State Historical Museum description for children. The front porch of the museum

Historical Museum in Moscow (Moscow, Russia) - exhibitions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.

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Operating mode:

The main building of the museum, the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812 and Exhibition complex: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday - from 10:00 - 18:00, Friday, Saturday - from 10:00 - 21:00. Closed on Tuesday.

New exhibition hall: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday - from 10:00 - 19:00, Friday, Saturday - from 10:00 - 21:00. Closed on Tuesday.

Cost: 400 RUB, students and pensioners 150 RUB, family ticket (for two adults and two children under 18 years old) 600 RUB. Children under 16 years of age have the right to visit the museum for free.

Branches of the Historical Museum

• Intercession Cathedral (is an integral part of St. Basil's Cathedral) - The central church of the Cathedral is not accessible for inspection due to restoration work. Cost: 500 RUB, students, pensioners - 150 RUB
• Chambers of the Romanov Boyars; Address: st. Varvarka, 10; Opening hours: Every day - from 10:00 - 18:00, on Wednesday from 11:00 - 19:00, closed on Tuesday. Cost: 400 RUB, students, pensioners - 150 RUB, children under 16 years old - free
• Exhibition complex; address: Revolution Square, 2/3; prices vary depending on the exhibition
• Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812; address: pl. Revolutions, 2/3; cost of visit: 350 RUB, reduced price 150 RUB

Prices on the page are as of October 2018.

Address: Moscow, Red Square
Start of construction: 1875
Museum opening: 1883
Architect: Sherwood Vladimir Osipovich, Semenov Anatoly Alexandrovich
Coordinates: 55°45"18.7"N 37°37"03.4"E

The collections stored in the main historical museum of the country are amazing. Over its 145-year history, it has collected more than 5 million exhibits. The museum contains ancient books, unique artifacts found during excavations in different parts of the country, and many other items telling about the centuries-old history of Russia.

View of the State Historical Museum from Red Square

History of the museum

Red brick massive building The museum closes the main square of Moscow from the north-west. It is located opposite the picturesque Church of the Intercession Mother of God, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral, and blends harmoniously with the walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin.

The idea to organize a historical museum was born in the middle of the 19th century. In 1872, a major Industrial Exhibition was held in Moscow, which served as an impetus for the creation of two museums - historical and polytechnic. The first exhibits of the historical museum were archaeological exhibits from the exhibition and memorabilia sent by veterans of the Crimean War.

Over the course of several years, so many items accumulated that Emperor Alexander II ordered the construction of a separate museum building. By his decree, a special commission was created to organize a new museum, the backbone of which was made up of prominent historians V., O. Klyuchevsky, S. M. Solovyov, I. E. Zabelin and D. I. Ilovaisky.

Entrance to the museum

In 1875 a competition was held architectural projects, where the work of Anatoly Semenov and Vladimir Sherwood won. In the same year, the foundation of the future museum building was laid. Materials for construction were brought from different corners countries, brickwork they were fastened with cement, internal partitions were made of metal, and pipes and wires were removed inside the building. 260 masons and over three hundred auxiliary workers worked at the construction site.

The construction of the huge building lasted 11 years and required significant sums of money. The organizers had to take out a bank loan of 1.26 million rubles, and repayment of this loan took 28 years.

When the work was completed, a massive building in the pseudo-Russian style appeared in the center of Moscow, the eclectic appearance of which fit perfectly into the architecture of Red Square. For the decoration of the museum, kokoshniks, arcature belts, flies, weights, tents and other elements of traditional ancient Russian architecture were used.

The museum opened in 1883. By that time, the building had not yet been fully decorated, so it was decided not to organize lavish ceremonies. The first visitors to tour the 11 finished halls were Emperor Alexander III and his wife. In a few days new museum consecrated and opened to the general public.

After the revolutionary events of 1917, they repeatedly wanted to close the museum, but this did not happen. In 10 years Soviet power The museum's holdings doubled, mainly due to the fact that valuables from former noble estates were brought here.

During the war years, the most valuable part of the collections was evacuated to Kazakhstan. It is noteworthy that even during the siege of the capital, the historical museum did not close and received visitors, remaining the only working museum in Moscow. Only in the fall of 1941 it was closed for one week to eliminate the consequences of the destruction that occurred during the bombing.

By the 1980s, the historical museum began to experience technical problems. For 100 years, the building has never been renovated and therefore has become very dilapidated. A major reconstruction of the museum was carried out from 1986 to 2002.

Exhibitions

The treasures collected in the museum are exhibited in 39 rooms. However, on an area of ​​4000 sq. m managed to place only 22 thousand exhibits. This is only a small part of the items stored in the historical museum - 0.5% of the available funds. All exhibits of the State Historical Museum cannot be viewed during one visit. If you linger at each display case for just one minute, it would take 360 ​​hours to fully explore the collection! It is not surprising that such a huge museum employs more than 800 employees.

The Historical Museum is considered the largest national museum in the country, and is visited by up to 1.2 million people annually. In order for tourists to be able to see rare artifacts stored in storerooms, exhibitions are organized here all year round.

Walking through the halls of the museum, visitors can learn about the history of the country, from ancient times to the beginning of the last century. Recently, you can view the main exhibitions virtually. To do this, just go to the museum’s website.

Interiors

The architects paid great attention to the design of the museum's interiors. All rooms represent a ring enfilade, and valuable materials were used for their decoration - Carrara marble and oak panels, stucco and gilding.

