A truly priceless heritage is kept by historical museums in Moscow. A lifetime is not enough to explore all the expositions. But we strongly recommend getting to know some of them better. We offer a short tour of the most famous and noteworthy museums of the capital.
State Historical Museum in Moscow
Most Russians have a good idea of a three-story red brick building with a white roof located on Red Square.
The largest State Historical Museum in Russia was founded in February 1872 by decree of Alexander II. In 1974, the City Duma allocated a plot of land on Red Square for construction, where it was laid in April of the same year with the participation of the emperor. The pseudo-Russian style building with elements of a tower was designed by architect Shevrud and engineer Semyonov. It organically fit into the existing ensemble, consisting of the Moscow Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. Halls of the Historical Museum in Moscowdesigned by famous artists: Vasnetsov, Korovin, Aivazovsky, Repin. Construction continued until 1881, and in May 1883 the museum met the first tourists.
The exposition of the museum, consisting of almost 5 million items and 14 million documents, reflects all stages of Russia's development - from ancient times to the beginning of the twentieth century. The exhibits of the Crimean War became the first collection of the museum. During the Soviet era, some decorative elements were destroyed and the murals were whitewashed. In the late 80s of the last century, a large-scale restoration began to restore the historical appearance, which was restored by the end of 2003. In 2006, work was completed on the permanent exhibition, which is placed in chronological order and currently occupies 39 halls on two floors. Each era has its own hall, and in the first of them there are exhibits related to the primitive communal system.
The Historical Museum in Moscow keeps a lot of interesting and unique things. The exhibits have been collected for almost a century and a half. Here are just a few:
- Genuine mammoth tusks found on the banks of the Yenisei by a merchant from Irkutsk Gromov at the end of the 19th century and donated by him to the museum.
- A boat 7.5 meters long, hollowed out with a stone ax from a whole oak tree. It was discovered on the Don bank near Voronezh by local residents in 1954.
- A copy of the burial at the Sungir site near Vladimir, over 25,000 years old.
- Taman sarcophagus IV century BCad. It was found at the beginning of the last century on the territory where the ancient Greek state of the Bosporan Kingdom, which occupied the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas, used to be.
- Tashtyk funeral masks, allowing you to imagine what the appearance of the people who inhabited Southern Siberia in the 2nd century BC was like. e. - 5th century AD e.
- Drinking vessels made from tur horns - rhytons.
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"The Tale of Igor's Campaign" - the first edition, dating back to 1800.
- The mummified remains of a 25-year-old Russian woman from the time of the Egyptian pyramids.
- The first birch bark of the XIV century, found near Novgorod in 1951. This is a report on the collection of dues, compiled by the manager of the boyar estate.
Moscow Kremlin Museums
In the very center of our capital, on the territory of the Kremlin, there are unique museums. They are united by a common name - the Moscow Kremlin Museums. There are six in total: the Armory, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Museum of Applied Arts and Life of the 17th century, the Assumption, Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals.
Armoury
Historical museums in Moscow include the world-famous treasury, named after the oldest Kremlin treasury. The museum occupies a building designed by the architect K. Ton in 1891. The collection of the Armory Chamber consists of jewels from the tsarist treasury and the patriarchal sacristy, made by Kremlin craftsmen, as well as donated by embassies of other states.
Ceremonial royal clothes, coronation dress, state regalia, clothes of hierarchs of the Russian church, items of armory craftsmen, a collection of items made of gold and silver made by Russian craftsmen, art silver from Europe, carriages, ceremonial horse attire are stored here. All exhibits of the Armory have the highest artistic, historical and cultural value. The museum exhibits about four hundred thousand items of decorative and applied art of the Russian state, the countries of the East and Europe, starting from the 4th century and ending with the beginning of the 20th.
Museums in Moscow today are equipped with the latest technology: visitors have the opportunity to use the electronic guide to the Armory.
Assumption Cathedral
For centuries it has been the main temple in Russia. Coronations of emperors, weddings to the kingdom, the appointment of the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the burial of patriarchs and metropolitans were held here.
Visitors are presented with a majestic five-tiered iconostasis over 16 meters high. Here is also the country's largest collection of the most valuable and revered icons, an ensemble of monumental painting, a prayer place for Ivan VI, a historical necropolis.
Annunciation Cathedral
Historical museums in Moscow are located in many old cathedrals. Blagoveshchensky is one of the oldest monuments of the Moscow Kremlin, built according to the traditions of Moscow and Pskov architecture in the 15th century ashouse church of the great Russian princes and tsars. During its history it has undergone many changes. The ancient six-tiered iconostasis, consisting of almost a hundred icons, and the ensemble of monumental painting are of great value. According to researchers, some of the icons of the festive row belong to the great Andrei Rublev, and the icons of the deesis row were painted by Theophanes the Greek.
Arkhangelsk Cathedral
The cathedral, which has survived to this day, was built 500 years ago, but its history began presumably in 1247-1248. It became the first tomb of the great Russian princes. There are two shrines and 47 tombstones in the necropolis. The walls and pillars of the Archangel Cathedral are decorated with portraits of the rulers of Moscow.
Ordination Church
The house church of the patriarchs and metropolitans was built in the 15th century in the tradition of early Moscow architecture with elements of Pskov architecture. A small church is located between the Faceted Chamber and the Assumption Cathedral. The iconostasis of the church, painted by Nazariy Istomin, is an artistic value. The painting on the walls was made according to medieval canons in the middle of the 17th century. The temple hosts exhibitions of Russian wooden sculpture. Similar monuments, of which there are few left today, were collected in various churches in Russia.
