of the artist P.P.Konchalovsky;

• In the northwest of Obninsk you can find the remnants of Belkino, an estate founded in the 18th century with Boris and Gleb Church (1773). Near it there is a row of Belkinsky ponds and a restored Belkinsky park. On its territory there are many scenic spots that attract lovers of photography. Alcove for lovers, a pond covered with duckweed, centuries-old hollowed willows, decorative bridges, purified cascade of Belkino ponds, ruins of the manor, sculptures, open Church of Boris and Gleb (1773), built in the Baroque style – all this creates a unique atmosphere of an old manor park of Belkino estate;

• The most prominent landmark of Obninsk is the 310-meter meteorological mast. It is the highest meteorological tower in Europe;

• In the 1950s-1960s, German prisoners constructed the Old City by Leningrad architects’ design - the most beautiful part of the city and the only district where one can enjoy historical buildings;

• Church of the Nativity on Aksyonov square. Although it was constructed recently it is the main city church and is remarkable for delicate interior and golden domes;