The most richly decorated rooms occupy the first floor of the museum building. The windows have unique frames imitating ancient mica windows, the halls are closed with pine and oak doors, and the floors are decorated with picturesque mosaics. The wall and ceiling paintings in the museum were made by talented Russian artists - Ilya Repin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Ivan Aivazovsky and Valentin Serov.

First, visitors enter the Grand Entrance Hall, decorated with the family tree of the Russian emperors. On skillfully made wall paintings you can see full-length portraits of princes and kings - from Prince Vladimir to Alexander III.

The halls on the first floor tell about Russian history, from the primitive system to the reign of Peter I. In the letter halls “A”, “B” and “C” unique gold products from different times and peoples are exhibited - jewelry, nuggets, objects of church art, orders and weapons.

On the second floor of the museum building there are exhibits telling about the history of the country from the times of Peter the Great to the end of the 19th century. The entrance to the manuscript reading room is also located here.

The most unique exhibits

IN huge collection The historical museum houses rare books. The most valuable of them is considered to be the “Svyatoslav’s Collection”, which appeared in 1073. It consists of correspondences of Bulgarian texts, which were commissioned by the son of Yaroslav the Wise - Prince Svyatoslav.

In addition, the museum houses the first Russian printed book, “The Apostle,” published by Ivan Fedorov in 1564. The rare book is decorated with leather binding and elegant gilded embossing. It is noteworthy that for the “Apostle” the pioneer printer used paper made in France.

In the halls of the museum you can see the state seal of sovereigns Ivan and Peter Romanov and the top of the fur coat of their father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The rich royal fur coat is insulated with squirrel fur and trimmed with expensive satin fabric.

In one of the halls there is exhibited a letter on a walrus tusk, written in late XVIII century during an expedition organized by decree of Catherine II. The most valuable exhibits also include Napoleon’s award saber and a large floor globe of the 17th century, brought to Russia by Peter I.

Information for visitors

The exits located on the side of Red Square are closed, so tourists who come to see the mausoleum, Lobnoe Mesto, the Kremlin towers or the Intercession Cathedral rarely look into the museum. The historical museum is often visited by groups of schoolchildren and those who want to visit thematic exhibitions.

AND Historical Museum. It is these four buildings that surround the main street of Russia. And the museum can be considered the main entrance to Red Square. It is no coincidence that it is from this side that foot troops and heavy equipment come out during the annual May 9 Parade.

The Historical Museum is rightfully considered to have the richest collection of exhibits not only in Russia. Just think about it - 4 thousand square meters, more than 20 thousand permanent exhibits and 5 million items in the museum collections. It is not surprising that the Historical Museum, even for those who visit it regularly, each time opens from a new, previously unknown side.

And by the way, it’s not just the interior spaces and exhibition halls that look attractive. The building itself is a work of architectural art. It is no coincidence that it is included in the list of World Heritage Sites. cultural heritage UNESCO.

History of the museum's creation

The idea of ​​founding the Historical Museum was born in 1872. And the initiator of its construction was Emperor Alexander II himself. The first exhibits were military trophies accumulated after the Crimean War. The Emperor, thus, wanted to perpetuate the memory of the glorious past. it was decided to build it near Red Square. Before that, the Zemstvo Prikaz was located here - in a modern manner it can be called the Ministry of Regional Development).

A competition was announced among architects. The main condition is that the building had to be maintained in general style, which by that time had already developed around Red Square. The winners were V. Sherwood and A. Semenov, although the former subsequently refused to complete the project. And at the final stage, the construction of the museum was led by Alexander Popov. The construction of the building lasted almost 6 years - from 1875 to 1881. It took another two years to decorate the interior and fill the exhibition with exhibits. And thus, the date when the Moscow Historical Museum first opened its doors to visitors was May 27, 1883.

After the Revolution, there was a serious danger of looting the exhibits of the Historical Museum. But among the Bolsheviks there were connoisseurs of high art and antiquities. The exhibits were taken under the protection of the People's Commissariat, and even plans arose for further expansion of the collection. Thus, in the period 1922-1934, objects that were previously in St. Basil's Cathedral, and a number of churches and small storage facilities were added to the exhibition.

True, the communist era did not pass without a trace. Firstly, some decorative decorations were painted over or destroyed as propaganda, since they symbolized the royal system. For example, the Bolsheviks dismantled beautiful sculptures of lions, unicorns and, of course, double headed eagles, which decorated the façade of the building.

The modern history of the Museum is connected primarily with large-scale reconstruction, because of which visitors could not see the collection for 11 years (1986-1997). But as a reward for your patience, you can now see the building as it was originally intended. Thus, the spiers of the towers are again crowned with gilded sculptures of lions and eagles. Of course, these are not the same ones that “disappeared” in Soviet era, but their exact copies.

And inside the Historical Museum now looks like a real royal palace. Suffice it to mention that the main entrance is a huge “Family tree of Russian sovereigns”, on which portraits of 68 tsars, emperors and grand dukes are presented in gilded frames. As for the rest of the collection, for better perception it is divided into 39 rooms, and each tells about a specific era of the country’s development. And among the most valuable exhibits it is worth highlighting an 8-meter boat made with stone axes in prehistoric times, knightly armor from the time of Alexander Nevsky, the icon of “Our Lady of Kazan,” the globe of Peter the Great and his ceremonial camisole.

In 2017, the State Historical Museum celebrates the 145th anniversary of its founding. On February 9, 1872, Emperor Alexander II decided to create a museum in Moscow national history Russia. For this memorable date, an official video was prepared for the Historical Museum, filmed by creative group Media 1 company from St. Petersburg.

