The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg (full name - Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was established by the Emperor Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. Opened in 1714.
More than a million exhibits have been collected at the Kunstkamera at present, and the first tens and hundreds of museum rarities included in the exposition were brought by Peter the Great from his trip to England and Holland, which the emperor made in 1698. The traveling tsar visited overseas museums, admired the "green wondrous" collections of rarities, and, in the end, he decided to found in Russia a similar Russian for the people. Motivated by this idea, Peter began to buy rare things, old books, weapons, tools, appliances - everything that could surprise. Huge collections were brought to Moscow, to the royal palace. So the Kunstkamera appeared - the first museum in Russia.
Story
Medical anatomical rarities, alcoholic freaks of infancy, some evidence of natural anomalies, objects of ancient life and the life of ancient people were separately collected. Hundreds of unique exhibits formed the basis of the "cabinet of rarities" of the Russian Tsar. The halls of the Peter's Moscow residence no longer contained the exhibits that were sent from around the world by messengers sent to search for and purchase amazing items. Then it was decided to transport the treasures of the “sovereign’s cabinet” to St. Petersburg and build a special building for the Kunstkamera. The move was carried out in 1714, all exhibits were temporarily placed in the Summer Palace. And when it became crowded in the palace, most of them were placed in the mansion of the boyar Kikin - the so-called Kikin chambers. Then it was decided to build their own museum building, and the place for its construction was chosen at the end of Vasilievsky Island, opposite the Winter Palace, which later housed the Hermitage.
Start of construction
The construction of the Peter Museum was begun in 1718 and lasted about twenty years. By the time of the death of the emperor - in 1725 - only walls had been erected. The architect was Georg Johann Mattarnovi, who created the project in the Baroque style and led the construction until 1719. After his death, Nikolai Gerbel continued the construction work that had begun. In 1724, Gaetano Chiaveri took over as architect. In 1726, exhibits began to be imported into the museum building.
Structure
Two three-story museum buildings are connected by a longline tower with a baroque dome. The exhibits occupy the entire eastern wing of the complex, the Russian Academy of Sciences is located in the western, the Anatomical Theater is located in the middle building , and above it, in the tower itself, the Gottorp globe and observatory are located. In 1830, the Kunstkamera Museum in St. Petersburg was divided into four separate: Botanical, Ethnographic, Zoological and Mineralogical, each of which is an integral part of the main Museum. Thematically, the Kunstkamera consists of eight sections:
- History of the Kunstkamera. Russian science of the XVIII century.
- Anatomical section.
- North America.
- India and Indonesia.
- Japan.
- China and Mongolia.
- Africa.
- Australia and Oceania.
Kunstkamera History
The Kunstkamera Museum in St. Petersburg includes three expositions: “The MV Lomonosov Museum”, “The Astronomical Observatory of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences”, and the “Gottorp Globe-Planetarium”. The expositions reflect the early period of the Kunstkamera’s existence, a lot of information is devoted to the activities of Lomonosov and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the work of the observatory and the time service located in the central tower of the museum, as well as to the conditional line of the St. Petersburg meridian. The exposition hall of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences is shown.
Anatomical section
The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg (photos are presented in the article) has a very interesting section of anatomy. Here is an extensive exposition collected from abnormal rarities of natural origin: these are anatomical deformities, examples of sirenomelia, Siamese twins, cyclopsia of a baby, a lamb with two heads, etc. The main exposition includes a collection of the Dutch anatomist Frederick Ruysch, acquired by Peter the Great for a large sum of 1717 year.
North America
The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg presents an exposition dedicated to the most ancient peoples of the North American continent - the Eskimos, Indians, Aleuts. The exposition includes the dwelling of northern nationalities, primitive buildings - igloos, plague, yaranga. The home of the Indians is shown in the form of real wigwams, with and without classic coloring. Also represented is the national clothing of the ancient inhabitants of North America, sewn from hides, fur, feathers and plant fibers.
India and Indonesia
The peoples of South Asia are represented in the Kunstkamera in all its diversity: here are the dwellings of ancient tribes, and kitchen utensils, and weapons that were used to provide food and with which they fought. A special position in the weapons exposition of India is occupied by daggers bent in a certain way under the name "Chris" - a terrible, merciless cold weapon that resembles a flame tongue in shape. But most of the exhibits in the section talk about peaceful life. Theatrical art is widely represented, old theatrical women's and men's costumes are laid out on special hangers, puppet dolls hang right there. At a distance, the scene for the performances of the shadow theater is shown. Many carved wood exhibits brought from various Indian regions.
Japan
Household items of Japanese and ancient Ainu peoples inhabiting the Japanese islands in prehistoric times are presented in the section of the ethnography of the country of the Rising Sun. Much attention has been paid to Japanese fishing and hunting facilities. The exposition contains real fishing tackle, primitive hooks, nets and various traps that came to the Kunstkamera from ancient times, some exhibits are more than 10 thousand years old. Armor and weapons of Japanese samurai are separately exhibited . The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg presents the katana samurai swords , which are adjacent to the miniature kusungobu daggers for ritual suicide - hara-kiri. There are ritual female daggers, so small that they are not visible even in the female hand, but nevertheless they carried death. With such a knife, it was enough for a woman from a samurai family to touch her neck, and she was dying.
China and Mongolia
Kunstkamera is a museum that represents China as a country of discoverers of porcelain, silk and gunpowder. Antique sets of finest porcelain fill the exposition. There are countless cups and saucers, coffee pots and sugar bowls. The dishes were assembled and divided according to the criteria of nobility, since a porcelain cup of a simple peasant and a noble nobleman radically differed. The exhibition features the famous Chinese cloisonne enamel, products from bone, stone and wood. Natural silk, woven by the hands of ancient weavers, has not changed for several centuries, it is still the same colorful. A special place in the exposition is occupied by a mirror-solar boiler. This device was in almost every Chinese house: a hemisphere with mirrors arranged so that the rays of the sun, reflected from the mirrors, gathered in a bundle and heated a suspended teapot.
The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg presents the Mongolian exhibition, in which the main exhibit is a yurt - a nomadic dwelling that can be folded and transported to another place. Such yurts have spread since the beginning of the 15th century. A lattice was assembled from long wooden bars that served as a skeleton, then the trellised skeleton was covered with felt and tied with ropes. The yurt was installed in such a way that the front door was facing south. The place on the wall opposite the entrance was considered honorable, and usually dear guests sat there. In addition, the inner space of the yurt was divided into female and male halves. In the middle of the dwelling was a hearth, this place was considered sacred.
Nomads often changed their place of residence, it was necessary to look for pasture for livestock. Mongolian implements, horseback saddles, harnesses and horse blankets are also shown.
Africa
Kunstkamera is a museum that also has a hall dedicated to the African continent. It presents the history of a black population living several centuries ago in the territory south of the Sahara desert. There are primitive farming tools, wooden plows that were pulled by bulls, household items are nearby, as well as crafts crafted from ebony.
Australia and Oceania
The Australian exposition consists mainly of fishing tackle and hunting equipment, with which the natives obtained their livelihood. Many Australians were divers and mined pearls from the bottom of the ocean. For this, they had special devices, which are also presented in the exposition.
The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, exhibits for which are sent from all over the world, is constantly expanding its exposure.