Battle and craftsmanship in Tula

Weave a piece of chain mail, try on a suit of armour and read chronicle miniatures: the exhibition “Skazanie o Mamaevom poboishche” at the “Tulskie drevnosti” Museum in Tula explores the Battle of Kulikovo and offers several ways to engage with this historical subject. In the interactive areas, you can try your hand at the craft, try on a suit of armour and learn to read chronicle miniatures. This brings craftsmanship, equipment and historical depictions together. The shifts between these forms make the exhibition vivid without reducing the battle to a single portrayal.

“Sekrety tulskikh masterov” focuses on a different subject at the same museum. The exhibition features a pottery workshop, a blacksmith’s workshop and household items from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The workshops give craftsmanship a tangible form, while the household objects add items from everyday life. The period spans several centuries. Compared with the exhibition about the Kulikovo Field, the focus here shifts from battle and chronicle images to making things and domestic life. Both exhibitions explore history, but through different objects and questions.

Places and perspectives

The museum and monument to the heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo are located in the village of Monastyrshchino in Kimovsk District. The Kulikovo Field Horse Yard is also there. Several places associated with the Kulikovo Field can therefore be found in the same village. The museum and monument are specifically dedicated to the heroes of the battle; the Horse Yard is linked to the Kulikovo Field through its name. Alongside the interactive exhibition in Tula, Monastyrshchino offers a tangible connection to the place, though the two experiences tell different stories.

From May to October, you can take a guided walk through the central part of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum Estate. The walk leads to places Tolstoy preferred for his daily strolls. Other topics include local flora and fauna, the history of the Tula defensive lines and Tolstoy’s plantings. Nature, the places where he liked to walk and historical landscape features thus come together on a guided tour. The topics range from observing local nature to the history of the defensive lines and plantings, offering different perspectives on the central part of the estate.

Leo Tolstoy’s personal library is another cultural topic featured here: it was included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Alongside exhibitions about battle, craftsmanship and everyday objects, the library stands as a subject in its own right within written cultural heritage.

At the Polenovo estate, artist Vasily Polenov designed every building himself. Here, the focus is on the design of the buildings. This offers a different perspective from the two exhibitions in Tula, which explore their subjects through workshops, household objects and interactive elements. If you are interested in art and architecture, Polenovo reveals another facet of Tula Oblast’s cultural themes: the artist’s own designs for every building on the estate.

Landscape in Konduki

The Romantsevskiye Mountains, also known as Konduki, are in Uzlovsky District in Tula Oblast and are known for their colourful lakes and picturesque views. Both names refer to the same place. While the museums and estates mentioned above explore different cultural and historical subjects, Konduki turns the focus to landscape and views. Its colourful lakes and scenic vistas give this place a distinctive character alongside the region’s exhibitions, architecture and historical themes.

Discover more destinations

Shchyokino, Tula, Tula, Leninsky District, Shchyokinsky District, Sudakovo, Petrovskiy, Yasnaya Polyana, Zaokskiy, Danilovskoye, Mordves, Bogoroditsk, Kireyevsk, Aleksin, Novomoskovsk, Uzlovaya, Tsarevo, Lukino, Khmelevka, Poselok, Petelino, Yefremov, Borodinskiy, Tury, Meshcherino, Velegozh, Maslovo, Goryachkino, Samarovo, Balevo, Skuratovskiy, Pervomayskiy, Donskoy, Aleksinskiy rayon, Zaokskiy rayon, Yasnogorsky District, Kurkinskiy rayon, Shchekinskiy rayon, Teplo-Ogarevskiy rayon, Leninskiy rayon, Novomoskovskiy rayon, Kireevskiy rayon

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