The museum's funds grew rapidly due to gifts from monasteries and libraries, various institutes, universities and publishing houses. Members of famous noble families also acted as patrons of the arts, donating their most valuable collections. The museum is rightfully proud of the Golitsyn library, numbering more than 9,000 volumes on the history of Russia, and the Chertkov collection, which contains more than 300 ancient manuscripts, in particular, the famous correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Andrei Kurbsky. In addition, the Chertkov family donated one of the best collections of Russian coins in the country to the museum. Other representatives of the nobility also made valuable contributions: the Bobrinskys, Obolenskys, Kropotkins, Uvarovs, Masalskys donated their collections of things related to Russian history to the museum.

It is impossible not to mention the precious deposits of the merchants. The Bakhrushins, Burylins, Sapozhnikovs, and Postnikovs donated more than 300,000 various exhibits to the State Historical Museum. Among them were Russian icons, ancient manuscripts, fabrics and furniture, as well as decorative items. applied arts.

One of the most valuable contributions was the collection of the famous merchant, collector and philanthropist Pyotr Ivanovich Shchukin. He was the founder of the private museum of Russian Antiquities. Over time, the collection grew so large that it became cramped even in a building specially built for it. In 1905, Shchukin donated it to the Historical Museum. Until the end of his life, he was the curator of his own museum, which was called “Department of the Imperial Russian Historical Museum named after Emperor Alexander III - Museum of P.I. Shchukin."

Alexander Andreevich Catoire de Bioncourt, leader of the nobility Nizhny Novgorod, donated his collection of hunting weapons and pistols, merchant Vakhrameev - books and manuscripts, representative famous family Dashkovs - works of art. In short, people from all walks of life in Russian society considered it their duty to replenish the museum’s collection.

Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya, the writer's widow, being an honorary member of the Historical Museum since 1906, donated the archives of her late husband, books and photographs, letters, as well as some things. The writer’s room was recreated in the museum, called the “Museum of Memory of F.M. Dostoevsky."

After the revolution, the funds were replenished from disbanded museums, such as the Rumyantsev Museum, the Military History Museum, “Old Moscow,” as well as from the State Museum Fund, which accumulated items from private collections. A collection of manuscripts from the Moscow Diocesan Library and a collection of church utensils and fabrics from the Olovyashnikovs’ store were transferred for storage.

The exhibition dedicated to ancient times, from the Stone Age to the Russian Middle Ages, was also replenished. Soviet archaeologists and paleontologists who carried out excavations in the country donated the material they found to the museum.

After the Central Lenin Museum was liquidated in 1993, its exhibition also took place in the Historical Museum.

The State Historical Museum conducts important scientific and research activities. Its exhibition and funds are an invaluable source for artists, historians, restorers, scientists, cultural experts, costume and furniture researchers.

Museum building

The museum's large and representative exposition required a special building. For its construction, the Moscow City Duma donated a plot of land on Red Square to the city.

The foundation of the building took place in 1875.

As a result of the competition, the project of the architect V.O. won. Sherwood and engineer A.A. Semenov. The red brick building fits perfectly into the ensemble of Red Square, stylistically echoing the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral.

It must be said that even at the design stage the main idea of ​​the exhibition was developed - this is the merit of historians and museum managers Uvarov and Zabelin. Each hall was designed taking into account the exhibits that will be located in it. Great Russian artists - Aivazovsky and Vasnetsov, Serov and Korovin - took part in the decoration of the interior, paintings and the creation of decorative elements.

In 1936, it was decided to destroy the halls dedicated to the pre-revolutionary period. The paintings were painted over, the stucco was chipped off, and the gilding was removed. For more than 15 years, starting in 1986, the museum underwent a comprehensive restoration, and now its interiors have been recreated in their original form.

The State Historical Museum is the largest historical museum in Russia and one of the largest in Europe; its holdings number several million items. My story will be about one thing the only object— about the museum building itself, whose majestic appearance adorns the ensemble of Red Square and where each hall is a small architectural masterpiece and a work of decorative and applied art

Foundation of the Historical Museum

The Historical Museum owes its appearance to the All-Russian Polytechnic Exhibition of 1872. The historical finds exhibited there required further storage, which helped to finally formalize the ideas about the repository of historical values ​​that had been floating around for many years. On February 9, 1872, the highest permission was received for the establishment of the Historical Museum and this date is considered the founding day of the future State Historical Museum

Photograph of the Historical Museum of the early twentieth century

Initially, an area was allocated for the construction of the museum on Red Square, approximately on the site of the current Mausoleum. Then the Moscow City Duma transferred its plot nearby for the construction of the future museum. On this site, old buildings were demolished, which previously housed the Main Pharmacy, and then Moscow University

View of the northern façade of the Historical Museum. Resurrection Gate is visible on the left

It was supposed to make the museum public and exist on “independent funds”. Before construction began, the capital was only 154 thousand rubles, which is why it was necessary to take out a loan of 1.26 million rubles. It was repaid only after 28 years. To ensure financial independence, it was assumed that the basements and ground floors of the museum would be rented out for shops, offices and warehouses

Western façade of the Historical Museum

The foundation stone for the building took place on August 20, 1875. Due to lack of funding, construction was suspended for 3 years and resumed in 1881 for the coronation of Alexander III. The museum building became one of the first civil buildings in Moscow to use new materials and technologies: masonry with cement mortar; installation of channels for ventilation, heating, water supply and drains; metal ceilings and rafters. During construction, the quality of materials and work was strictly controlled by one of the authors of the project, A. Semenov, a military engineer by training.

