A kaleidoscope of history. Station to bridge

This route is designed specifically for those who arrive in our city light, for one day, by train or bus.

Let’s start with the station district – here I was born and lived for a long time. You will learn a brief history of the origin of the Tver station, in addition, I will tell you what privileges the dead "used" when transporting them on the then Nikolaev railway. We will find out what event at the end of the XIX century began to build churches and chapels throughout Russia, including the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky in Tver, once destroyed and later recreated in its original form.

Let’s look at an impressive mosaic panel, which displays the main milestones of the history of my city. I will share information about why Primadonna and Valery Leontiev visited (and more than once) incognito in Tver, in an inconspicuous building heated by coal, which is five minutes from the station.

Along the way, you will find out who and where for the first time in Tver began to sell bread at night, sell frog legs from France, whiskey and cigarettes from misty Albion, other unusual products unprecedented in the province. And although only my memories remain of that place and those events, I will tell you where in the center of the city there is still an uncomplicated monogram that refers us to those times.

I will show photos of the 90s cigarettes from my personal collection as a memory of the already defunct station market and stalls. We will walk along the road from the song of Mikhail Krug to the bakery, near which we will look at a little-known sculptural composition among tourists, and I will tell about the history of the plant and Tver gingerbread, once famous no worse than Tula.

Near the Faculty of Philology, in front of the monument to Cyril and Methodius, we will understand why they, recognized by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches as saints, did not “receive” either a Catholic or an Orthodox cross on the monument. And who among the current senators of the Russian Federation lobbied for the installation of this monument, and why? At the same time, you will learn what the stuffed bear did on the tramways at the time of the occupation of the city by the Nazis.

Near the biological faculty I will plant how in the Mesozoic era feathered dinosaurs climbed trees. And I will explain, and here the biofacility of Tver State University. We will also watch a short video, where in half a minute we will see how the continents and oceans changed over 750 million years under a point on the map called Tver.

Let’s look at the entrance group in the Tver Hippodrome preserved from Soviet times and find out that it was not famous for horse racing – it was in those days that people who did not get inside on tickets “hung” on the fence and trees along the perimeter of the hippodrome. And my friend, who lived nearby, for some reason rushed these days from the kitchen to the room, back and forth, like burnt.

Near the chapel of John of Kronstadt you will learn what the architect of the building was judged for, what news was shocked by the future wife of Father John, why he eventually stopped issuing priestly salaries on his hands and whom John ruthlessly “sealed” on the 27 pages of the book. And why in the late Soviet times foreign tourists looked into the chapel building.

We will pass by the former home of employees of the State Bank of the USSR, and his twin brother will be seen near the end of the tour.

Near the inconspicuous store, we will see a fragment of a video in which real Americans during the Prohibition Law bought vodka in the then Kalinin store on the principle of "no more than two bottles in their hands." And we will find out why in those days in our city the American flag fluttered in the hands of standard-bearers along with the Soviet one (no, this is not the Olympics-80).

Next to the abandoned tram park, I will tell you about the history of the Tver tram, which crossed the century mark and ended with its “murder”. Listen to the verse of the Circle song, which mentions the park.

We will see a few toy mice loading a mouse rocket into space, despite the people passing by.

While we walk along the local “Chinese Wall”, I will show the place where Mikhail Krug often visited – in the 90s we had our own, as Willy Tokarev sang, “noisy buffoon”, in which “crooks, bandits, thieves of all stripes” liked to gather.

You will see a large shopping center, “destroying” with its appearance the entire architecture of the city center and learn where it came from and why it was not a shopping center at all. And what happened to the person who conceived and actually completed the construction of this building.

Where did the actor Oleg Yankovsky swim in Tver? Not in the Volga or the Tymak. And what came before that? You will find out by literally stopping at that historic place.

I will tell you about Tver artists with a view of reproductions of some of their paintings. You will find out why the phrase of teachers addressed to students in the walls of the Tver Art College named after Venetsianov “Do you want to sell paintings on Trekhsvyatskaya?” (local “Arbat”) is a threat, not a recognition of creative success. We will look at fragments of the most famous Soviet cartoons, the director, screenwriter and animator of which is a native of the city of Tver, the only domestic animator who was awarded the highest award of the Cannes Festival. I will show reproductions of preserved Tver icons and tell why third-party icon painters were not invited to Tver.

Let's find out what I did under the dome of Resurrection Cathedral when I was a child. And what did "under the bell tower" of the cathedral in his song Mikhail Krug. Besides, of course, information about the church itself.

At the end of the tour, we will see the finally restored “House of Voroshilov Shooters”. And then I will tell you what the bridge in Tver is the oldest, which of the literary characters of the world-famous work “walked” along it, and what was the name of the bridge in Soviet times. I will show the grandiose project of the bridge of 1944, from which we also learn that the first president of the USSR was by no means Gorbachev, but a native of Tver province.

Good mood.