Venyov

Venyov is first mentioned in the 1390s as the settlement of Veneva; its present site is the mid-16th-century fortress of 'Gorodenesk on the Venev', the name Venyov settling by 1572. A town since 1777 and one of Russia's 115 historic towns, it lies 52 kilometres from Tula. Its calling card is the 77-metre bell tower of St Nicholas — the tallest building in Tula Oblast — restored and museumified in 2022. The town also holds the church ensemble of the former Epiphany monastery (the Epiphany and Kazan churches), the Stone Chambers — the oblast's oldest civil building, housing the local history museum — the Mound of Immortality and a photo-technology museum. The gastronomic brand is the 'Venyovka' bun shaped like the letter V, given its own monument in 2021. Near the town stand the ancient Venyov-Nikolsky monastery (now a convent) and the Epiphany monastery of the 17th–18th centuries, later abolished.