Sightseeing

THE STATE RUSSIAN MUSEUM Established in 1895 as the center of art and history, the State Russian museum with its comprehensible collection of 400,000 works of art covering the entire history of Russian fine art from the 10th century to the present day, is housed in four palaces located in the historical center of St. Petersburg: Mikhailovsky Palace, housing the museum from the beginning of 19th century, and also Stroganov Palace, Marble Palace, Michael's Castle, which were awarded to Russian Museum between 1989 and 1994 and the restored rooms of the palaces became home to both permanent and temporary exhibitions. While originally the largest and the county's first ever state museum of Russian art, opened in on 7 March,1898, occupied only one edifice - the Mikhailovsky Palace - a stunning monument of Empire architecture created by architect C.Rossi for Mikhail Pavlovich - the son of the Tsar Pavel I. Named after its founder "The Emperor Museum of the Russian Art named after Alexander III", the museum got its present day name of "The Russian Museum" in 1917.Bordering on the summer garden on the east, and west on the barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment of the Royal guards, whose building Stasov finished in 1821, the marvelous Mikhailovsky Palace was constructed in 1825 and boasts elegant exterior decoration – a Corinthian portico of eight columns, one-storey wings forming an elegant courtyard with a trellis of gilded-tipped spears, the pillars topped by sculptured eagles wit laurel wreaths in their paws, ancient armour decorating the pylons of the central gates, and broad stairs leading to the main entrance with cast-iron lions to both sides. This impressive mansion displays the main compositions and founds of the museum. The collection, organized in a clear chronological progression, thus providing a very good picture of the major developments in the history of Russian art, reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including a unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world's finest collection of Russian avaunt-garde. However, the Russian Museum's international supremacy is based on its extensive collection of Greek and Old-Russian icons by Andrei Rublev and Simeon Ushakov, artists Brullov, Repin, Surikov, Vereshchagin, Venetsianov, Petrov and Serov and its famous picture gallery, that formed the core of the Museum during the period of its foundation in 1895-97 and over the next decade or so. Since the 1976, the Russian museum has been a National center coordinating the academic and methodological work of all the art museums of Russia. In 1992, the President of the russian Federation signed up a decree acknowledging the Museum as a special object of national cultural heritage. Open daily 10.00 - 17.00, on Mondays till 16.00. Closed on Tuesday. Address: Inzhenernaya street, 2 Phone: 595-42-48 Metro Gostiny Dvor, Nevsky Prospect

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