The Museum "The Smolensk Flax" is the first among the museums of such a profile in Russia. Due to the sizeable restocking of its collections for more than 30 years of its work, due to making an important contribution to the learning of the folk traditions of the Smolensk Region, due to the regular changing of the exhibitions, due to the introduction of the new forms of work with visitors it has gained the status of the ethnographical museum.

    At present the scientific documentation has being worked out for the new exposition in a specially intended apartment of the Nikolskaya Tower while the museum exposition is temporarily housed in another apartment

    The house for the museum (the Nikolskaya Tower) is one of three preserved towers from nine towers-gates existed in the 17th century. The fortress was erected in the period of 1596 - 1602 years under the guidance of Fyodor Kon. Boris Godunov (the future Russian Tsar) took part in the laying of the first bricks of it. The earliest tower's name was Yelenevskaya, becausea road led from it to Yelnya town. The latest tower's name wasNikolskaya. It sprang from the St. Nicolay's Church which stood nearby at the beginning of the 19th century and was burnt in 1812. Either it sprang from the name of the saint depicted in the icon of St. Nicolay placed in a lancet frame of the icon-case above the entrance.

    Inside of this three-tiered tower there was a knee-bent passage which made much difficulty to the enemy storming it, because its axis was not a straight line but shaped a rectangular. A big arch for another passage (functioning by now)in the wall aside was made in 1898 while the gates were bricked up. The volume of the tower is much moved forward from the wall. Its overhead cover had beams on which so-called "wooden bridges" were laid. There were narrow stone stairs in the depth of the fortress walls adjoining to the tower. They led to the upper tiers of the tower, to the battle platform. From the outside the tower is covered with blind merlons and fighting merlons. The towerhad a gable roof rested on the merlonsand square pillars jointed by the wooden stringer of a fence. The tower is decorated with round transparent and false loop-holes placed below the entablature. Functioning loop-holes were intended for the frontal and the flank firing. Thecorners of the tower are enclosed with wide flat shoulders, or lesenes (lizenas) divided intohorizontal layers by the profiledbelts