Adjustable temperature, special ceramic sole, steamer, now even models without a cord have appeared … It's all about a modern iron. How are you used to seeing this indispensable gadget in the household? Surely lightweight, convenient and easy to use. But it was not always so. The history of the iron has more than one hundred years, and, as you understand, it did not appear right away as we know it now. Like any device, irons are constantly improved, made more comfortable for use in everyday life, enriched with new functions.
You can read about the history of the iron in the encyclopedia, but it’s better to see once than hear a hundred times, so we head to the iron museum in Pereslavl-Zalessky.
A few words about the city itself
Pereslavl-Zalessky is one of the oldest cities in Russia: it was founded by Yuri Dolgoruky (Prince of Moscow) in 1152. Despite the fact that Pereslavl is a small hill (its population is only about forty thousand people), it is one of the most popular tourist centers in central Russia and is part of the famous Golden Ring of Russia tourist route.
Pereslavl-Zalessky is a city not only with a rich and rich history, but also very picturesque. It is located on the shore of Lake Pleshcheyev, in the place where the small river Trubezh flows into it. The city is famous for its monuments of church architecture: on a relatively small area there are as many as five monastery complexes and nine churches. Also preserved in Pereslavl, most of the unique city fortifications - ramparts built by Dolgoruky himself.
A walk in the city dendrological garden, where plants of various parts of the world are collected, will also be interesting. And in Pereslavl-Zalessky, as befits a cultural and tourist center, there are a lot of different museums: the estate “Boat of Peter the Great”, a craft museum, a museum of tricks and ingenuity, a teapot museum, an iron museum. And this is not all that you can visit in Pereslavl-Zalessky tourist.
Iron History
About how to make clothes look attractive, we began to think a long time ago. Even in Antiquity, a method for pleating fabric using a hot metal rod was invented (this happened in Ancient Greece in the fourth century BC). In ancient times, they tried to smooth out folds on clothes with heated flat stones, but this method was not only uncomfortable, but also unsafe. Therefore, mankind moved on to the invention of the most comfortable means for ironing fabrics.
The prototype of the modern iron was the so-called braziers invented in ancient China. In a cast iron bucket with a long wooden handle, hot coals were superimposed, from which the metal was heated. With this device, the Chinese stroked their kimonos. It is worth noting that the first irons in China were not used at all to make the fabric perfectly smooth and smooth. Using heat treatment in China, disinfection of clothing was performed.
The triangular shape, close to the one that we are accustomed to see now, the iron acquired only by the eighteenth century, when it became widespread in Europe. At the same time, the improvement of the iron did not stop there. First, hot coals were laid in it, as well as in China, or a fixture was heated on a furnace. Then other ways appeared to bring the device to the desired temperature: it was heated with gas, steam, alcohol, and only at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries an electric iron was invented.
And what about Russia?
At the exhibition of irons in the museum you will learn not only the history of the device, but also get acquainted with a purely Russian device for ironing. Our ancestors wound their clothes after washing on a rolling pin, and then beat them off with the help of the so-called ruble - a ribbed board. So the Slavs from ancient times, long before the appearance of irons, watched what their clothes looked like.
Iron Museum in Pereslavl-Zalessky
This museum is one of the most popular and interesting in the city. Most visitors to the iron museum leave only positive reviews about the exposition, so be sure to include it in your tourist program when visiting Pereslavl-Zalessky. Many tourists note a sense of humor of the owner of the museum: even at the entrance you will see funny, and sometimes provocative posters related to the theme of the exposition. So, on the front door there is a bright sign that says that entry is forbidden without a camera, because so many interesting things are waiting for you inside. Photos at the Iron Museum can be made completely free.
Excursions that last for thirty minutes, also pass very lively, with elements of interactivity, so that not only adults will like the journey through the history of the iron. It will also be fun for children. It can be seen that the guides are sincerely interested in the subject of their story.
The museum’s interior also corresponds to the theme of the exposition: old chests on which there are irons and other household items, wooden shelves and walls, kerosene lamps - all this makes immersion in the atmosphere of history the most complete, adds authenticity. And that you got into an unusual museum is evidenced by funny inscriptions, one way or another connected with irons. For example, a heavy ironing board (by the way, we are not talking about the kind of board we are using now; if you want to know which one - rather, get ready for an excursion to the iron museum) there is a sign “Husband meets late at night”.
History of occurrence
The Iron Museum in Pereslavl-Zalessky (photo below) was founded in 2002 by the local entrepreneur A. Vorobyov. Initially, he collected antiques for his personal collection, but when there were a lot of antiques, he decided to organize a museum so that everyone could admire antiquity and learn something new from the history of familiar things. So, under the guidance of an amateur antiquary, two interesting museums appeared in Pereslavl-Zalessky: one of which is dedicated to dummies, and the second to irons.
The owner of the museum still acquires various gizmos, thereby replenishing the unusual collection. Some of the exhibits, by the way, were donated to the museum by caring visitors. And the owner even exchanges or sells some of the copies to other collectors of antiques.
Exhibits
The museum has more than two hundred exhibits; moreover, the collection of irons is constantly updated. The owner of the exposition orders interesting copies not only from other cities, but even from different countries. The oldest iron of the museum in the form of a lion, by the way, was brought from China - the homeland of irons. The museum has a variety of irons: coal, gas, steam, alcohol, electric. The exhibits clearly demonstrate how the device changed, starting from the eighteenth century and ending with the present.
Items in the museum of Pereslavl iron can not only be seen, but also touched, held in your hands, and several times a year, when the institution celebrates Iron Day, appliances can even be tested in practice. Would you like to iron your shirt with an ancient coal iron? In fact, this is not so simple, because ancient cast-iron appliances sometimes weigh up to ten kilograms. The weight of the largest copy of the collection is twelve kilograms. If you do not have heroic power, there will be smaller or even very tiny items - the museum displays miniature irons weighing about ten grams.
By the way, in the exposition you can see not only the irons themselves, but also related household items that people used at different periods of history.
Museum working hours
Due to the fact that the iron museum in Pereslavl-Zalessky is private, it does not work as a state museum: namely, without days off. What can not but please visitors. You can visit the institution from ten in the morning to six in the evening every day.
How to get there
The Iron Museum in Pereslavl is very easy to find. It is located in the very center of the city, at the address: Sovetskaya Street, house 11. The Iron Museum is a two-story building, the first floor of which is made of red brick, and the second - of logs painted in green. Such architecture, by the way, suggests that the building itself has a history, because in this way they built houses in the distant eighteenth century.
Ticket prices
Even an economical tourist can visit the iron museum in Pereslavl-Zalessky. Ticket prices are quite low. For an adult visitor, the ticket will cost only 120 rubles, for students the cost is even less - 60 rubles.
Also in the museum you can buy souvenirs. There are commemorative clay irons, metal products, mugs with thematic inscriptions, magnets and other products that will remind you of a visit to the museum of irons.
