Tsiolkovsky Park is located on the western outskirts of Kaluga, not far from the memorial House-Museum of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, where he lived from 1904 to 1935. The Park has a rectangular shape of 200 x 150 meters and a strict geometric layout, similar to regular palace parks in European countries. In the center of the park in 1935, the great Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was buried.
Tsiolkovsky Park was founded in the 18th century, when after a fire in the Kaluga Kremlin, architect Peter Nikitin prepared a new urban planning plan for the city. The construction of the Trinity Cathedral on the site of the former Kremlin has begun in the city center. Shopping Mall replaced the chaotic construction of local merchants` shops. Governor Krechetnikov decided that a Country Garden should appear in the capital of the Kaluga Province. So, a regular garden was planned, which was later called Tsiolkovsky Park.
After the annexation of the Crimea in 1784, the last Crimean khan Mengli-Giray was sent to Kaluga for permanent residence. He built himself a large house in a Country Garden, but in 1787 he left for the Ottoman Empire. His house became the governor`s country residence.
In the middle of the 19th century Kaluga was ruled by Governor Nikolai Smirnov. His wife Alexandra Rosset led an active social life, and many famous people of that time came to visit them: V. Belinsky, M.Shchepkin, A. Tolstoy, I.Aksakov. Alexandra Rosset was friends with Natalia Pushkina, and she came to visit her in Kaluga after the death of her husband, Alexander Pushkin. Nikolai Gogol visited Kaluga three times (in 1849, 1850 and 1851). He lived in the wing of the governor`s house and worked here on his poem Dead Souls. In memory of these visits, a monument to Nikolai Gogol was erected in Tsiolkovsky Park in 2014 at the place where the wing where the great writer lived was located.
In 1899, on the day of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, the Country Garden was named the Pushkin Garden of Kaluga. At this time Konstantin Tsiolkovsky settled in Kaluga. His house is 800 meters from the park, and he came here every day by bike or on foot to wander through its alleys or relax on a bench, dreaming of space flights. At first, the inhabitants of Kaluga considered Tsiolkovsky an ordinary eccentric, but later his work was recognized by the Academy of Sciences, and they formed the basis of rocket science and space research.
After Tsiolkovsky`s death in 1935, most residents of Kaluga came to his funeral. The city authorities decided to bury him not in the cemetery, but in the center of his beloved Pushkin Park, which was renamed Tsiolkovsky Park. In 1936, a large obelisk was erected over Tsiolkovsky`s grave in the center of the park.
