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About Tula

Tula is a historic city in Central Russia, situated on the Upa River — a tributary of the Oka — approximately 180 km south of Moscow in the fertile Tula Oblast. With a population of around 470,000, it is a mid-sized industrial city with one of the most distinctive identities in Russia, built on centuries of three celebrated crafts: arms manufacture, samovar making and the production of the famous Tula gingerbread (pryanik).

The city's most iconic landmark is the Tula Kremlin, a well-preserved 16th-century fortress with white stone and brick walls that served as a key defensive outpost on the southern approaches to Moscow against steppe raids. Within the kremlin stands the Cathedral of the Assumption (1764) and a smaller memorial church. The Tula Regional Museum of Arms, one of the oldest and most comprehensive firearms museums in the world, documents the city's four-century tradition of weapons manufacture — from flintlock muskets to modern automatic weapons. The Tula Samovar Museum charts the evolution of the decorative metal urn that became a symbol of Russian tea culture.

Tula is also associated with Leo Tolstoy, whose family estate at Yasnaya Polyana lies 14 km south of the city. The estate, where Tolstoy lived for most of his life and wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, is now a museum and UNESCO-listed literary heritage site, attracting visitors from around the world. The city lies on the main Moscow–Voronezh–Rostov railway and road corridor.