Yelets combines a long craft tradition with museums dedicated to art and individual artists. This gives you a clear choice when planning your trip: would you like to learn about production techniques and lace-making, or focus on art collections and objects connected to artists’ lives? The city’s cultural profile gives you a concrete starting point when looking for a holiday apartment for your stay.
Crafts and Yelets lace
The Museum of Folk Crafts and Trades in Yelets showcases a wide range of local crafts: leatherworking, blacksmithing, pottery and felt-making, the Yelets piano accordion, willow weaving, woodcarving, weaving, embroidery and bast-shoe braiding. The Yelets lace hall is especially popular. There, you can see how lace patterns are made using bobbin lace-making techniques. This brings not only the finished pieces but also the techniques behind the craft into focus.
The museum also offers workshops in weaving, bobbin lace-making, embroidery, beadwork, fabric doll-making and patchwork. Its educational programme also includes consultations, themed tours, lectures, discussions and quiz events. If you would like to take part in a particular workshop, check the current arrangements directly with the museum in advance.
The Lace Museum in Yelets also brings the process to life: lace-maker Larisa Petrovna Popova introduces visitors to the tools required and demonstrates her skill in the middle of the hall. Yelets lace has significance beyond the city, too: in Lipetsk Oblast, it is one of seven ancient crafts and traditions listed in the register of intangible cultural heritage.
A museum building with a history of its own
The Museum of Folk Crafts and Trades is housed in a red-brick Art Nouveau building, constructed before 1918 to a design by the architect Vilfart. Its features include majolica tiles and a mural depicting a pelican above its nest. The pelican is a symbol of motherhood and childhood. The building was originally a nursery and home for the children of women working at a tobacco factory.
The building’s origins are also tied to the history of Yelets: the merchant Alexander Nikolayevich Zausailov had it built and was the last owner of a tobacco factory. The museum opened there on 18 May 2007. The architecture, original purpose and craft collection offer different ways to explore the museum, so your visit need not be limited to the techniques on display.
Art and artists in Yelets
The art department of the Yelets City Museum of Local Lore offers a different focus. It first opened to visitors on 4 December 1981 and displays more than 300 works of art: paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, art glass and antique furniture. The variety of genres makes the collection a destination in its own right for anyone who would like to focus on visual art rather than craft techniques.
The N. N. Zhukov House Museum offers general and themed tours, as well as films about the artist’s work and video exhibitions. The T. N. Khrennikov House Museum focuses on items from the collection of Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov, including manuscripts, piano reductions, scores, books bearing the composer’s autograph, photographs, paintings and audio recordings. General and themed tours are also offered there.
The two house museums thus share a tour format but have different emphases: at the Zhukov House Museum, films and video exhibitions complement the tours; at the Khrennikov House Museum, documents, sheet music, images and audio recordings offer insights into the composer’s collection. Together with the craft and art collections, they give Yelets several distinct cultural highlights to help you plan your stay.
Discover more destinations: Gryaznoye, Chaplygin, Argamach-Palna, Gryazi, Sreznevo, Bolshaya Kuzminka, Koptsevy Khutora, Skornyakovo
For the regional travel overview: Lipetsk Oblast.
