Blog about Urals

Nevyansk

On the 30th of January we went to Nevyansk – the oldest city-plant in the Urals. The weather forecast was good enough for that day, so early in the morning we began the journey. Our goal was to see how the Demidov’s empire began, and to hear one of the most interesting pages in the history of the Urals.
Nevyansk was founded by a decree of Peter I in 1701 in connection with the foundation of ironworks. This was the first city-plant in the world. One year later Peter I granted the plant to Nikita Demidovich Antufiev together with new surname “Demidov”. That’s how the Demidov’s dynasty appeared.
Nevyansk is located in 80km from Yekaterinburg and it took us about an hour to get there. The road to Nevyansk comes through the foothills of the Middle Urals and is like russian roller coaster.

Upon arrival to Nevyansk we easily found the museum of the city history and the famous Leaning Tower of Demidov’s family. The museum was founded in 1947. That time it was one of the best museums in Russia and the center of local history work in the Sverdlovsk area. The museum’s collection describes the Urals trades: a chest trade, cobbler, blacksmith, weaving, pottery and gold-mining. The collection also contains metal exhibits, coins and documents related to the history of the city and the region.
In the museum’s ticket office we found out that we can walk over the exposure on our own, but if we want to climb the tower we have to take a guide. We decided to take a guide immediately, without waiting for the tower. It was very good decision, because we heard a fascinating story about the city and past of the Urals region illustrated by museum pieces.
After the museum we were invited to visit the leaning tower containing the laboratory of Akinfiy Demidov, special acoustic room and a famous clockwork.
The tower is located in the center of Nevyansk and there are different legends about it. It was built in the first half of the XVIII century to order of Akinfiy Demidov. The tower is 57.5 meters high and its deviation from the vertical is about 1.85 meters. The exact date of construction and its architect are unknown.

leaning tower

look up

climbing the tower

Inside the tower is divided into several floors. The purpose of the first floor is unknown, on the second floor Demidov’s office was located, the third held the laboratory and on the fourth there is the acoustic room. This room is one of the wonders of the tower. Its effect is two people standing in opposite corners turned to the wall can hear each other even if they speak in a whisper, but a person standing between them can’t hear their talk. On the seventh floor there is a clockwork made by Richard Phelps, it plays different melodies every 15 minutes. The tower finishes with broach spire, which has grounding – thus the tower was equipped with a lightning rod a quarter century before it was designed by Benjamin Franklin.

the clockwork

After visiting the museum and the tower we went to the Spaso-Preobrazhenski Cathedral situated nearby and then had a lunch. Three more destinations were in out route.

Peter I and Nikita Demidov

the Spaso-Preobrazhenski Cathedral

view from the other side

The first was the village byngi with the temple of St. Nicholas. While we were going there we enjoyed views of the winter and urals nature.

the temple of St. Nicholas

the road

Byngi is a settlement of Old Believers, that’s why the temple has famous icons of old nevyansk school. Another feature of this temple is it wasn’t destroyed during the Soviet era, and kept its internal decoration with the atmosphere of the XIXth century.
The second place was the village Nizhnie Tavolgi famous for the pottery. There it’s possible to see various skillful items of pottery and (!which is the most interesting) to get a lesson and create something beautiful by your hands.

the village Tavolgi

the pottery house

Along the way home we decided to make the last stop in the ski resort Ezhovaya, to see the Urals from the mountain.

the Urals, Ezhovaya mountain

mountain's cafe

Watching photos at home, we were thinking of this day with pleasure. The history of the Urals with the combination of urals nature gave us unforgettable impressions.