The Stone Museum in Fershampenoise and its exhibits

People live in a world of stones, not paying attention to them and not showing interest. Only experts know what this "lifeless" kind of matter is that has its own history of birth, development and death.

Until now, scientists can not draw a clear boundary between living and inanimate nature, but for the organizer of the Museum of stones in the Chelyabinsk region the answer is unequivocal: the stones are alive.

Creating a museum

On enthusiasts the world keeps and develops. Alexander Matora is one of them. Love of the stones, their study and gathering became the vocation of his life. It was he who pushed him to seek again and again new places with unknown deposits of stones.

Thus, Alexander Maksimovich went from Nizhny Tagil to Orsk, his stones come from the Magadan Region and Kazakhstan, Bashkiria and the Kola Peninsula, the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Moscow Region. The museum of the stone in Fershampenoise, opened due to its enthusiasm and collection of stones became a real attraction of the whole region.

The museum is divided into compositions, some of which are located in the open air in the courtyard of a two-story house, and others in the building itself. This is not only stones, but also crafts made of them, all the exhibits have their own history, and the founder of the museum is happy to tell their curious tourists.

Every inhabitant of the Chelyabinsk region knows where the Museum of Stone is located and is proud of it. To visit the museum, you can apply to the travel agency or contact Alexander Maksimovich and agree on the date and time of the visit.

Exhibits of the museum. Malachite and lapis lazuli

Among the exhibits, which represents a museum of stones under the open sky, there are precious, semiprecious and fossil stones. Most of the collection is made up of specimens found by the organizer of the museum personally on his expeditions.

In the courtyard of the museum it seems that the stones are lined with chaotically in the exposition. In fact, they are all arranged so that, passing from one "rock" slide to another, you can learn not only the history of the development of stones on our planet, but also how old are they, where their "home" was before.

In the museum are the exhibits that have the greatest value in the collection, as well as handicrafts made of stones. For example, malachite. It was mined in ancient Egypt, the priests of which were preparing powders for various potions and amulets for children.

Today malachite is considered to be one of the most beautiful semi-precious stones, as the variety of its texture does not cease to amaze masters who make beads, caskets, amulets and animal figurines from it.

Another representative of stones, who is proud of the Museum of Stone in Fershampenoise, is a lapis lazuli, a mineral that absorbed, it would seem, all the shades of blue. In ancient India, where it began to be mined 7,000 years ago, the mineral was called a celestial stone, capable of purifying the human aura.

Long ago lapis lazuli was recommended to be taken as a guard for those who started their lives at first, changing it cardinally from "zero". Malachite and lapis lazuli, presented in the museum, were brought from Bashkortostan.

Grenades

Thanks to its exhibits, this place is included in the category of "museums of precious stones". For example, there is among the museum items a blood-red garnet, a stone beloved and revered by all jewelers in the world.

Its name was similar to a Phoenician apple - a grenade. This mineral is known and revered since ancient times, and attributed to it the properties of attracting love and passion. For the warriors, he was a symbol of valor and defender on the battlefield.

It was believed that the grenade does not like greed and traitors, so people who carried it were considered honest people and devoted friends. If a pomegranate literally "burned" in red, it was said that its owner has a passionate nature or he is in love. The stone museum in Fershampenoise presents these blood-red minerals from the Kola Peninsula.

Another representative of this class is black grenades. In ancient times, people believed that they could communicate with the souls of the deceased, so they were often worn by priests and mediums. In the museum black grenades came from Primorye.

Turquoise

The stone museum in Fershampenoise is proud to present a semi-precious turquoise stone. Unfortunately, it is this mineral that is most often forged, as Georgius Agricola (a great chemist known as George Bauer) pointed out back in 1546.

Turquoise was considered a stone of luck, both in love and in wealth. Merchants wore rings with turquoise to ward off their failures in business, and women of the East sewed it into the clothes of the man whose attention they wanted to attract. Also, turquoise was used in the ornaments of the bride from Asia and the Caucasus.

In ancient times, it was customary to attribute the turquoise property to change its shade, if a person fell ill. It was used as a kind of diagnostics of the state of the organism.

This mineral has the ability to change its color under the influence of sunlight, getting fat on it, but people believed that this is because love is quenching.

Turquoise, represented in the museum, comes from Turkmenistan.

Iceland spar

Another amazing mineral, represented in the Museum of stones, is Iceland spar. It has an amazing property to refract the sunlight and divide it into two light waves. Due to this property, a semi-transparent stone was used by the Vikings in antiquity to orient themselves in the sun in cloudy weather.

Nowadays it is used to create optical instruments, and it has come to the museum from Tura, a village in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Music stones

This is not all representatives of the unusual museum. Its organizer believes that the stones are frozen music and each of them has its own melody. To "hear" it, it is enough to visit the Museum of Stones (address: 7 Stroiteley Street, Fershampenuaz village). Alexander Matora will tell the story of each exhibit so that it seems as if a beautiful symphony of nature sounds.