View of the Historical Museum from the Moscow Hotel

In plan, the museum building has an irregular rectangular shape, 112 meters long and 52 meters wide. The work on the decorative decoration of the external walls and hipped towers was especially labor-intensive. In 1876-1877 260 master masons and several hundred auxiliary workers were simultaneously working on the masonry. On the main facade alone there are 15 types of kokoshniks, 10 types of flies (this is a type of recess in the plane of the wall), arcature belts (i.e. belts of false arches), kiots, stretched cornices

Decor of the southern facade of the Historical Museum

The Imperial Russian Historical Museum opened to the public on June 2, 1883. Before the revolution, the halls on the second floor and several halls on the first floor could not be decorated, but these well-lit, high and spacious rooms were used for holding various exhibitions and meetings. Sometimes these halls served as workshops famous artists– V.I. Surikov, V.M. Vasnetsov, I.E. Repin, V.A. Serov worked here

During Soviet times, the museum's exhibition was rethought in accordance with new ideological goals. In 1937, the Historical Museum was declared the main national museum of the country. By the early 1980s, the museum building had become very dilapidated and in 1986 large-scale restoration and reconstruction began, which, due to financial and organizational difficulties, were completed only in 2002. In addition to the restoration of the interiors, which I will talk about below, the list of works is worth noting the covering of the large courtyard of the museum and the creation of the so-called Polovtsian courtyard in the ground floor and the New exhibition hall above it on the first floor. Here in this photo from a bird's eye view you can see tall buildings in courtyard museums that we cannot see from the ground

Since the spring of 2007, for the first time in the history of the State Historical Museum, all 40 halls have been opened to the public.

Historical Museum building

The authors of the project of the Historical Museum are the architect Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood and the engineer Anatoly Aleksandrovich Semenov. Their project under the motto “Fatherland” won the building design competition. The authors themselves indicated in their explanations that for the design of the facades they used motifs from the decorative decoration of the Intercession Cathedral on Red Square, the churches of the Ascension and John the Baptist in Kolomenskoye and Dyakovo, the Trinity in Ostankino, the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki, the wooden palace in Kolomenskoye, and the churches of Vologda and Yaroslavl.

Southern façade of the Historical Museum

Sherwood completed the first sketches of the facades in 1873, until the competition in 1875 the project was being finalized, but even after its approval the facades were redrawn four times. As a result, the building of the Historical Museum is an excellent example of the pseudo-Russian style, popular in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The building compositionally fits well into the ensemble of Red Square; it balances St. Basil's Cathedral, as if rhyming and echoing it

It is as part of the ensemble of Red Square that the building of the Historical Museum is included in the list of objects world heritage UNESCO

Even before the completion of construction, the organizers had disagreements with V. Sherwood and in 1879 the architect was removed from construction, subsequent design passed to A. Semenov. Architect A.P. Popov was invited to design the interior decoration of the Historical Museum. He began by developing standard drawings for oak frames for several hundred museum windows. The varied pattern of window frames is reminiscent of patterned ancient Russian “mica endings”

Based on Popov's sketches, the gilded metal sculptures decorating the roof of the building were made. Tents of four tall towers The museum is crowned with double-headed eagles, the design of which was borrowed from the coat of arms of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the Kremlin towers. Now we see copies restored in 1997; the originals were removed in 1935 and melted down. The figures are installed at a height of 57-62 meters (the difference in height is because the building is located on a hillside). These sculptures have an unusual design - they turn to the wind with a wide front side, and not sideways, like a regular weather vane, because otherwise they would most often be an edge to the main viewing points - Red and Manezhnaya squares

Below, on small tents, there are heraldic symbols - a wrestling lion and a unicorn under an imperial crown, the image of which was copied from an ancient seal of the Moscow Printing House

The sculptures are installed at a level of 27-32 meters, have a height of 166 cm, and weigh about 500 kg. They are firmly fixed to the tower structures. The sculptures were also removed in 1935 and returned to the towers in December 2003

On the roofs of the western and eastern facades, i.e. On the facades to the Kremlin and to the Voznesensky Gate, there are single sculptures of two lions and a unicorn. After removal in 1935, museum staff managed to hide the figures of a lion and a unicorn, which, during restoration at the end of the 20th century, served as models for recreating the tent completions

According to the authors' plan, the main entrance to the Historical Museum is located from Red Square. The tents above the main entrance are decorated with flags (they are called ensigns) with the dates of the foundation of the building and the opening of the museum - 1875 and 1883

Nowadays, the main entrance is not used, but on June 1, 2017, in honor of the museum’s 145th anniversary, it was opened for the first time in 30 years

Now the main entrance to the State Historical Museum is located from Voskresensky Passage on the site of a closed small courtyard. This was done for the sake of preserving the unique interiors of the Front Entrance, in order to avoid passing through the entryway directly from the street.

Front entrance

The interior of the museum is built on the principle of a circular enfilade, the logical center of which is the Grand Entrance Hall and the Byzantine Hall. This is the view that opens when entering the Grand Entrance through the main entrance, as intended by the architects

All the colorful decoration of the Front Entrance, which we see now, was densely whitewashed with lime in 1936 as ideologically inconsistent and was inaccessible for viewing until the restoration of 1986-1990. The main vault is decorated with the “Family Tree of the Russian Sovereigns”. Painting with an area of ​​220 sq. meters includes 68 portraits of princes and kings. At the base of the tree are depicted the baptist of Rus', Prince Vladimir and Princess Olga

As the restoration showed, the oval portraits are separate canvases pasted onto the vault. Some of them were lost and reconstructed, but mostly now we see the originals. Peter I is depicted in knightly armor and a red robe lined with ermine (in the center of the picture). The tree is crowned by Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna - the reigning persons at the time of the opening of the museum

