Kasli

Throughout Russia and even abroad, the small town of Kasli became famous for its artistic casting of cast iron and bronze, located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, between the lakes Big and Small Kasli, Irtyash, Sungul and Kiret, 198 kilometers north-west of Chelyabinsk.

The village of Kaslinsky was formed in 1747 during the construction by Akinfiy Demidov of a cast iron smelting and ironworks on the Great Kasli Lake. It acquired the status of the city only in 1942. Since 1944 - the center of the Kaslin district, since 1965 - the city of regional subordination.
The city of Kasli is famous for the Kaslin factory, which since the middle of the XIX century has been engaged in artistic cast iron casting. For the international exhibition in Paris in 1900, the company cast an openwork pavilion made of metal, which is now in the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts. However, in 1914, in connection with the transition of the plant to the production of military products, casting of artistic products in Kaslya ceased.

After a long break in the early 20s of the twentieth century, the first artistic castings began - memorial plaques with portraits of Marx, Liebknecht, Lunacharsky and other figures. In 1922, a monument to the heroes of the revolution was erected in the city of Kasley, cast at the factory. Also, a factory school was opened, in which children of workers were admitted, and in 1934 a regular production of artistic casting was organized. Kaslin architectural casting was used in the design of public buildings and the Moscow metro, as well as in the construction of embankments and bridges. After 1944, the range of products was replenished with the theme of the Patriotic War. In the late 1980s, the range of Kaslin plant included 130 works, including works made according to models of the XIX century and modern sculptors.

Attractions and famous places

One of the main attractions of the city of Kasley is the Museum of art casting. This is the only specialized museum of art casting in Russia. The museum opened in 1963. The basis of it is a unique collection of cast iron castings made in the XIX-XX centuries at the Kaslin plant. Here are products of Kaslin masters of all generations: “cabinet casting”, samples of Russian and foreign sculpture and decorative and applied art, cast-iron furniture, household and cult products. Of particular interest are miniatures, key fobs up to 1.5 cm in size, as well as the legendary cast iron solid chain. The museum presents the author's works of most Kaslin sculptors of the XX century. In the exposition of the museum there are more than 150 samples of Kaslin casting, in the fund there are more than ten thousand.

Also interesting is the local cemetery, where there are regular excursions. It can be called an open-air museum, since many fences, tombstones are artistic casting made at the Kaslin plant.

Another place where permanent excursions are held is the Ascension Church, which was built in 1852. Like most other Ural temples of the middle of the XIX century. built in the eclectic Russian-Byzantine style. Underneath it is an underground passage that is still intact.

Main enterprises of the city

City-forming and the most famous enterprise of the city of Kasli is OJSC Kaslin Foundry. One of the oldest in the Urals, founded more than 250 years ago, Kaslin Machine-Building Plant made a huge contribution to the development of the Ural metallurgy. At a time when at the beginning of the XIX century there was a gradual transition from the predominance of architectural decorative and monumental forms of cast iron, artistic casting to small cabinet forms, the Kaslin plant begins to stand out with its artistic casting, which has an excellent cast iron and unique molding mixtures of local sands. In the early XIX century, the plant specializes in casting household items, openwork grilles, fences, sex plates, complex tombstones. Later, the production of park furniture, decorative plates, candlesticks, paperweights with small sculptures reinforced on them in the form of figurines, often repeating popular bronze samples, not inferior to them either in decoration or in performance. The merits of the products of the Kaslin plant were appreciated by gold and silver medals received at exhibitions in St. Petersburg in 1860 and 1861. And this success was consolidated by high awards at the World Exhibitions in Paris, Vienna, Philadelphia, Copenhagen, Stockholm. At the moment, the plant is engaged in technical, artistic and architectural casting of cast iron, produces grilles, lampposts, fences, gates, urns, benches.

In the city there is another plant - JSC "Radiy" or "Kaslin Radio Plant". He is engaged in the production of technical means of security and fire alarm, special equipment for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, consumer electronics. Provides services for the development and manufacture of printed circuit boards to order (one-sided, two-sided with metallization, soldering mask), design and manufacture of stamps, molds, tools, for the production of surface installation of chip elements on automatic machines, for the manufacture of metal and plastic cases to order, color (full color) and black and white printed products on printing equipment in the factory printing house.

