Penza: A City on Seven Hills and Two Rivers

Penza is located on the Sura River, and its name derives from the Penza River, on the bank of which a defensive fortress was built in 1663. People visit the city to stroll along the pedestrian Moskovskaya Street with the preserved building of the XIX century, and also to see a unique Museum of One Painting being one of the world’s six remarkable museums according to Forbes magazine. In addition, there is a picturesque estate Tarkhany 100 kilometers from the city, where the famous Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov lived and where you can have a pleasant time. When in Penza, don’t miss to taste the local mineral water and delicious okroshka which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Penza began with a wooden Kremlin which could have never been captured by nomadic tribes. As legend has it, the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan, an Orthodox shrine, helped the soldiers when defending the city. Today, a garden square is laid out in place of the oldest Penza Kremlin, and the miraculous icon is kept in Mitrophan of Voronezh Church and is considered the main shrine and patroness of Penza.

You better start exploring the city from the pedestrian Moskovskaya Street where you can see the old urban development, admire the musical fountain, visit cozy cafes, gift shops and buy a smart Abashev toy and downy shawls which are almost equal to the famous Orenburg ones. Then you can view the unusual cuckoo clock in the park, walk along the Sura River and mount the viewing platform near the Monument First Settler. While in Penza, find time to visit the Museum of One Painting where guests are invited to spend 45 minutes alone with an exciting story of a solitary one work of art.

The city also has many museums, among which the Penza State Museum of Local Lore and the Center for Folk Arts Museum and Exhibition Center, where you can see the colorful works of local masters, generate special interest among tourists. Theater lovers are advised to visit the Center of Theatrical Arts «House of Meyerhold».

Moreover, there are places around the city that will allow nobody to stay indifferent. First of all, this is the village of Tarkhany situated 100 kilometers from Penza. Its vast territory is currently turned into a reserve museum created on the basis of an estate that had belonged to the grandmother of the famous Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov. It is advisable to come here for a whole day to look into the estate with the recreated interior scene that existed in the poet’s lifetime; to examine architectural monuments of the early XIX century; to explore the picturesque suburbs and visit the village church and chapel. The unusual Scanov cave monastery is also worth a visit. This is one of the few such monasteries that have survived in the territory of Russia.

The journey will be incomplete without getting acquainted with Penza cuisine which has its peculiarities. You better start with the well-known Penza okroshka listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. This cold summer soup, prepared according to the classic local recipe, consists of beef, eggs, small radish, cucumbers and potatoes, laced with horseradish, mustard, onion and dill and seasoned with sour cream and kvass. Home-made potatoes with cream and jerked meat cooked on the principle of carpaccio are also popular in Penza. The city is famous for its unique local mineral water “Nadezhda” which has a number of useful properties. Any tourist in Penza will surely find interesting places and unfooted paths and will probably discover something new and unexplored.

Get directions

You can get to Penza by airplane from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and some other Russian cities. You can also arrive here by train (from Moscow and more than one hundred cities of Russia), by intercity bus or by private vehicles: the federal highway M5 passes within the city limits.