Today, we most often check the air temperature by going online. However, there is a landmark in Penza that was created specifically to find out the weather. Of course, we are talking about the giant thermometer mounted on the end of a two-story building at 37 Maksim Gorky Street. It is hard to miss, as it is located right in the city center. The building itself was constructed over 100 years ago and was formerly an income house owned by merchant Kuzmin. The giant thermometer appeared on it during the Soviet era—in 1982.
The height of the Penza thermometer is just over seven meters, making it the largest in the Volga region. The thermometer is beautifully decorated: the background features the Sun—as a wish for the townspeople to always have good weather—and among the decorative elements is a swallow, a former symbol of Penza.
Thermometers on buildings can be found in many Russian cities: Moscow, Ryazan, as well as in cities worldwide such as Copenhagen, Kharkiv, Hokkaido, and the state of California. The largest thermometer once operated on a building in Moscow, with a height of about 106 meters.
For a long time, the thermometer was out of order, but in 2020 it was restored and now shows the temperature again.
