Polotnyanyy Zavod: Estate, Park and Paper Museum

Polotnyanyy Zavod brings together the Goncharov estate and its English landscape park with an interactive paper museum. Architecture, literary heritage, parkland and workshops offer different ways to experience the place. You can shape your stay around your particular interest in historic interiors, nature or papermaking.

Manor Houses, Collections and History

Shchepochkin House was built in the first half of the 18th century in the Russian Classicist style. It is an example of a Russian noble estate from the late 18th to the early 19th century. The house contains the exhibition “The Storm of the Twelfth Year Broke: The Patriotic War of 1812 in the Works of A. S. Pushkin”. Please check the museum’s information for current opportunities to visit the exhibition.

The Goncharov estate’s main house displays 18th-century commemorative furniture: a massive mahogany desk in the “Jacobe” style, as well as chairs and armchairs made in Russia in the style of English master Thomas Chippendale. The Spassky Gates, built between 1736 and 1741, form an entrance to the estate. Another historic landmark in the area is the Church of the Transfiguration, which was consecrated on November 24, 2019.

English Landscape Park and Nature

The English landscape park is part of the Goncharov estate and was laid out in 1802. The former landscape park includes a large meadow and wet lowlands by the river; tall pines, oaks and lindens also define its character. This mix of open spaces and groups of trees offers a distinct contrast to the estate’s interiors and collections.

The meadows are home to the Mnemosyne butterfly, also known as the Black Apollo. This protected species is listed in the Red Data Book of Kaluga Oblast. The park is also home to a large oak tree around 300 years old, known as the Pushkin Oak and also as the “Lira” Oak. A guided tour of the old park is available for organized groups of ten or more. It leads to an avenue that A. S. Pushkin and his wife cherished, a former landscape grove, a gazebo and a monument to Pushkin.

“Buzeon” Paper Museum and Workshops

The interactive “Buzeon” Museum is Russia’s only museum devoted to papermaking. Visitors can take a virtual tour of the operating workshops at the Polotnyano-Zavodskaya paper mill. A large screen shows Soviet newsreel footage about papermaking, including footage from the period of the first Five-Year Plans, the Great Patriotic War and the 1960s. The digital experience and historical film footage complement each other: one takes you into the workshops, the other into the history of papermaking.

The “Polotnyanyy Zavod” Museum Reserve offers workshops for children and adults. Participants make, among other things, a traditional Motanka doll or a beeswax candle. A “Polonaise” dance workshop is also offered in the Goncharovs’ large Turquoise Salon. This group program requires arrangements in advance. Please check the museum’s current information for specific visit and workshop dates.

The different highlights of the area can help you choose a holiday apartment: estate history and parkland sit alongside the interactive paper museum and hands-on workshops. When choosing Polotnyanyy Zavod as a destination, consider which of these experiences you would like to make the focus of your stay.

Discover more destinations: Tarussa, Nedelnoye, Maloyaroslavets, Dyldino, Bebelevo, Myatlevo, Vorotynsk, Levshino

For the regional travel overview: Kaluga Oblast.