What is the Cabinet of Curiosities? Description, history and modernity

"Will be in St. Petersburg, be sure to visit the Kunstkamera!" - Such a parting word is received by almost every tourist, visitor of the northern capital. What is the Cabinet of Curiosities? Many people associate this word with something unusual, rare and spectacular. From him he breathes old times, something distant ...

The article details what the Kunstkammer is, the history of its creation and the current situation.

The concept of

There is a legend that during the walk along the Vasilievsky Island, Peter I saw two amazing pine trees: a branch of some one in some inexplicable manner sprouted through the trunk of another. Such an unusual picture was remembered by the impressionable sovereign. He remembered a curiosity a few years after visiting with a diplomatic mission in 1697-1698. England and Holland. Then he became acquainted with the so-called "cabinets of rarities" among noble nobles, in which they kept all sorts of diva: alcohol-bound organs, stuffed animals, collections of rare insects. This was the very first cabinet of curiosities. The word translated from German means "art room".

History of creation in Russia

Peter liked the marvelous rooms so much that after returning home he first of all set about building a similar room in his palace. In Holland, he learned the recipe for embalming, for 30 thousand Dutch guilders purchased entirely "Ruysch's cabinet." Later, without stinting, the sovereign bought rare books, instruments, various instruments, unique artifacts and natural wonders abroad. After he issued a decree according to which everyone who found some unusual or rare object had to transfer it to the created "cabinet of rarities". From all corners of the immense Russian Empire, amazing objects began to flow into the study. Soon there were so many that they did not fit in the palace. Much had to be stored in special cellars, which greatly upset Peter, who wished to expose everything to the show.

After the transfer of the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg and moving to a new residence, Peter I moved to a new place and his rarities. Temporarily, he placed them in the palace of the disgraced boyar Kikin, who was expelled from the capital with confiscation of property for participating in a conspiracy against the monarch. The king ordered the "Kikiny Chamber" to be called in the foreign manner "Kunstkamera." This happened in 1714. This year, the first Russian Kunstkammer was born, photo of which today is decorated with every guide to Peter.

Building construction

The collection of Peter grew very quickly. In 1717, again in Holland, the entire Cabinet of Seb was purchased for 15 thousand Dutch guilders. Soon all the values could not be accommodated and the "Kikiny Chamber". To place their wonders with the possibility of showing them to all who wish, the sovereign ordered to build a special building. For him, an elite place on the Spit of the Vasilievsky Island was set aside from the royal chambers and important state institutions.

The project was designed by the architect Mattarnovi. The first stone of the future famous museum was laid in July 1718. Later, such famous masters as Gerbel, Zemtsov and Kiaveri worked on the building.

The grand opening of the Kunstkamera took place in November 1728, although the finishing works were completed only in 1734.

The difference between the Russian Kunstkamera and the European

The first "cabinets of rarities" arose in Europe during the Renaissance in the 15-16 centuries. What is the Kunstkammer belonging to the rich prince, whose purpose was to impress the guests? It's just an unsystematic collection of rare or unusual things, demonstrating the "scholarship" of their owner.

Petrovsky same Kunstkamera, the description of which is given above, was originally conceived as a collection of treasures, but as a collection of entertaining exhibits that can serve enlightening and scientific purposes. The storage and systematization of values was entrusted to enlightened people. At different times, the directors or employees of the "cabinet of Peter" were Baiburin, Barthold, Gumilev, Lomonosov, Struve, Sternberg, Pallas, Severgin and other scientists. They collected a variety of material - not only ugly creatures or entertaining curiosities, but objects of everyday life that have great ethnographic and historical significance, valuable collections of insects in the scientific sense, stuffed birds, reptiles, fish and animals, created anatomical and mineralogical departments.

After the creation of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1724, the main sources of replenishment of the kunstkamera were items brought from the scientific expeditions of Miller, Krasheninnikov, Messershmit, Lisyansky, Mikluho-Maklai, Bellingshausen, and Kruzenstern.

What is the Kunstkammer Russian? It is a museum, one of the oldest and richest in the world, the cradle of the RAS.

Curious facts

From the first day of the Kunstkammer, the photo of which is presented below, by order of Peter I was open to all visitors. Entrance and inspection of exhibits was free.

Peter I created a completely unusual department in the museum, exhibits of which were animals and people with congenital defects - cyclopia, versatile, siren's syndrome and other anomalies. And here there were not only embalmed bodies and creatures, but also living dwarfs, freaks and monsters living in the museum at the expense of the state treasury.

The Emperor knew every object of his collection "in person" and was an excellent guide, gladly telling about it to his guests.

Today the museum has 1.2 million exhibits!