Local History Museum of Saratov - the keeper of the history of the city

Local History Museum of Saratov stores priceless information about the history of the region. His fund is one of the largest in the country. The history of the first space flights, the memory of the famine of the 30s, exhibits representing rare animals, and many other things the museum of local lore keeps. Saratov (photo of the regional center in large numbers are located in the halls) appears before the visitors simultaneously the birthplace of great scientists and cultural figures, the capital of the Volga region with elegant buildings in the Art Nouveau style, a city in which they worked selflessly during the Great Patriotic War - the place where they were born, were happy And they mourned, people died. A unique collection of the museum will be of interest not only to the inhabitants of the region, but also to numerous guests.

History

The Saratov Museum of Local History is considered one of the oldest in Russia. It was founded in December 1886. The initiator of the museum was the Saratov Academic Archive Commission, which also appeared this year. Originally, the foundation consisted of objects brought by the inhabitants of the city.

The Local History Museum of Saratov was not immediately placed in a building where it can be found today. In the former mansion of the merchant Ustinov, the collection was transported already in 1930. The building itself is a monument of cultural heritage. This is a beautiful example of architecture in the style of classicism, created by the project of IF Kolodin.

Foundations

Today Saratov Regional Museum of Local History (SOMK) stores about 400 thousand exhibits. Among them are old books and coins, colorful and faded posters, archaeological collections, ritual and cult objects, various materials about the history of the city and the region, their cultural and political life.

SOMK is a large museum association, which includes ten branches. There are numerous excursions for schoolchildren, students and all comers, as well as lectures and public holidays.

Special pride

Saratov is not the oldest city, but its history is rich in significant events and is inextricably linked with the fate of the whole country. The museum of local lore contains a lot of evidence of past years, allowing to create a complete picture of the past.

The permanent exhibition "Our Noble Countrymen - People of Science and Culture" contains photographs, documents and other materials that captured the life of famous people who were born, lived or worked for a long time in Saratov. In the collection there are some personal items, important papers, photographs of the great scientists NI Vavilov and NN Semenov, aircraft models of the designer OK Antonov. The exposition is adorned with books and various items that once belonged to the writer KA Fedin, composer A. Schnittke, such well-known actors as BA Babochkin, EV Mironov, OI Yankovsky and O. P. Tabakov.

From ancient times

There are unique exhibits in the halls of the museum, telling about the distant past of the tribes inhabiting this area, and even about the times much earlier, when people were not yet. The latter include, for example, the skeleton of ichthyosaurus. The life and activities of distant ancestors of modern Saratov tell the elements of horse harness, dishes, ritual objects dating from the 6th-5th centuries BC. To a later era are no less valuable exhibits:

• Sabers and knives, donated by Empress Elizabeth I (XVIII century);
• A wedding dress of the Ural Cossack, dated to the end of the XIX century;
• Carved armchair of the finest work, made by the master Shutov VP at the end of the century before last;
• A straitjacket of the early twentieth century - a leather product used in prisons and colonies to pacify prisoners.

The list of rarities is far from complete: it is better to see once than to read a hundred times.

Charm of Art Nouveau

Residents of Saratov know that most of the most elegant and beautiful houses of the city were built in about the same period, at the beginning of the last century. These buildings, decorated with curved lines resembling trickles of cigarette smoke, sculptures, bas-reliefs and forged elements belong to the trendy modernist style at the time. To the streets of the bygone era the Saratov Museum of Local Lore has dedicated a separate exhibition "City and People". Visitors are offered photographs, where only the Covered Market is being built, the first buildings of the University and other habitual houses for today's residents. After examining the exposition, it's a good idea to stroll through the center of Saratov - all buildings from the pictures will appear in their modern appearance - worthy completion of the trip to the museum.

Colonists

The exhibition "From the life of the Germans of the Volga region" is constantly working in the museum. Here you can see furniture, clothes, various household items, which were used by the colonists who settled on the banks of the Volga. The Local History Museum of Saratov allows you to imagine by pictures and elements of the interior how the commune lived, which in 1924 became an autonomous republic and existed until August 41st.

The funds are constantly replenished, new exhibitions are regularly held on the territory of the museum. Now you can see the exhibits of the State Darwin Museum of Moscow. The exhibition "Leafing Bram" is dedicated to the traveler and writer A. Bram and contains unique books, a collection of birds and animals.

The Local History Museum of Saratov is open to all who are interested in the history of the city and the region. It works from 10 to 18 (on Saturday - until 19, the ticket office closes one hour earlier), Monday is a day off, the last Tuesday of the month is a sanitary day.