Famous personalities

Many sculptors worked in Kasley, whose works were cast and cast at the Kaslin factory.

Kanaev Mikhail Denisovich (1830-1880) was born in Yekaterinburg. He studied at the Academy of Arts, in 1855 he was awarded the title of sculpture artist. Having received an offer to take the place of a factory sculptor, he agrees to this work and goes to the Urals. By that time, Kanayev was already an elderly man. Arriving in Kasley, Kanayev revives the work on the production of figure casting, dreaming of raising it to a higher artistic level. The sculptor organizes a school at the plant, in which he teaches masters modeling and molding. In order to raise the quality of coinage, he seeks an invitation from the famous for his engraving on steel Chrysostom two masters of coinage, who trained Kaslin coiners. During his work at the plant, Kanayev created quite a lot of different sculptures: “Hercules, breaking the cave of winds”, “Frost-demon”, “Hut on chicken legs” and so on.

Bach Nikolai Romanovich (1853-1885). A young talented sculptor, academician Bach sought to strengthen the ties of Kaslin casting with Russian sculpture. Continuing the work started by Kanaev, Bach also directs the factory art school, passing on his knowledge of sculpture to Kaslin masters, teaching them to form and model. In Kaslya, Bach did not work for long: only a few months, but in the history of Kaslin art, he occupies an important place. Famous Russian sculptor Nikolai Romanovich Bach came to Kasli from St. Petersburg in 1884: he was seriously ill, and friends, relatives advised him to leave the capital and live closer to nature, breathe clean air. Bach conducts classes at the school of artistic casting, teaches young workers modeling, drawing, teaches them the basics of sculpture, himself learns the skill of molding, minting products. At this time, Bach creates a great work – “Fight of the owl with the hawk”. Before his arrival in Kasli, the sculptor Bach graduated from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (1879), received the title of artist of the I degree. He was awarded medals of various exhibitions. From the St. Petersburg period of Bach’s life, sculptures “The Head of Prometheus”, “Psycheia” are known. In 1884 he performed the sculpture “Pythias”, for which he received the title of academician. Bach was thirty-one years old when he came to Casley. Working in Kaslya, Bach insists on repeating a number of works by Russian sculptors in cast iron, attracts artists from Moscow and St. Petersburg to perform sculptures directly for Kaslin casting. And many of their works were cast in the factory. The artist conveyed the characteristic signs of the old Ural factory, views of the village, captured the picturesque nature of the region. Bach lived in Kaslya for a short time. The disease progressed and the sculptor died in January 1885. Decades have passed. But the works of Nikolai Romanovich Bach are cast by Kaslin masters to this day. The works of Bach can serve as an example of the inseparable fusion of the work of a sculptor-professional - the author of the model, and master performers - molders and coiners, to whom the finished thing owes its artistic perfection, perhaps no less than to the author himself.

Gilev Alexander Semenovich (1928-1988). Sculptor and teacher. A native of the town of Casley. He graduated from the craft school, studied in Nizhny Tagil under G.I. Kichigin and M.P. Kramsky, taught there and in Kaslin GPTU. He worked as a sculptor at the Kaslin iron foundry, was the chief sculptor, and with the abolition of this position - senior sculptor. More than 40 of his works were replicated in cast iron at the Kaslin factory. He created a series of portrait busts of sculptors and masters of Kaslin artistic casting. He worked fruitfully in the field of monumental, memorial and easel sculpture, decorative and applied art. Author of busts of Kanaev, Bach, Klodt for the memorial in Kaslya.

How to get there

Getting from Yekaterinburg to Kasli will be most convenient by road, as the distance is only 115 kilometers. The distance from Chelyabinsk is 138 kilometers. The journey will take about one and a half to two hours.

From Moscow to Kasli, you can also get by plane first to Chelyabinsk (the cost will be about 5 thousand rubles), and then by car to the city itself.

By rail you can get from Yekaterinburg to Mauk station, which is 25 kilometers from Kasli. The cost of the seat will be about 490 rubles, the cost of the coupe is 880 rubles. If the starting point is Chelyabinsk, the costs will be about the same.

Information taken from the site "UralPolit.ru"