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 specifi c 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 (10th – 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.

Golden domes of Yelabuga

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 Yelabuga. 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 Yelabuga stood near the Protection church.

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

Historical books prove that a wooden church in name of (not made by hands) the holy Image of the Savior, existed here in early XVII century. The name is related to the icon of the miraculose image of the Savior. The icon was found in the village not so long before the church was built. Local story tells about a poor artist who lived in early XVII century in Krasnoye village, near Vyatka river. In his night dream he was given an order to paint an icon of the Savior for some man coming from afar. The artist set to work at once after having fasted and prayed. A visitor named Ostal’tsov came to him right in time as soon as the icon was painted. Old man inquired about the icon. It should constituent part of well known trade rout from the center of Volga region to the Middle and Upper Kama regions.

A lot of old legends are dedicated to that white stone tower. It was written in «Kazan history» - one of the historical books of the middle of XVI century about «the settlement of old bulgars here».