Kunstkamera

The Kunstkammer, or art camera (Russian Кунсткамера ) is a museum in Saint Petersburg. Its holdings include the most complete anthropological and ethnological collections in the world.

History

The Kunstkammer was the first museum in Russia. It was founded by decree in 1704 by Tsar Peter the Great on the banks of the Neva opposite the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, built by the German architect Johann Georg Mattarnovi and opened in 1724. The striking building of the Kunstkammer, which is surmounted by a tower, was completed in 1727 in the style of "Petersburg Baroque ".

Peter the Great wanted his people to bring science closer, so the entrance was not only vain, but who had visited the museum received a cup of coffee offered.

The museum served to keep " natural and human curiosities and oddities ." The personal collection of Peter the Great included a large amount of human and animal fetuses with anatomical abnormalities. Peter had bought in Amsterdam, the collections of Albertus Seba and Frederik Ruysch. Among the most gruesome exhibits include the preserved in alcohol heads of the lover of Catherine the First, Willem Mons and his sister Anna Mons.

The Kunstkammer was in addition to their function as a museum, as a work of professors. The tower room was the meeting room of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, where the Empress Catherine II, the President and the leading professors gathered regularly in the 18th century.

The highlight of the Kunstkammer is the Gottorfer giant globe which is issued in the tower.

Since 1992, the Kunstkammer is an independent museum and research institute within the History Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The full name now reads: " Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography ( Kunstkammer ) called Peter the Great, Russian Academy of Sciences" ( Музей антропологии и этнографии ( Кунсткамера ) им Петра Великого РАН. ).

Directors of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography

  • Leopold von Schrenck (1879-1894)
  • Wilhelm Radloff (1894-1918)
  • Wilhelm Barthold (1918-1921)
  • Jewfimi Karski (1921-1930)
  • Nikolai Matorin (1930-1933)
  • Ivan Meshchaninov (1934-1937)
  • Nikolai Kisljakow (1945-1948)
  • Nikolai Girenko (1991-1992)
  • Mylnikov Alexander (1992-1997)
  • Tschuner Taksami (1997-2001)
  • Yuri Tschistow (since 2001)
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