Tutayev between churches, bells and history

Historic churches stand on the banks of Tutayev; the museums add further themes, including merchants’ daily life, bell casting and seafaring. The city’s appeal thus ranges from its architecture to exhibitions where you can learn about different ways of life and hands-on activities.

Churches and the Volga riverbank

Tutayev has ten active churches. Built in 1652, the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross is the city’s oldest stone church. Historic churches line the riverbank at intervals of 400 to 500 metres, their domes rising high above it. From the observation platform, the main view is of the Kazan Transfiguration Church. There, the church and bell tower form an architectural ensemble at the top of a Volga slope. This combination of architectural history and riverfront gives the city a distinct architectural focus.

Merchants’ houses and different ways of life

The house of merchant Stepan Aleksandrovich Vagin is an urban estate dating from the mid-19th century. It was built to a standard design in the Neoclassical style. The family’s living quarters are on the second floor. The “Dom kuptsa S. A. Vagina” museum offers a different social perspective, giving visitors an insight into the daily lives and lifestyles of less wealthy merchants from Romanov-Borisoglebsk. The house and museum complement one another: one explores the architecture of an estate, the other the everyday lives of merchants.

The “Ozhivshaya istoriya” museum focuses on the history of Mologa and the life of Father Pavel Grudzev. The “Tsarskaya ovtsa” exhibition at the “Borisoglebskaya storona” museum offers another glimpse of historic domestic life. It features a peasant’s room and a shepherd’s house, with wooden household items, benches, sheepskins, a stove and a home icon corner. These rooms and objects give the exhibitions a tangible, domestic scale alongside the larger churches and merchants’ houses.

Hear the bells and experience seafaring

The Bell Founding Art Museum displays original bells from ten of Russia’s leading bell foundries. The second hall features 23 church bells dating from the 17th to the early 20th century, weighing between 16 and 340 kilograms. Visitors can also hear the sound of doorbells, ship’s bells, corridor bells, railway bells and fire bells. The collection was assembled during the 29 years that Nikolai Shuvalov’s bell foundry (Italmas LLC) was in operation. The exhibition thus combines sound samples with a collection whose size and range of weights are clearly specified.

The Museum of Saint Admiral Fyodor Ushakov and the Russian Fleet focuses on practical activities related to seafaring. These include ringing a real ship’s bell, tying sailors’ knots, handling a sail, and sending signals with flags, sounds and semaphore. Visitors looking for more than exhibits to view will find different themes here from those in exhibitions about domestic interiors or church history. Sounds, knots and the signal alphabet each offer a distinct focus.

A city with different ways to explore

Skver SSSR is considered one of the first open-air museums of its kind in post-Soviet Russia. Together with the churches, merchants’ houses and museums, it offers a range of different interests: architecture and urban history, insights into earlier ways of life, or activities to hear and try out. This mix can be a useful starting point when looking for a holiday rental in Tutayev.

Discover more destinations

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Back to the regional travel overview: Yaroslavl Oblast.