One can say about all the interiors of the Historical Museum that they are decorated according to original Russian motifs, and in the Main Entrance, literally every detail represents an architectural quote from the main Russian monuments. The prototype for creating a family tree was the mural of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow. The pillars, walls and arches of the galleries are decorated with lush floral ornaments, repeating the painting of the place of worship of Ivan the Terrible in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

The floor of the Grand Entrance Hall and the staircase are made of Carrara marble. The railings of the side galleries repeat the design of the royal prayer place of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin (roses in square recesses at the top of the photo below). On the sides of the staircase there are figures of lions modeled on those that stand on the Red Porch of the Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin. In their paws the lions hold heraldic shields with the monograms of Emperors Alexander II and Alexander III

On the arches of the side galleries of the Grand Entrance there are images of the coats of arms of the lands that were part of the Russian Empire

The main entrance vestibule is decorated with a carved wooden portal

In the arched vault above the vestibule are written heraldic images of a lion and a unicorn under the imperial crown, and then - the coat of arms of Moscow, approved in the year the museum opened - in 1883

It is impossible not to pay attention to the colorful portal of doors leading from the Main Entrance to the Byzantine Hall. On its arch is the opening date of the museum. ancient Slavic calendar– 7391 years from the creation of the world

The model for it was the portals of the Church of Nikita the Martyr beyond the Yauza and the Cathedral of the Vasilyevsky Monastery in Suzdal (XVI-XVII centuries)

Oak double doors, upholstered on the outside with metal plates with carvings through which colored foil shines through, are modeled after the Annunciation Cathedral in Gorokhovets (the very beginning of XVIII century). Through them we pass into the hall, which is now called the lettered hall “A” and has recently been used for temporary exhibitions. One of these expositions, dedicated to gold, was a great success and that’s probably why it became permanent.

Halls of the Historical Museum

According to the founders of the Historical Museum, the design of each room was to architecturally continue the exhibition, for which quotations and repetitions of decorative elements characteristic of the era being represented were used. Thus, Hall “A”, whose historical name is Byzantine, was supposed to acquaint visitors with the heritage of early Christian and Byzantine art. The hall is a smaller copy of the central part of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, created in the 500s. The dome of the hall is decorated with copies of frescoes from the Roman catacombs, in which the first Christians performed secret religious rites. On the vault of the dome - pictorial image Orphea with a harp in her hands

Above the entrance to the hall there is a picturesque copy of the mosaic from the mausoleum in Ravenna “The Good Shepherd”. Ornamental painting on a dark blue background, covering various planes of the walls of the hall, was also created based on the mosaics of Ravenna

At the exit from the Byzantine Hall there is a picturesque copy of the mosaic from Hagia Sophia in Constantinople “Christ on the throne and the Byzantine Emperor Leo falling at his feet”

Polychrome mosaic floor made of natural stone - a copy of the floor of the Catacomb of St. Helena in Rome

In the center of the complex mosaic composition is a dove with an olive branch.

Next we go to the lettered hall “B”, where the gold exhibition is now continued, and when the museum was created it was intended to display the monuments of the Greek settlements of Southern Russia on the shores of the Black Sea. The pattern of the mosaic floors is copied from the mosaics of the temples of Ravenna in the 5th century

The hall is decorated with four two-column porticoes. Columns of dark red color made of artificial marble support a gypsum architrave (crossbar), modeled after the temples of ancient Greek city Panticapaeum, located on the site of modern Kerch

Above the entrance to the next hall there is a panel by I.K. Aivazovsky “The Kerch Strait”, depicting exactly the area where the city of Panticapaeum previously was. The historical name of this lettered hall “B” is “Monuments of the Crimea and the Caucasus before the 11th century.” Here you should definitely pay attention to the magnificent painted ceiling, imitating wooden floors with open beams. The prototype for its design was the ornamental paintings of several Roman basilicas of the 4th-7th centuries.

The pattern of the mosaic floor repeats the pattern of the floor of the Church of the Savior in Constantinople of the 11th century

Now let's look at museum halls with permanent exhibitions. They are located around the literary halls, the entrance to them is from the porch of the Main Entrance. The first hall is dedicated to the monuments of the Stone Age, it is twilight and little of the interior decor can be seen, so I will start the story from the second hall, which continues the display of the Stone Age. It occupies the round southeast tower. The mosaic of the floor, as in the first hall, repeats the comb ornament of the monuments of the Volosovskaya site

The main decoration of the hall is a picturesque frieze “ Stone Age", made by V.M. Vasnetsov by order of the Historical Museum. This work of the artist was highly appreciated by his colleagues in the workshop: M. Nesterov, for example, considered it best job painter

The frieze is framed by a plaster frame, decorated with a comb-pit pattern, borrowed from pottery from Neolithic sites in the village of Volosovo and the Plekhanov Bor tract (Vladimir region). The frames of the doorways are made based on the ornamentation of ceramic products found in the caves of the Kielce province of the Kingdom of Poland

The doorway leads us into the next room No. 3, originally dedicated to the Bronze Age. In today's exhibition, the theme of the halls is somewhat shifted compared to the plan of the museum's creators and here, for example, the primitive community still continues. Further in my story I will give the number of the hall today, but the purpose of the hall is the original one, so that the intention of the designers is clear. So, in order to show the widest distribution of bronze, the most characteristic images and decor of archaeological sites were used in the decoration of the hall Western Europe, Siberia, India and the Caucasus. For example, in the floor mosaic we see circles, towns, rhombuses, typical of cultures Bronze Age

