There lies the interesting historic town of Gorodets on the steeply sloping banks of the Volga, 53 kilometres upriver from Nizhny Novgorod. The town has been connected with the semi-legendary city of Little Kitezh, as far as anyone knows crushed by the Mongol Hordes, while its sister city Greater Kitezh got away by sinking into the profundities of Lake Svetloyar, leaving just the echoes of spooky singing that can be heard today.
Throughout the years, Gorodets has encountered both good luck and bad luck though it flourishes today as a centre of crafts for which the area is celebrated. Its little, exquisite nineteenth century lanes look back to when industry was related with riches and expertise instead of increasingly miserable implications. Any trinket you have purchased in Russia, there is a solid possibility it was made in Gorodets.
Try to go for a walk through the beguiling avenues of the Museum Quarter, home to various historical centres themed around commonly Russian crafts and artefacts. The Samovar Museum supposedly houses Russia’s biggest assortment of samovars and related stuff; the Gingerbread Museum gives a background marked by the gorodetssky pryanik, the adorned gingerbread bread rolls for which the town is popular.
So, if you want to experience 12th century tea town vibes, do not forget to visit Gorodets in Nizhny Novgorod.
Museum of Samovars
On the off chance that you are keen on history, at that point both the samovars and the building in which the exhibition hall is housed is certainly worth to visit. Museum of Samovars in Gorodets has an extraordinary assortment of 500 samovars and different things associated with the Russian tea-drinking customs. You can know many intriguing realities about tea drinking and the historical background of samovar.
There are more than 500 samovars in plain view in different shapes and sizes such as egg, oak seed, Greek jar, sphinx, and so forth. This is probably the biggest show of its sort in Russia. The smallest 75-grams samovar is classified “egoist”. Various types of samovars have their particular names, for instance ‘a ball’, ‘an egg’, ‘a Greek vase’, ‘a shot glass’ or ‘a turnip’. A samovar for two people with two taps was classified “Tete-a-tete“.
Samovars are tea-drinking vessels. However, evidently, they have had different uses previously — shaving vessels, for instance.
The exhibition hall is open from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. on Monday to Friday and 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. on Saturday and Sunday. Each section costs 50 Roubles. There is also a decent bistro with flavourful coffee just around the corner from the museum.
The town of Gorodets is additionally worth visiting as it has a lot of fascinating wooden engineering, in spite of the fact that it is a little off the beaten track.
Tea-Drinking Tradition in Gorodets
Black tea showed up in Russia in the mid seventeenth century, when the Russian Tsar Michael Romanov got a few boxes of tea as a blessing from the Chinese ministers. Notwithstanding its significant expense, black tea turned into the most famous refreshment, and the Russians built up their own tea-drinking customs. In the Museum of Samovars in the town of Gorodets, situated on Volga River near Nizhny Novgorod, you can see a rich assortment of samovars and learn a great deal about Russian tea-drinking customs.
“Samovar” signifies “self-bubbling”. In the historical centre, you can see its structure and expertise to utilize it. A samovar has a pipe in the middle, where the bits of coal, chips of wood or pine cones are singed to warm the water. During the time of water boiling, the samovar makes various sounds like “singing”, “mumble”, and “rumble like a tempest”.
At the point when the water begins heating up, a tea kettle with concentrated black tea is put on the highest point of the samovar to brew tea. In a samovar, the tea gets its interesting taste and aroma. The most seasoned samovars are separated into three sections for simultaneous cooking of soup, porridge, and tea, similar to a cutting-edge multi-cooker.
In contrast to the quiet Japanese tea service, the Russian one was a period of the kind talk. Keeping quiet could have been resented. Tea drinking made an environment of agreeableness and solidarity. There was a maxim, “Take tea and you will overlook your misery.” Everybody took at any rate six to eight cups of tea. The fancy woman quickly filled the vacant cups. On the off chance that a visitor would not like to take some tea, they might flip around their cup. Tea drinking was one of the most loved subjects in the customary Gorodets works of art.
Not only that, the Russians never drank “empty” tea, without the treats. They, for the most part, took tea with bagels, round cracknel, pryaniks, nectar or jam. The Museum of Pryanik in Gorodets opens the secrets of this customary Russian pastry produced using flour, nectar, and flavours like mint, glove, and star anise. Pryaniks were “printed” with the assistance of the cut sheets. In the historical centre, you can see pryaniks and cut sheets of various designs and plan.
A community of Gorodets pulls in voyagers by its homes decorated with customary wood cutting, its rich 870-year-old history, pleasant perspective on Volga River and little historical centres, that save the old conventions of Gorodets crafts. There, you can see the greatest assortment of samovars, an image of the Russian tea-drinking customs.
For what reason did each family wish to purchase a samovar, in spite of the fact that it was more costly than a cow? And for what reason did individuals put laurels of bagels on a samovar? You can discover every one of the correct answers in Gorodets.
So, once again, if you want to experience 12th century tea town vibes, do not forget to visit Gorodets in Nizhny Novgorod.