Kozmodemyansk is located on the picturesque high right bank of the Volga River in the Mari El Republic. More than four hundred years ago, this place caught the attention of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who in 1583 ordered the establishment of a city here and named it after the holy brothers and healers Cosmas and Damian.

The city has a museum complex that includes four unique museums. The A.V. Grigoriev Art and History Museum, known as the "Small Tretyakov Gallery on the Volga," is one of the oldest art galleries on the Volga and was founded in 1919.

The Merchant Life Museum is dedicated to the merchant class, which played a significant role in the development of Kozmodemyansk in the 19th century and its transformation into a major center of timber trade in Russia. The V.I. Romanov Open-Air Ethnographic Museum represents a small "village" where the life and customs of the mountain Mari are recreated. The O. Bender Museum of Satire and Humor popularizes the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov "The Twelve Chairs," in which Kozmodemyansk served as the prototype for the city of Vasyuki.

The city attracts visitors not only with its museums. In any weather, it is pleasant to stroll through the narrow streets of the old town. Many merchant houses have been preserved here, still enchanting with their lace facades and magnificent carvings.