Typical of that era ornamental motifs present in bronze-tinted stucco cornice

The next room No. 4 is “The End of the Bronze Age.” Over time, metal processing improves and instead of simple geometric patterns, products are decorated with more complex ornaments, which include images of birds, animals and humans. Here the design of the high arched openings to the next hall repeats the designs from the silver frame of tur horns from the mound in Chernigov, and the eagles at the top of the arch are taken from decorations from the mounds of the Suzdal district

The decor of the wide cornices along the top of the walls and the mosaic of the floor use motifs from daggers found in Siberia and bronze items from the Meryan and Murom burial mounds

The architectural and artistic design of the next room, No. 5, “Monuments of the Iron Age,” reflects the theme of the animal style, characteristic of the entire metal period, bronze and iron. The entrance arched openings are framed by images of winged horses with snake tails and crowned with medallions with griffins. The ceiling cornice is supplemented with reliefs in the form of heads of animals and birds, repeating images from objects from the burial mounds of the Ekaterinoslav province

The relief composition above another arched passage - a fantastic bird holding a wild goat in its claws - repeats the design of a gold decoration from the Hermitage collection of Siberian antiquities, and the images of lions on the sides of the bird are copied from objects from Scythian burials

The window frames are decorated with ornaments from bronze buckles from the mounds of the Vladimir and Yaroslavl provinces, and the design of the floor mosaic is taken from pottery from the same mounds

The stepped vault of the next hall, No. 6, “Helleno-Scythian Monuments,” repeats the shape of the ceiling of the crypt of the Kul-Oba mound near Kerch, 4th century BC. The painting of the vault and walls imitates masonry ancient tomb, and the frieze above the entrance is a copy of the composition “The Taming of the Horse” from a vase of the 4th century BC. from a large Scythian mound in the south of Ukraine, now kept in the Hermitage

Picturesque friezes on the side walls copy drawings from the stone crypts of Panticapaeum (near Kerch), dating from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD

Copies of the paintings were made shortly after the discovery of the crypts in 1872 and 1877. At the beginning of the twentieth century, these monuments were lost, which gives special value to the paintings of the hall

The floor mosaic ornament is also based on the paintings of one of the crypts of Panticapaeum

The design of the next room No. 7, dedicated to the monuments of Kyiv before 1054, shows us the details of the decoration of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. Thus, the floor mosaic repeats the complex ornament of the bishop's seat in the large altar of the cathedral

The next room, No. 8, originally told about the history of ancient Kyiv from 1054 to 1125. Two groups of triple windows with semicircular endings repeat the windows of the central nave of the Kyiv Cathedral of Hagia Sophia

All the halls we previously looked at more or less retained their original design, completed at the end of the 19th century for the opening of the museum. But starting from this hall, for ideological reasons in Soviet times, the appearance of a number of halls was changed: most often the paintings, repeating the frescoes of churches, were whitewashed. During the restoration of the late 20th – early 21st centuries, the closed painting was restored. In the same hall, No. 8, in 1930, part of the mosaics was removed, the door portals were designed in a new way, huge paintings by G.I. Semiradsky on ancient Russian themes and copies of frescoes were transferred here, and at the end of the 20th century a passage to the Resurrection Gate was built . The original design of the mosaic floor contains ornaments copied from ancient monuments of book art of the 11th century - “Ostromir Gospels” and “Izbornik Svyatoslav”

The design of the next hall No. 9 (Novgorod Hall) copies the elements outstanding monuments Veliky Novgorod. Thus, the frescoes in semicircular lunettes (semicircular sections of the wall, encircled by a vault) repeat the paintings of the late 12th century from the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa - a masterpiece monumental painting early Middle Ages

In this temple, frescoes covered the walls and dome with a continuous carpet from the floor to the vaults. The saddest thing is that the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa was destroyed during the fascist invasion. Now we can see the paintings of the lost temple only in these copies made during the creation of the Historical Museum. Here in the center of the vault is the composition “Ascension”. On the far vault, behind the ceiling lamp, you can see the plan of the Sofia side of Veliky Novgorod, copied from a 17th-century icon

The decor of the door portals repeats the design of the entrances of one of the oldest churches in Russia - St. Sophia Cathedral, created in Veliky Novgorod in 1045-1050

The ornament of the mosaic floor repeats the 12th century frescoes from the Church of St. George in Staraya Ladoga

The round corner tower houses the Vladimir Hall (No. 10), the design of which is inspired by the ancient monuments of Vladimir. All the reliefs in the hall are casts from the white stone carvings of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral, and the painting repeats the frescoes of the Assumption Cathedral. The magnificent door portals attract attention. Above one of them is the composition “King David on the Throne”

Above the second portal is the relief “The Ascension of Alexander the Great”

The inter-window and inter-door partitions are decorated in a circle with an arcature belt (arctures are decorative false arches), created on the basis of the frieze on the façade of St. Demetrius Cathedral. Here you can see images of saints, birds, mythical creatures, trees

The domed vault of the hall is decorated with a rich floral pattern. It was painted in 1890 by craftsmen from Palekh based on color tracings taken in the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir

The Assumption Cathedral quotes and the floor mosaic

The painting of the vault of the next hall No. 11, called Suzdal, also copies the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir

This is where the mosaic floor ornament comes from.

In general, the basis for the decorative decoration of the Suzdal Hall was the appearance of St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Podolsky (13th century). This cathedral is unique in that its facades are filled with many (more than 400!) carved white stone reliefs. It was from these reliefs that casts were made in 1890, covering the walls of the Suzdal Hall like a continuous carpet.

