The Tea Museum has opened in Irkutsk, a new branch of the City History Museum, with seven exhibits on the Tea Road, Irkutsk tea merchants, tea drinking traditions, and local tea trade history. Visitors will see rare items, a century old tea brick, merchant photos, 19th and early 20th century packaging, and products of the Irkutsk tea packing factory. The museum is in the old mansion of merchant Bayborodin, and a tea room with tea ceremonies of different peoples is planned.
The Tea Museum is a structural subdivision of the Irkutsk City History Museum. As the director of the Irkutsk City History Museum, Irina Ternovaya, said, the exhibition features 7 display complexes: “The Tea Route,” “Irkutsk on the Tea Route,” “Russian Tea Merchants of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries,” “The Irkutsk Tea-Packing Factory,” “Russian Tea-Drinking Traditions,” “The Tourist Route of the Great Tea Route,” and “Modern Irkutsk Tea Merchants.”The exhibits of the Tea Museum are taken from the collections of the Irkutsk City History Museum. Of great interest are the exhibits reflecting the history of the tea trade. For example, such as a brick of tea that is more than 100 years old, photographs of Irkutsk merchants and shops, samples of tea packaging from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as a collection of products from the Irkutsk Tea-Packing Factory.
Irkutsk is one of the cities on the Great Tea Route. In the 18th and 19th centuries, tea caravans from China passed through Mongolia to the Russian border city of Kyakhta, then continued to Irkutsk, and then westward to the famous Russian Makaryevskaya (Nizhny Novgorod) and Irbit fairs. It was from Irkutsk that one of the most significant branches of the Great Tea Route to Yakutia and Alaska began. In Irkutsk itself, tea was sold in 15 specialized shops. Tea was served in taverns and tea houses.
The Tea Museum is located in the old mansion of merchant Bayborodin, which was built in the early 19th century. In the late 1920s, the merchant’s descendants donated this house to the city. It came to be known as the “communal settlement house.” In 2010, the mansion was closed for restoration, which was completed in April of this year. Irina Ternovaya noted that there are plans to open a tea room in the museum, where one can not only drink delicious tea, but also see tea ceremonies of different peoples.
After the winter season, the mini-park of Irkutsk’s sister and partner cities, located on the grounds of the historical and architectural complex “House of Europe,” is open to visitors. It was opened on June 4, 2011, on the occasion of Irkutsk’s 350th anniversary. In the center of the park there are 11 stele with symbols of the cities of Kanazawa (Japan), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Shenyang (China), Eugene (USA), Vilnius (Lithuania), Gangneung (South Korea), Simferopol (Ukraine), Pforzheim (Germany), the municipality of Strömsund (Sweden), the province of Pordenone (Italy), and the department of Haute-Savoie (France). The 12th stele, a symbol of Irkutsk, is a miniature copy of the chapel of the Kazan Cathedral and the coat of arms of Irkutsk. The park is open for daily visits from 9:00 to 18:00.
According to materials from the press service of the Irkutsk city administration