Anna Vasilyevna Hansen (Vasilyeva) Memorial Museum

Anna Vasilyevna Hansen (maiden name Vasilyeva) was born in Kasimov in 1869. In 1872, together with her parents, she moved to St Petersburg. After graduating from gymnasium, the girl met Peter Hansen, a Danish writer and translator living in Russia, and married him in 1888.

Together the Hansen spouses translated into Russian hundreds of literary works by dozens of authors writing in completely different genres. Among them are plays and poems by H. Ibsen, novels by K. Hamsun, but most importantly, fairy tales by H.K. Andersen, familiar to everyone from childhood.

The building where Anna Hansen was born burned down in a fire in 1921. Now on its place stands the house of Anatoly Nikolayevich Smirnov – a local historian, a master craftsman and just an indifferent person. He not only installed a memorial plaque on the gate of the house, but also turned his homestead into a real fairy tale park. Hans Christian Andersen himself welcomes guests to the park, as the museum’s creator bears a great resemblance to the author of «The Ugly Duckling». You will be introduced to the magical world of fairy tales – the overshoes of happiness, the steadfast tin soldier, the Snow Queen, Ole Lukoye – by the great Danish storyteller himself.