The first railway station in Kaluga

The building of the first Kaluga railway station is now unrecognizable, it survived to this day, but with significant changes in its original appearance - the appearance of which is now unrecognizable. The building now houses OOO «Elektrotekhnicheskiy zavod».

It was built in connection with the opening of the Ryazhsko-Vyazemskaya section of the railroad in 1874, which connected Kaluga with Tula and Vyazma.

On April 28, 1873, the Minister of Railways, Count A.P. Bobrinsky approved the design drawings for the only first class station on the entire Russian Railways - Kaluga station.

Work on the construction of the road was in full swing. And here is the first mention of the station building under construction in Kaluga: «"The halls in the station building were plastered, the outside walls were also plastered, stoves were installed, frames were inserted and the floor was plastered... The passenger platforms were made and covered with iron...The preparatory work for the opening continued throughout the fall. The grand opening of the road was scheduled for December 15 (December 27 new style) 1874.

... On December 15, 1874, the ceremonial opening of the right train traffic on the entire line along the entire RVZhD line followed in the Kaluga railway station, with a huge congregation of the local population rushing, as it were, to celebrate the revival of local economic interests. Our Archpastor Gregory, with the cathedral clergy, performed a prayer service with the consecration of water, which was attended by the head of the province Ivan Yegorovich Shevich, the provincial leader of the nobility, the vice-governor, the chairman of the district court, the mayor and the heads of individual units.

His Eminence sprinkled holy water at the station, the rail track and the first mail train that arrived from Vyazma, and then set off for Tula.

Then the invited guests were offered a sumptuous breakfast from the Railway Administration in the passenger hall!...» This is how the Kaluzhskie Gubernskie Vedomosti newspaper described this significant event in the life of Kaluga and the entire province, in No. 100 of 1874.(note. The Office of the Ryazhsko-Vyazemskaya, later the Syzran-Vyazemskaya med. was also located in Kaluga)

Now, twice a day, quiet, provincial Kaluga could hear the powerful whistle of an arriving train locomotive (by this time, a little more than 38,000 people lived in Kaluga). It was an excellent station building for its time. Maximum convenience for passengers waiting for the arrival of the train. A roomy luggage storage room and a roomy food store of the station buffet were located in the cellars. There was also a bookshop, owned by collegiate councilor Petrovsky. During a quarter of a century many famous people in Russia and even members of the imperial family visited it.

In 1901 in Kaluga was built a new railway station (the current station Kaluga-1) and the management of the Syzran-Vyazemskaya railroad handed over to the Main railway workshops the building of the old station, where in the hall for the passengers of the second class were placed classes of primary school № 1. (primary school exclusively for the children of railroad workers, mainly artisans and workers of the main workshops of the Syzrano-Vyazemskaya Railroad...» )- later SPTUM1 them. Karpov, and in the hall for class I passengers there was a city theater (the capacity of the hall was at least 200-250 seats).