"Oh, amazing Kolomna!": as candy and cakes forever changed the city

The first written mention of Kolomna is in the Laurentian chronicle and dated to the year 1180. Since then, the city has experienced many changes, but as far as I know modern Russians, he was always famous for the delicious cakes and candy, not like any other.

Before the revolution this sweet delicacy was supplied from here to the Imperial court, to Europe and even America! But after the revolution, the recipe of Kolomna pastila was lost and to revive it was only decades later an elementary school teacher. Read more about this story and how pastillas forever changed the life of the city, read our material.

Many do not know, but Kolomenskaya pastila is considered one of the most popular sweets in the world. He recently Buckingham Palace has issued an order for the supply of this product! Say that Prince Charles was impressed by its unique taste.

Pastille, which is now the symbol of the Moscow region city of Kolomna, appeared here in the middle ages as one of the ways the Apple store yields. Over the years, the recipe pastes have changed and improved: the traditional candy was prepared in the situ, honey or molasses, at the beginning of the XVIII century for its preparation have started to use sugar.

In 1796 in one of the first cookbooks published a recipe of Kolomna pastila. A delicacy, made according to this recipe, enjoyed great popularity not only in the Russian Empire, but also abroad. After the revolution the question of the preparation of this dish faded into the background, but recently two friends from Kolomna decided to revive the old tradition.

The idea of opening a production Kolomna pastila came to the music teacher Natalia Nikitina quite by accident. With the support of girlfriend Elena Dmitriyeva, the woman appealed to the authorities to provide them some old building into a Museum of vanished taste. So the two friends turned out to be a wing of the Museum — no electricity, no heating and little hope for success.

The joint efforts of the wing managed to restore and breathe new life into it. Then Natalia and Elena realized that they could replicate its experience with other historic buildings. Every year, the authorities singled out women with some picturesque ruins. Soon in the "Kolomna Posad" is the name of a cultural project, Natalia entered the Museum-residence "Art-kommunalka", the Museum of soap making and perfumery "Fragrant joy", Museum of "Bread" and many other businesses.

Nikitina explains that does not invent something new, but only returns favorite places in Kolomna their original function: where once was the bakery, now I bake cakes, in the building where they cooked soap is a Museum of soap making, and so on. Due to this historical reconstruction, Natalia managed to recreate the real atmosphere of the XIX century. Now visitors to Kolomna bring home sweet Goodies, but pleasant and nostalgic memories.

Looking at the success of women, the locals also decided to restart the possession. Now in every house, a theme restaurant that nor gate, the work of art.

The project Natalia has many other advantages, besides saving the country's cultural heritage. For example, with the opening of four museums, four factories and a network of cafes in the city there were at least 100 jobs, and nalogovomu at their expense exceeded 80 million rubles a year.

In addition, Kolomna were regularly visited by tourists. Only in museums Nikitina every year buy about 800 thousand tickets. In General, the number of tourists is estimated at 3 million visitors annually. It is easy to guess that this has significantly increased the demand for local real estate and has been improving all city utilities.

Now a lonely dirty streets there appeared a beautiful paved roads, bike paths, fences, bus stops, trash, ennobled by European standards. The city is always ready to receive guests because of the positive impressions that remain with tourists, provide the effect of "word of mouth".

Well, about how improved the mood of local residents since then, Kolomna has evolved into a cultural center, even to say no! So a modest local initiative has changed the way the whole city.