Staritsky District: Pushkin’s estate, museums and ravines

In Bernovo, the trail of Pushkin leads to a historic manor house: the Pushkin Museum opened there on June 6, 1971, in the manor house of the Wulf family. The house is considered a monument to Russian classical-era manor culture. The estate complex includes a house and a park with its 18th-century layout preserved—a place where literary history and the history of manor culture come together.

Bernovo and literary history

The exhibitions give a museum visit a range of different perspectives. A new exhibition space features paintings by Lyudmila Yuga, a People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. Another exhibition is “Medallic Pushkiniana,” from the collection of the Tver State United Museum. The hall “Varvara Bubnova. Palette of Life” is devoted to the artistic career of Varvara Bubnova, a great-granddaughter of I. P. Wulf, the house’s first owner in Bernovo.

The Konoplino estate is also connected with literature. It became the property of the historical novelist I. I. Lazhechnikov in 1835; he wrote the novel “The Infidel” at the estate. The Pushkin Museum in Bernovo and the history of Konoplino thus offer two different literary connections within Staritsky District. The Pushkin Ring Route itinerary lists Staritsa and Bernovo as stops and includes the museum in Bernovo in the program.

Museum history and church architecture

The Staritsa Local History Museum brings different aspects of local history to light. Visitors can learn more about stone carving, blacksmithing and pottery. The exhibits also include objects from traditional folk life. One hall is devoted to life in the town of Staritsa from the 19th to the early 20th century; exhibition sections also cover the nobility of Staritsa.

Other subjects reach further back in time: one exhibition explores the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century and Job, the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who was born in Staritsa. In Baykovo, the Church of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God adds to the historical overview. It was fully built and consecrated, including its bell tower, by 1777.

Ravine and Buchel tract

The Verkhnekaloshinsky Ravine is about 1.5 kilometers long, with a stream flowing along its bottom. It is up to 20 meters deep and 60 to 100 meters wide in its middle section. A path leads from the village to springs at the bottom of the ravine. If you plan to take this path, check current access conditions before your visit.

Buchel tract, on the slope of the high left bank of the Volga, offers a different kind of landscape. It has small limestone outcrops 300 meters long and about 100 meters wide. The slope is covered with deciduous forest, including lime, oak and elm trees. Buchel tract is considered a recreational area for the local population; this description adds another perspective on the site to its geological features.

Staritsky District brings together specific cultural sites and a variety of landscapes: the manor house and museum history of Bernovo, the historical subjects of the Staritsa Local History Museum, and the ravine with its path to the springs. Which of these aspects you focus on when planning your trip depends on whether you are more interested in literature, local history or landscapes.

Discover more destinations: Sandovsky District, Konakovo District, Rameshkovsky District, Spirovsky District, Konakovsky District, Molokovsky District, Zubtsovsky District, Kalinin District.

Back to the main travel overview: Tver Oblast.