Tourism in Russia > Tatarstan > Elabuga

Elabuga

The Elabuga Preserve includes the architectural ensemble of the Russian provincial city Elabuga, built primarily from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, which has preserved its own specific local color and unity of architectural and spatial form, set in superb natural surroundings.

The preserve includes: The Ivan Shishkin Home and Museum, the only museum in the country dedicated to the accomplished Russian painter and founder of the realist school of landscape artists, is located in the family home of the Shishkins, where the painter spent his childhood and adolescence.

The Nadezhda Durova Estate and Museum celebrates the Russian writer and female officer (1783-1866), known as the «maiden cavalier», who lived in Elabuga for more than 25 years. The museum is situated in the memorial home in which Durova, a heroine of the Fatherland War of 1812 and writer, spent the last years of her life. The Vladimir Bekhterev Museum of Country Medicine was founded 29 June 2007 and is located in one of the wards of the regional hospital, built in 1881 by the merchant A. Baranov. The building is listed as an architectural monument of local significance. The museum exhibits describe the origins and history of rural medicine in Russia, taking the provinces around Elabuga as an example.

Of particular interest is the Elabuga (Chertovo) Settlement, a fortified settlement from the Middle Ages, once occupied by the Bulgars and Kazan Tatars (10-15th centuries).

Among the notable figures in Russian poetry of the twentieth century, Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva is rightfully considered of particular importance. Having emigrated from Russia and completed a seventeen-year odyssey abroad, Tsvetaeva restored her citizenship in the summer of 1939 and followed her daughter and husband in returning to her motherland. Tsvetaeva's spouse and daughter were unjustifiably subjected to Stalin's repressions. In August 1941, Marina Tsvetaeva, together with her son and the writers of the Literary Foundation were evacuated to Elabuga. In the ancient land of Elabuga, the greatest romantic poet of the twentieth century left this world behind on the last day of summer, 31 August 1941...

The regional history complex of the Elabuga Museum and Preserve encompasses several distinct projects, combined into a unified complex. It includes the City History Museum, the Traktir Museum and Theater, interactive master's workshops, and the exhibition hall. The complex is located in a building that has listed as an architectural monument, the home of the merchant A. F. Nikolaev and the adjoining shops, built in the 1860s.

Dragon-oracle

The sculptural composition «Dragon-oracle» made by Arthur Gataullin was put in August 2016. Several Elabuga legends are connected with this dragon-oracle (serpent-foreteller). According to one of them, the dragon-oracle settled in a cave of this mountain in the 13th century. It was after the conquest of Volga Bulgaria by the Mongol-Tatars

Golden domes of Elabuga

In Elabuga every visitor will notice magnificence of churches standing along its old and quiet streets.

At the end of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya street you see Pokrovskaya church (The Church of the Protection of the Virgin H). It is the earliest orthodox architectural monument of Elabuga. The first wooden Pokrovskaya church was laid in the second half of XVI century, soon after Ivan IV - Russian tsar’s command the Tryosvyatskoe village was founded. Today’s stone church was built in 1813 - 1820. A Chapel (1799), being one of the earliest stone monuments of Elabuga stood near the Protection church.

The cathedral in name of (not made by hands) the holy Image of the Savior is among the most interesting historical monuments in Elabuga.

Attractions

• Historical and Archaeological Complex Elabuga 'Devil's ancient settlement
• Alexander Garden
• Shishkin Ponds
• Manor of merchants the Stakheevs
• Main building of the Ekaterininskaya Women's Progymnasium
• Trading Office
• Building of Ivan Stakheev
• House of the merchant Krasilnikov
• West Trading Rows
• Eparchial Women's School
• Petropavlovskoye Cemetery
• Grave of Marina Tsvetaeva
• Cemetery of German Prisoners of World War II
• Cemetery of Japanese Prisoners of World War
• Cemetery of Austro-Hungarian Prisoners of World War I
• Troitskoye Cemetery I

Churches and Mosques

• Spassky Cathedral
• Kazan-Bogoroditsky Nunnery
• Pokrovskaya Church
• Nikolskaya Church
• «Dzhamig» Cathedral
• Mosque «Ikhlas»
• Mosque «Al-Kadyr»
• Mosque «Nur»

Museums

• Museum of Town History
• Museum-Theater «Traktir» Exhibition Hall
• Museum of Modern Ethnic Arts
• Museum Shop «Art Salon»
• Great Patriotic Viter Memorial Museum
• Museum-Workshop of Arts and Crafts
• Memorial House-Museum of Ivan Shishkin
• Silver Age Library
• Literary Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva
• Memorial House of Marina Tsvetaeva
• «Portomoynya» (Laundry) Museum
• Homestead-Museum of Nadezhda Durova
• Museum of District Medicine named after Vladimir Bekhterev

Monuments

• Equestrian Statue of Nadezhda Durova
• Monument-Moneybox «Homeless Dog»
• Alley of Lovers «Descendants Tree»
• Sculptural Composition «Samovar»
• Monument to Vladimir Lenin
• Sculptural Composition «Street Sweeper»
• Alexander Nevsky Chapel
• Monument to the Painter Ivan Shishkin
• Great Patriotic War Memorial Square
• Mass Grave of Fighters for Soviet Power
• Sculptural Composition «Yelabuga Coat of Arms»
• Sculptural Composition «Postman and Communication Worker Bust»
• Monument to Dmitry Stakheev
• Fire Tower
• Monument to Soldiers-lntemationaiists
• Town Clock
• Sculptural Composition “Dragon Oracle»
• «Statue of Liberty»
• Park of Lanterns
• Square of Marina Tsvetaeva
• Sculptural Composition «Policeman»
• Memorial to the Victims of Political Repressions
• Monument to the Bulgarian Emir Ibrahim the First bin Muhammad

Laundry house

Department of Elabuga State Museum-Reserve. The object of cultural heritage of local importance.

The Museum was opened in 2009 in the building of the first third of the 19th century which until the late 1980s served as a public laundry. Wooden decks and barrels, a tank for heating water and other attributes of washing — today it is the only such museum in Russia. It tells about the history of soap making and about the ways of washing in different times.

Marina Tsvetaeva also visited this laundry house.