If you turn into the arch on Chernyshevsky Street, 88 in Ufa, you can quickly see mosaic panels dedicated to the history of the Vogau family and their tea packaging factory.

The entire series consists of nine panels that tell the story from the arrival of Maximilian Vogau in Russia in 1827 to the family's life during the Soviet period.

The Vogau family was one of the wealthiest in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1893, the trading house "Vogau and Co" created a subsidiary "Karavan" and opened a tea packaging factory in Ufa.

By 1914, the Vogau trading organization included six departments: metals, household chemicals, building materials, as well as tea, sugar, and cotton. "Vogau and Co" were the first in Russia to sell cars, built railroads and stations. The mosaics are dedicated to this business evolution and its connection to the history of Ufa.

The first panel depicts the arrival of Maximilian Vogau in Russia in 1827: the future owner of a large business is traveling by stagecoach, with the Smolensk Kremlin visible in the background.

The second panel shows the year 1828: Maximilian Vogau, a 20-year-old young man, arrived in Russia and began working as a simple messenger, what we would today call a courier.

Maximilian Vogau founded his firm and developed it in both light and heavy industry. The Vogau company participated in the construction of metallurgical plants in Beloretsk and the development of metal processing in the Urals.

The fourth panel shows the construction of a narrow-gauge railway by "Vogau and Co" from Beloretsk almost to Katav-Ivanovsk in the Chelyabinsk region.

The next panel depicts the process of building the Vogau factory on Chernyshevsky Street (then Ufimskaya) in the early 1900s.

Another panel shows the traditional afternoon reading of newspapers with a samovar and tea from the Vogau factory "Karavan", which was purchased by a third of the residents of Russia in the early 20th century.

Vogau became the first importers of cars in Russia. The panel shows a driver at the wheel and surprised passersby around.

The history of the Vogau firm in Russia concludes: after the start of World War I and political changes, the family was forced to emigrate to Europe.

The last panel transitions to the history of the USSR, when the tea factory was converted into a shoe factory.

Creating the compositions is manual labor that takes one month.

The panels are made of the finest Venetian mosaic, each containing about 576 pieces.