Taras Fomchenkov
for EcoToutism Expert 
These blue and white small clay figurines, cups, plates and even clocks were in many families in the USSR. I can say, the Gzhel maiolica is popular today, too. You can buy the Gzhel items in many places in Moscow, but it is much more interesting to buy these where they are manufactured - in a small place called Gzhel located 40 kilometres away from Moscow along the Yegoryevskoe Highway.
I was born and grew up in these places, and I live nearby now. It is always difficult to write about what you know from your childhood because you have too many memories, sometimes interfering with an objective tourist assessment.
However, let's try!
Gzhel: there’s more to this than meets the eye
Few people know that Gzhel is, in fact, a collective name for a ‘cluster’ of villages and pottery industry villages.
And this ‘cluster’ begins in the village of Obukhovo. When entering this village located along the Yegoryevskoe Highway you should start preparing to ‘meet’ Gzhel.
And by the way, no matter how shocking it is, there are no factories manufacturing the famous Gzhel ceramics in this village!
What is there? There are several small shops selling the maiolica goods for the most impatient buyers, and a temple - the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God - first mentioned in the beginning of the 17th century. Unfortunately, the old temple has not survived, but the one existing now is of historical value since it was built in 1859. Until the 1930s, it was considered one of the most beautiful in the district.
If you drive a little more along the village, immediately after crossing the Gzhelka river you will see a small sign about the sacred springs - in honor of the Fedorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Both springs are fitted with a font! By the way, there are several fonts near the latter spring, but I personally like it less, because it is right next to the railroad embankment although the font is located at the edge of the forest. Since my childhood, the grounds here have become nicer and well-kept. There is a café near the first spring and an asphalt pavement leads to it, but it is two hundred metres long only.
The water here is as tasty as it was in my childhood! Although earlier, we, the locals, did not like the ‘Kunai-well’, as it was popularly called, because there is a cemetery on one side of it, and a railroad embankment on the other. But people drank the water, and since then, its taste has not changed at all - it is just as cold and sweet!
Where to look for souvenirs?
But you may ask where the Gzhel ceramics are?
And the Gzhel crafts, by the way, are directly related to the temple I mentioned, no matter how strange it may seem. In the Soviet time, a workshop for the production of nonwovens was located here in the 1980s.
But first things first!
The first factory appeared as soon as the village of Gzhel joined the village of Troshkovo (an ironic smiley would be appropriate here). Of course, with a small but very cozy shop where you could buy the most ordinary cups, saucers and plates and also such unusual souvenirs as, for example, clocks, candlesticks, and various figurines.
The next place connected with Gzhel art is the village of Rechitsa located behind the Troshkovo village. There is also something to see in the village, for example, a Gzhel porcelain factory outlet. However, I do not advise you to be here for a long time as the driveway is narrow, and the store is quite ordinary.
Moreover, two hundred metres further, you can turn right and see the Gzhel Arts and Crafts Museum and the stores where the choice is much richer.
The Lost Gzhel Design
In general, there are many shops along the road and in each one, you can find some special items that are not sold in other shops. Moreover, I remember the 1990s, when the production was in decline that is why many people had their own firing kilns near their houses and the villagers made their Gzhel porcelain and glazed earthenware for sale. By the way, several of these local shops are still open in the village.
Few people know that cobalt painting, the most famous Gzhel signature line, is not the only thing the region is rich in as for arts and crafts. Previously, in almost any store you could buy the Gzhel maiolica pieces with multicolor glaze, without cobalt paintings! In my own house in the village, there were many white jugs and cups with multicolored floral designs, and red ceramic ware in the sideboard.
Now, unfortunately, these non-traditional Gzhel pieces can only be bought from collectors.
Previously, these were manufactured in the villages of Ignatievo and Kuzyaevo where you can get if you turn from the Yegoryevskoe Highway after the village of Novokharitonovo. In fact, the classic Gzhel art originated from here. But now, there is nothing left in these two places - everything is concentrated along the highway.
Back through the ages
And for those who can get tired of walking along the blue and white shop windows, there is a place in Gzhel full of history. One lifehack: if you come to Gzhel, first, you should have an unbridled imagination. And second, it would be nice if you go there with a schoolchild and read a couple of pages beforehand.
Because the Gzhel stratotype - outcropping of sedimentary rocks - looks as nothing special, just common banded yellow stone in the ravine side.
But if you know that these rocks are 302 million years of age and that this section is a reference one for this long period in the Earth’s history, and that 40 new species of extinct Carboniferous invertebrates described were taken from here, then everything becomes much more interesting. And if you are lucky to find any shellfish ichnite - it’s much more interesting!
And by the way, about the time to get there. Another lifehack: the Yegoryevskoe Highway is narrow, just one lane in each direction. And there are no alternative routes to Gzhel, well, maybe, there is one more - using the Novoryazanskoe-Bronnitsy-Maloe ring. Whatever way you chose, you will not avoid the traffic jams, so, plan a trip for at least the whole day.
Gzhel is worth a trip!
