A Factory — Museum
A Social Enterprise
Where? Kolomna, Moscow Province
Who? Kolomna Center for the Development of Educational Tourism («City-Museum»), Kolomna Pastila Museum At Nikola na Posadiakh («Museum of the Forgotten taste»)
Project chief: Natalia Nikitina
When? Since 2011, ongoing
The project’s slogan proclaims, “Take a taste of history!” It features the revival of a candy factory in a provincial city toward the end of the 19th century, in its day a model of the latest technology. Using today’s technologies, the “factory” now performs many tasks: once again “The Pastille-Candy Enterprise of Merchant Pyotr Karpovich Chuprikov” is producing its fruity pastilles, visitors tour the plant and take part in the re-enactment, try the pastilles, watch an audiovisual show and get some insight into the traditional cultivation of the town’s famous apple and plum trees. The quiet block that is home to this living museum in the center of the city museum has become one of Kolomna’s favorite places. The museum has changed the attitude of local residents, business people and officials to their heritage, created new jobs and made Kolomna more attractive to visitors.