The reliefs depict saints, warriors, animals, birds, various mythical creatures - dragons, griffins

I must admit that these two halls - Vladimirsky and Suzdal - are my favorite. The sunlit halls are bright, rich colors paintings, white lace with relief carvings fill the soul with jubilant delight, tear you away from the everyday bustle and take you to magical world children's fairy tales and fantasies. And the images embodied here are the most incredible

Look how interesting and unusually the semi-column is designed: voluminous high-relief heads support the capital in a circle, and the capital itself is decorated with faces in which you can see the hairstyle: a straight parting in the hair and braids on the sides of the head

An entire wall is dedicated to an almost life-size reproduction of the southern portal of the St. George's Church

The next room No. 12 was originally dedicated to the monuments of Rostov the Great and Yaroslavl, so the entrance openings here were framed by copies of the portals of the Assumption Cathedral in Rostov and there was a copy of a ceramic frieze from the palace of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich. All this was removed during reconstructions in 1937 and 1950. All that remains is the painting of the barrel vault, repeating the 17th-century ornaments from the home church of the Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl in Rostov

In the mid-twentieth century, door portals and cornices along the top of the walls were decorated according to Islamic motifs for the exhibition about the Golden Horde

Hall No. 13 talked about the monuments of Moscow before the reign of Ivan III. Here the cross vault and window slopes are decorated with sparkling gold paintings, which are based on the ornamental motifs of the Monomakh cap - an important regalia of the Russian great princes and tsars, a symbol of autocracy

The portals of the doorways, thin high semi-columns and a carved belt in the middle of the wall repeat individual design elements of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in Zvenigorod and the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

Even the small metal door to the service staircase is modeled after one of the doors of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin

The floor mosaic quotes the floral design of the silver cross of the founder of one of the Novgorod monasteries

The following rooms from 14 to 16 were not completed before the revolution, although projects for their decoration existed. In hall No. 14, dedicated to monuments Western Rus' and Lithuania, managed to complete the mosaic floor

During the last restoration at the end of the twentieth century, the original plan of the architects was partially realized: door and window frames were made according to the ornaments of ancient Russian handwritten books XIV-XV centuries, and the walls were decorated with casts from the white stone carvings of the Nativity Cathedral of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in Zvenigorod

Also in room No. 15 (“The Reign of Grand Duke Ivan III”), before the revolution they managed to make a mosaic floor. This pattern of colored hexagons is based on floor patterns in Byzantine temples

All other artistic decorations were designed and completed after 1937. The plaster ceiling imitates the wooden beams characteristic of Italian architecture

The arched portals copy the decoration elements of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, for the construction of which they were involved Italian masters. The references to Italian culture in the decor of this room are not accidental: under Ivan III, Italian architects, engineers, and masters of applied arts were actively involved in Russian service, and Ivan III himself married Sophia Paleologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, who lived in Rome before her marriage

In hall No. 16, dedicated to the reign of the Grand Duke Vasily III, the mosaic floor, made before the revolution, repeats the pattern of the previous hall - colored hexagons. The rest of the design was designed and completed after 1937 and was based on the decoration of the Terem Palace of the Moscow Kremlin. Thus, the complex floral ornament of the door portals repeats the carved frame of the entrances to the royal chambers of the Terem Palace

The hall has a complex vault - cross-domed with five formworks (i.e. vaulted inserts into the main vault). The ribs of the formwork are decorated with stucco decoration in the form of scales, and the bases of the ribs are decorated with decorative shields with reliefs of various animals - lions, eagles, doves. These shields were copied from carved cartouches from the prayer chamber of the Terem Palace

And there’s one more reason to remember this hall: the acoustics are amazing. You need to stand in the center of the hall under the chandelier and lightly stamp your foot - the echo will begin to fragment, multiplying the sound many times over. Even when you approach the center of the hall, the echo begins to accompany every step

When creating the Historical Museum, the next three halls - from 17 to 19 - were conceived as a single complex for the exhibition of the era of Ivan the Terrible. According to ancient Russian tradition The large room (hall No. 18) is adjoined on both sides by small halls 17 and 19. When designing all three halls, St. Basil's Cathedral, a monument to the victories of Rus' over the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms, was taken as the basis for copying. The ceiling of hall No. 17 repeats the flat ceiling of the western gallery of the cathedral: divided into recessed squares, painted to resemble brick. The upper part of the walls along the perimeter is decorated with a cornice imitating tiles from the 16th century

The main decoration of this small, dimly lit room is the colorful promising portal, repeating the southern entrance of the central church of the cathedral - Intercession Holy Mother of God. The inner part of the arch is not only painted, but also sculpted to look like scales, and closer to the outer border there is a carved pattern of large beads

The central hall, dedicated to the era of Ivan the Terrible, (No. 18) is decorated extremely richly. The box vault (i.e., a vault with a lying oval in cross-section) is decorated with subtle floral patterns on a gold background and resembles the filigree of Russian jewelry

On the wall opposite the windows, the lunettes depict a blooming fig tree - a biblical tree symbolizing peace and prosperity. The molded cornice under the lunettes repeats the pattern of the cornice of one of the chapters of St. Basil's Cathedral

The design of the entrance openings is truly magnificent here: the arches have rectangular frames with elements resembling beads, and subtle paintings of different color range and drawing. They were created based on the portals of the southwestern part of the Intercession Cathedral. The double-headed eagles above the entrance are made according to Malaya’s drawing state seal Ivan the Terrible

On the sides of the entrances, paintings depict the fabulous maiden birds Alkonost and Sirin, sitting on the branches of the tree of paradise. These characters were often used in Russian folk pictures and to decorate objects of applied art.

