This is where Russia's national poet Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) spent three years exiled between 1820 and 1823. You can view his tiny cottage, filled with original furnishings and personal items, including a portrait of his beloved Byron on his writing desk. There's also a three-room literary museum in the building facing the cottage, which documents Pushkin's dramatic life.
Pushkin fans will want to know that it was here that he wrote his poem 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus' and other classics – that is, when he wasn't involved in the amorous intrigues, hard drinking and occasional violence of his social circles in what was then a distant rough-around-the-edges outpost of the Russian empire.
English-language excursions need to be booked in advance.