Museum of Applied Arts and Life of the 17th century
Located in the Patriarch's Chambers, the former palace of the Russian patriarchs, which was built for Nikon. This young museum was established in 1962, and the exposition is based on exhibitsArmory. In the museum, which is located in a building of the same era, which he talks about, historical interiors are recreated. The first hall displays the personal belongings of Patriarch Nikon and other heads of the church. Sakkos, staffs, hoods are of historical and artistic value.
The museum exhibits antique furniture, caskets, chests, watches, checkers, silver chess. Most of the exhibits are valuable dishes: goblets, gold and silver dishes, cups, pepper shakers, s alt shakers.
Widely presented men's and women's jewelry: buckles, buttons, cufflinks, earrings, rings, rings. Among the exhibits are headdresses, home and church clothes made of expensive fabrics.
Here exhibited handwritten books, decorated with miniatures, colorful headpieces, endings. Among them there is a unique copy made for Tsarevich Alexei - Karion Istomin's Primer.
There is also room for royal amusements. These are hunting items: traps, horns with gold notches, guns with ivory and mother-of-pearl decorations, elegant powder flasks, bows with arrows made of cypress, birch, cedar,
Palaeontological Museum
The world's only educational and educational center is part of the RAS Institute of the same name and is considered one of the world's largest natural history museums.
It was founded in Moscow in 1937. In 1954, it was closed due to the impossibility of placing all the exhibits on too small an area: all the halls occupied about 700 square meters. m allocated inarena of Count Orlov on Bolshaya Kaluga, now Leninsky Prospekt. A separate building was required. Its construction began only in 1972 in a beautiful place in the south-west of the capital. It took almost twenty years to create a unique museum complex. In 1987, the new Dinosaur Museum opened its doors to visitors for the first time.
The main theme of the exposition is the evolution of the organic world of the planet. The area is about 5000 sq. m. About 5,000 exhibits are presented in six halls. Each hall is dedicated to a certain stage in the development of the organic world of the Earth.
- Introductory hall. The tour begins with a story about paleontology, its sections and development. The main exhibit of the hall is the skeleton of a mammoth found in Siberia in 1842. There are also ceramic panels reflecting the evolution of the life of the seas. On the second floor of the hall, portraits of scientists from different times who studied the development of the organic world are exhibited. Among them are such famous personalities as Darwin and Lomonosov. The author of the portraits made of forged copper is the artist A. Chernov.
- The second hall is dedicated to the Precambrian period and the early Paleozoic. Here you can learn about the first living organisms that inhabited the Earth: plants and invertebrates. In addition, the hall is decorated with artistic and monumental works depicting representatives of the flora and fauna of that time: stone carving, ceramic panels, ceramic sculptures.
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In the third hall, visitors will get acquainted with the geological past of the Moscow region and nearby territories, which for millionsyears were under water. Here are the remains of organisms that inhabited the territory at different times: algae, invertebrates, fish.
state historical museum in moscow - The exhibits of the fourth hall belong to the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic. The Severo-Dvinskaya Gallery deserves special attention here with a group of skeletons of reptiles and huge dinocephals, which was collected by Professor Amalitsky. On the walls of the hall you can see artistic images of plants and animals in wood carving technique and painted ceramic reliefs. The hall is decorated with a phylogenetic tree of vertebrates made of forged copper and a chandelier with images of ancient vertebrates suspended in the center.
- The fifth hall will acquaint guests with the organic world of the second half of the Mesozoic and the diversity of pangolins of this time. Here is a collection of birds and dinosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. One of the major exhibits is a diplodocus, a cast from the skeleton of which was presented in 1910 to Nicholas II by the American E. Carnegie in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
- The sixth hall is dedicated to the Cenozoic era, the history of the development of mammals. Representatives of flora and fauna are exhibited here. Of particular interest are the skeletons of the giant indricotherium rhinoceros, gomphotherium mastodon, bighorn deer, cave bears.
Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow
Its history began in 1919, when the permanent exhibition "The Life of the Red Army and Navy" was established.
The history of the Armed Forces of our country is reflected in 15,000 exhibits, which are exhibited in 24 halls, covering an area of 5,000 square meters. m. The materials are placed in chronological order: the history of the Russian army until 1917, the years of the Civil War, the Red Army on guard of the Soviet Union, the years of the Great Patriotic War, the post-war years of the Soviet Armed Forces. Documents, awards, photographs, weapons and military equipment, a collection of banners, personal belongings of military leaders, officers and soldiers are presented.
Other historical museums in Moscow
The list of historical museums goes on. Among them is the Museum of Modern History, founded in 1917 and dedicated to Russian history from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th.
The Moscow Defense Museum began its existence in 1981 with an exhibition dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the Moscow Battle.
Another military history museum in Moscow is the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. The memorial complex was opened on Poklonnaya Hill in 1995 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Victory.
Moscow historical museums cannot be imagined without the Museum of Moscow, which was founded in 1896 by the City Duma. Then it was called the Museum of the Moscow City Economy, and the first place of its placement was the Krestovsky water towers. The Museum of Moscow unites several departments: archeology, estate culture, history of Lefortovo, English courtyard.
The Museum of Moscow Archeology was opened as a branch of the Museum of Moscow on the occasion of the 850th anniversary of the capital in 1997. For him, an undergroundpavilion at a depth of 7 meters at the site of archaeological work during the reconstruction of Manezhnaya Square in the 90s of the last century.
The English Compound also belongs to the Museum of the History of Moscow and is one of the oldest buildings in the capital. Among the expositions: "Medieval Moscow through the Eyes of Foreigners", "History of Anglo-Russian Relations in the 15th-12th Centuries", "History of the Chambers of the English Court". The museum has a permanent exhibition "Visit of Elizabeth II in 1994 to the Chambers of the Old English Court in Moscow".