Almost all of this beauty, which we see now in rooms 17 to 19, was destroyed in 1936 during reconstruction - the stucco was knocked down, the paintings were whitewashed. During the restoration at the end of the twentieth century, the lost decoration was restored literally bit by bit: from old drawings, photographs, descriptions and reports, from the results of studying monuments that served as models for the decoration of the hall. The floors, made in the 1890s, have been preserved as originals.

In the center of the hall is one of the most interesting exhibits of the State Historical Museum - a copy of the royal prayer place, made at the end of the 19th century especially for the museum. This is the so-called Monomakh throne, installed in 1551 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin by order of Ivan the Terrible, who attended church services in this cathedral almost every day.

Hall No. 19, the final story about the era of Ivan the Terrible, is covered with a cross vault with ornamental paintings

As in the symmetrical hall No. 17, the main decoration here is a colored perspective portal, but repeating not the southern, but the northern entrance of the central church of the cathedral - the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The decor here is different - with petals, shells, a simple intertwined garland

Hall No. 20 was originally allocated for an exhibition dedicated to the reign of Boris Godunov. The cross vault is decorated with bright decorative paintings based on the patterns of imported oriental and Italian fabrics. The design on each of the four faces of the arch is the same and contains stylized images of flowers and pineapple fruits. The cornice along the perimeter of the hall is modeled after the frieze of the bell tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin, which was built on the orders of Boris Godunov

During the “reconstruction” of 1937, this hall also lost its paintings and stucco, but the latest restoration returned it to its original appearance. There are two types of door portals in the hall. One is designed according to the model of the entrance to the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra: a large floral ornament on a green background of a recessed arched casing. Near the walls of this cathedral is the tomb of Boris Godunov and members of his family.

The other entrance opening seems to be doubled due to the blind arch next to it

The ornaments of these arches were copied from the Tsar Cannon, the idea to create which belonged to Boris Godunov

The mosaic floor in both this and the next room No. 21 was conceived and executed in the same way: a clear geometric red and white pattern, bordered along the perimeter by a black stripe

Hall No. 21 was dedicated to the Time of Troubles. The ceiling lamps of the hall are made according to the model of the chandelier from the temple in the village of Purekh - the estate of Prince D.M. Pozharsky. The ceiling vault here is cylindrical, but semicircular vaults are embedded in it, and the prominent ribbons of the ornament visually further complicate the geometry of the vault

The surface of the vault is covered with a golden-colored floral ornament, reminiscent of oriental brocade and Italian velvets. As in room No. 20, the cornice in the upper part of the wall repeats the pattern of the cornice of the bell tower of Ivan the Great

This room has very different and very beautiful door frames. For example, the relief design of this rectangular frame was copied from a carved wooden candlestick of 1604 from the Demetrius Cathedral in Vladimir

This portal with an arch painted with herbs and flowers and resting on pillars with “barrels” repeats the northern entrance to the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

And even forged iron door from the village of Purekh, exhibited here as an exhibit, is framed by a small casing

There are five paintings on the walls of the hall early XVII century, telling about the Time of Troubles: portraits of False Dmitry and Marina Mnishek, wedding and coronation scenes. They were donated to the Historical Museum by the future Emperor Alexander III, and when decorating the hall, niches were specially made for them. In 1936, the canvases were removed, the portals and cornices were knocked down, the paintings were whitewashed, but the latest restoration returned the hall to its original appearance

Hall No. 21 is the final one in the suite of halls on the first floor of the museum. In the halls of the second floor it was originally planned to present the history of Russia during the reign of the Romanov dynasty; interior designs for some halls were developed, but none of them were implemented. Only by 1937, especially for the All-Union Pushkin exhibition, held within the walls of the Historical Museum, the halls of the second floor were decorated in the style of Pushkin’s time - late classicism. This design has survived to this day. Basically, the decoration of the halls on the second floor is expressed in door portals and cornices at the top of the walls. Here, for example, is the design of a doorway in one of the halls

Or this stucco cornice above the entrance opening

Since 1957, the halls on the second floor have housed a permanent exhibition. Today it covers the period of Russian history from the era of Peter the Great to the beginning of the twentieth century

Pilasters in room No. 29 on the second floor of the Historical Museum

Also on the second floor, in a spacious room above the Front Entrance, there was originally a library with three mezzanine floors. In 1914, the library was transferred to the so-called transverse building, and the hall began to be used as an exhibition hall (No. 36). The library to this day occupies a room decorated in a neoclassical style: columns lined with artificial marble; barrel vault painted in grisaille technique

How to visit the Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum has a very beautiful address: Red Square, building 1. It is located in the northern part of Red Square. From the metro stations Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Teatralnaya and Okhotny Ryad, follow the signs “To the Historical Museum”. Please note: the entrance to the museum for visitors is from Voskresensky Passage and, if you come from the direction of Manezhnaya Square (i.e. from the Teatralnaya and Okhotny Ryad metro stations), then you need to pass the Voskresensky Gate.

The museum is open from 10 to 18 hours, but in the summer, from June to August, it is open until 21 hours. Also in summer there is no day off on Tuesdays. The museum's opening hours may change due to any events on Red Square (parades, processions, etc.).

Tickets cost: 400 rubles without discounts and 150 rubles with discounts. There are tickets for family visits (600 rubles for 2 adults and 1-2 children), it is possible free visit for students and pupils on certain days, as well as for some categories of tourists - for details I refer you to the official website of the museum. Please note that the Historical Museum belongs to federal institutions, therefore it does not have a free admission policy on every third Sunday of the month.