State Historical Museum

The biggest national museum complex, the only one on the territory of Russia represent the whole picture of the historical events and cultural features from the ancient times. Really scale archives of the museum includes the biggest collection of the autographs of the monarchs, presidents, famous politicians and cultural workers of almost all European countries and America. The great memorials of the ancient manuscript, and, of course, relic exhibits, which are unique ones and exist in a single exemplar.

The decision of the construction of the museum was made by the Russian Emperor Alexander II in winter 1872, the main aim of which was the creation of the pictorial history of the country. The building itself is a historical-architectural monument, which was erected on the spot, where earlier the building of the Zemsky Department of the XVII century was located. The competition task was to create the image in the style of architectural trends of the XVI century, for the perfect match of the existing ensemble of the Red Square and stylistic unity. Great Russian masters, such as I. K. Aivazovsky, V. M. Vasnetsov, V. A. Serov. According to the idea of the architect V. I. Shervud, each of the 11 halls reflects different historical epochs, and the wall painting copies precisely the famous palace and church frescos. The tops of the towers are crowned with two-headed eagles, and, also, with heraldic images of lions and narwhals.

The exposition itself covers the square of 4 thousand square meters and includes more than 22 thousand of unique exhibits. During the excursion you can estimate the true worth of the outstanding inner decoration of the halls, wealth and scale variety of the collections, to see with your own eyes the monuments of the spiritual culture from the Stone Age. On two floors, in 39 halls there are the first books and the earliest scientific works, personal belongings of the Royals and other persons are represented for the first time. In Byzantine halls of the museum there are works of the goldsmiths, armourers, glass-blowers and jewellers, which are the proofs of a glut of wealth of the Russian territory.