Kunstkammer

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Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Public Buildings and Edifices
KUNSTKAMMER (from German "Kunstkammer" - "chambers of curiosities, museum") (3 Universitetskaya Embankment). The oldest museum in Russia, was founded in 1714 based on the private collections of Peter the Great, acquired during his travels around Western Europe (were assembled in the Summer Palace of Peter the Great). The Kunstkammer collections were constantly enriched with items from Russia and abroad, since 1719 they were exhibited in the Kikiny Palaty and open to public viewing. In 1724, Kunstkammer became a part of the Academy of Science and was turned into a museum complex, where the collections of minerals, numerous anatomical anomalies, animals and birds' skeletons, works of art and weapons were housed; after the death of Peter the Great, a memorial collection was added (today in the State Hermitage). Since 1727, the Kunstkammer was quartered in a specially constructed building (1718-34, architects G. Mattarnovi, N.F. Gerbel, G. Chiaveri, M. G. Zemtsov). Following a fire in 1754-58, the building was reconstructed by architect S.I. Chevakinsky. It consists of two practically identical wings joined by a central building crowned with a multi-tiered tower finished of with an armillary dome. The tower and the central part of the building housed an observatory and a dissecting room; in the round hall of the third floor the Gottorpsky globe was placed. The interiors are adorned with sculptural compositions and busts of outstanding scientists. M.V. Lomonosov, P.S. Pallas, V.M. Severgin and other scientists worked at Kunstkammer. In the 1830s, Kunstkammer was divided into several museums: Zoological, Ethnographical, Botanical and Mineralogical. Today Kunstkammer houses the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography and the Memorial Museum of M.V. Lomonosov.

References: Карпеев Э. П., Шафрановская Т. К. Кунсткамера. СПб., 1996; Петр I и Голландия: Рус.-голланд. науч. и худож. связи в эпоху Петра Великого: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 1997; Моисеева Т. М. Петровская Кунсткамера в контексте западноевропейских музеев ХVI-XVIII вв. // 285 лет петербургской Кунсткамере. СПб., 2000. С. 24-34. (Сб. Музея антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого; Т. 48).

O. A. Chekanova. Chiaveri Gaetano
Gerbel Nikolay Fedorovich
Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilievich
Mattarnovi Georg Iogann
Pallas Peter Simon
Peter I, Emperor
Severgin Vasily Mikhailovich
Zemtsov Mikhail Grigorievich
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Kikiny Palaty (Kikin's Chambers)
Russian Academy of Sciences
Hermitage
Hermitage
Gottorp Globe
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
M. V. Lomonosov Museum
1714
1728
1734
1747
1949