Last year the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after Peter the Great celebrated its 300th anniversary. This is the successor to the first state public museum in Russia, created by the emperor in 1714. The Kunstkamera is one of the world's largest and oldest ethnographic museums, with more than 1.2 million items in its fund.
Same as theirs
According to the creator, it was supposed to become a conductor of European scientific thought in Russian society. The Kunstkamera is a museum based on the example of European countries. The basis of the collection was the collections brought by Peter I from the first diplomatic trip to Europe as part of the "Great Embassy". Before him, none of the Russian tsars made any attempt to visit Europe.
For a whole year, Peter I was abroad incognito as a constable of Peter Mikhailov, together with the embassy he visited a number of countries. He studied personal collections, scientists' offices, talked with European specialists, invited them to work in Russia, and at the same time studied crafts and sciences. Peter made his second trip twenty years later.
Peter the Great inEurope
The details of his visits are known, which serve as a characteristic of his interests. For example, having arrived in Dresden in the evening, Peter, after dinner at one in the morning, went to get acquainted with the collection of the Kunstkamera, where he stayed until the morning, especially carefully studying the section of mathematical tools and handicraft tools. The exhibits of the Kunstkamera interested him extremely, on the second and third days of his stay in Dresden, after viewing military exercises, the arsenal and the foundry, he returned to them again.
In Holland, having learned that a Roman sarcophagus is kept by a collector, the Russian tsar expressed a desire to see him. After leaving, the owner wrote that Tsar Peter the Great was honored to see his office, but when he found out that the thing was stored in a dark pantry, he demanded a candelabra with candles and examined the entire sarcophagus and its individual figures, kneeling.
Free Entry
There was no decree on the creation of the Kunstkamera, but the foundation of the museum is associated with the order of Peter I to transfer to St. Petersburg his personal collection and library, as well as the collection of “naturalia” and books of the Apothecary Office.
The collections were placed in the Tsar's Summer Palace, later, in 1719, in the confiscated chambers of the boyar Kikin, in the same year the exhibits of the Kunstkamera were publicly available by order of the tsar.
As the old legend says, Peter I, entering the museum with rarities, announced that now everyone has the opportunity to get acquainted with the structure of the human body and animals, as well as to study many insects, evenpeople look at the diverse world of the inhabitants of the planet. The tsar's assistant, Count Yaguzhinsky, noticed that the Kunstkamera (Petersburg) needed financial support and offered to charge one ruble per visit. The king did not like this proposal, and he decided to do the opposite, treat each guest with tea, coffee or vodka. Soon, the chief caretaker began to receive 400 rubles a year to treat visitors. This tradition was successful and existed even during the reign of Anna Ioannovna - all classes, without exception, could come and, if desired, treat themselves to coffee with a sandwich or vodka.
The choice fell…
Kunstkamera is a universal place where collected exhibits in a small space introduce everyone to the world in all its diversity. The exhibits were collected by the whole country on the basis of government decrees. An important role in expanding the collection was played by domestic academic expeditions, receipts from individuals, and purchases from abroad.
The collection was constantly growing, so a more spacious room was required, and the remoteness from the center of the Kikiny Chambers underestimated the importance that the tsar put into this "academic" project. According to legend, one day Peter was walking along Vasilevsky Island and accidentally noticed two pine trees, the branch of one of them had grown into the trunk of the other so that it was difficult to determine which one it belonged to. This phenomenon, according to legend, prompted him to build a museum of curiosities on this site.
New building
Newa special building was laid in 1718, the author of the project was Mattarnovi. After him, until 1734, three more architects were engaged in the erection of the choir. Construction moved very slowly, Peter the Great found only the walls. The following year after his death, the collection was moved to an unfinished building. Finally, the construction was completed, and Europe gasped - she had never seen anything like it. It was so well thought out that it has stood without major repairs to this day.
The building was built in the traditions of the Peter the Great Baroque, consisting of two three-story buildings, their shape is connected by a baroque multi-tiered tower, which has a complex domed completion.
Project Petra
Ten years after the creation of the collection, Peter the Great realized the second part of the "academic" project. In 1724, the emperor and the Senate established the Academy of Sciences. Now the Kunstkamera and the Library were the first institutions and the "cradle" of the Russian Academy.
The museum as part of the Academy of Sciences has begun a new life. The richest collections were concentrated within its walls, scientific processing and systematization were carried out, the exposition was supervised by the leading scientific forces of the country - all this turned it into a unique truly scientific institution, in Europe there were no analogues in organizing work.
The Kunstkamera is not only the scientific base of the Academy of Sciences, but also the most important cultural and educational institution. Many of the largest Russian scientists worked within its walls, including M. V. Lomonosov, he compiled a description of the minerals thatkept in the Museum.
Museum exhibits
It is not recommended for impressionable people to watch human developmental anomalies. Not everyone can bear the spectacle of what the freaks of the Kunstkamera look like: Siamese twins who could not be separated (photo of a skeleton), a child born as a result of incest of relatives, and others. The photo also shows a wooden helmet brought from Alaska (Mitha Island). Mongolian shamans used a flute made from a human femur. A curiosity is a Chinese teapot, boiling from the heat of the sun. There is a Big academic (Gottorp) globe here, it reproduces the operating mechanism of rotation, astronomy with a map of the starry sky inside.
Tickets to the Kunstkamera can be purchased from 11:00 to 17:00 every day, except Monday, at the address: Universitetskaya embankment, 3.
