Kolomna Apple and Literature Festival

Held each September in Kolomna, a historic town roughly 100 kilometres southeast of Moscow, the Apple and Literature Festival celebrates the revival of one of Russia's oldest sweets: pastila, an airy confection of baked apple purée and whipped egg whites first mentioned in Russian written sources as far back as the 16th century. Before the 1917 revolution, Kolomna was among the towns that competed to produce the finest pastila anywhere in the country, a tradition that faded into obscurity for decades before two local entrepreneurs revived it in 2008.

The festival's dual focus on horticulture and literature reflects Kolomna's own layered history — the sour Antonovka apple that gives the local pastila its distinctive tang has been grown in the region's orchards for centuries, while the town's connection to Russian letters runs through writers including Dostoevsky, whose fondness for sweets is well documented, and the Tolstoy household, whose family recipe for pastila survived among Sophia Tolstaya's papers. Activities include apple-themed games, caroling, literary readings, and orchard restoration work carried out in partnership with international horticultural groups.

For visitors curious about a genuinely obscure corner of Russian culinary history, Kolomna's Pastila Museum and its accompanying festival offer easily the most complete way to encounter a sweet that was once served to tsars and now, thanks to a small, dedicated revival effort, welcomes over 50,000 visitors of its own each year.