Penza: Park Paths, City History and Theater Arts

Belinsky Park and the Health Trail

Belinsky Park in Penza dates back to 1821 and covers 275 hectares. It includes a three-kilometer health trail. For a walk, the trail’s length gives you a specific route distance, while the park’s area describes the scale of the grounds. The park’s history and route planning offer two different ways to explore the place.

Exploring Penza on Foot

The “Red Line” is a walking route for tourists through the historic center of Penza. Unlike the health trail in Belinsky Park, it runs through the historic city center, so the two routes offer different walking environments. If you’d like to explore Penza on foot, you can choose between these contrasting settings: parkland on one side and the historic center on the other.

Ponds and Activities at Penza Zoo

The grounds of Penza Zoo include three natural ponds connected by streams. The zoo offers guided walks around the grounds as well as a quiz game on site. Check the availability of these activities before your visit. The ponds offer another way to experience the grounds, distinct from the two activities.

Monuments and Meyerhold’s Theatrical Legacy

The Monument of Glory stands on the banks of the Sura River in Penza. It was unveiled in 1967 to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution and is also known as “Rostok.” Its location, opening year and commemorative occasion provide a clear connection to the city’s history.

The preserved estate of theater director Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold in Penza was built in 1881 by his father, a well-known wine merchant and producer in the city. A monument to V. E. Meyerhold was unveiled on the grounds of the Meyerhold Museum in 1999. The “Theater of Doctor Dapertutto” also performs at the museum, drawing on Meyerhold’s experiments in the style of Commedia dell’arte. The building’s history relates to the estate, while the theater and monument at the museum each offer their own connection to Meyerhold’s artistic legacy.

Museums Exploring City and Literary History

The I. N. Ulyanov Museum opened in 1970 in the former service building of the Nobility Institute in Penza. The Literary Museum opened in 1989; its exhibition is devoted to writers and poets whose lives and work are connected with the Penza region. The two museums focus on different things: one is linked to the former use of a building, while the other explores the literary lives of people from the region.

The V. O. Klyuchevsky Museum opened in 1991 to mark the 150th birthday of historian Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky (1841–1911). Its collection includes more than 4,000 items and forms part of the Penza Museum of Local Lore collection. Here, the specific historical occasion for the museum’s opening meets a collection with its own connection to the Museum of Local Lore.

The new wing of the Museum of Local Lore of Penza Oblast in Penza houses permanent and temporary exhibitions on the city’s past and present, including an exhibition about its honorary citizens. The three-part interactive exhibition “Laboratory for the Study of Urban Identity” explores memory, forgetting and the way Penza is seen today, and invites visitors to contribute their own observations. The museum’s collection covers the natural world, history, and the spiritual and material culture of the multiethnic Penza region. The museum’s scope therefore extends from the city of Penza to the diverse themes of Penza Oblast.

Discover more destinations: Penzenskiy Rayon, Mokshansky Rajon, Mokshansky District, Bessonovsky District.

Return to the regional travel overview: Penza Oblast.