Russian museums reflect the history and modernity of our country. They do this not only by exhibits, but also by their condition. In this sense, the Museum of Architecture located on Vozdvizhenka in Moscow is particularly interesting - a place surreal for an ordinary visitor. Specialists (or just people who have some relation to the architectural "party") will tell you that it is one of the best in the city, since it contains a lot of artifacts, there is a rich archive of Soviet and Russian architecture.
Museum History
This museum has existed since 1934, although back in the late 19th century there was a need for its creation. The largest specialists in the theory, practice and history of architecture worked in it (and gave it their archives). The materials here are based on ideological rivals of the past - there is an archive on the architecture of Ancient Russia, compiled by Peter Baranovsky, the great restorer, as well as sketches made by Ivan Leonidov, the famous People’s Commissariat project on Red Square. Once the domestic school was one of the most interesting in the whole world.
A.V. Schusev
A.V. Schusev, whose name is the Museum of Architecture, is a titan in this field of art. He created the mausoleum of Lenin, as well as a dozen iconic buildings of the USSR. Schusev is the initiator of the opening of a specialized museum in 1934, located at the Academy of Architecture. Alexei Viktorovich, when in 1946 with his active support the museum on Vozdvizhenka appeared, he also became its first director (from 1946 to 1949). The Museum of Architecture already under Schusev became at that time the only center for urban planning and architecture with the status of research.
Fund building
The formation of funds began in 1934. The following exhibits and squares of the Antireligious Museum of Art (from 1929 to 1934) were transferred under them: the buildings and the territory of the Donskoy Monastery, various collections of iconostases, church utensils, church vestments, and the royal gates.
Funds in the 1930s and 40s significantly replenished. Fragments of historical and architectural monuments were collected. The 1930s was a period of destruction and the ruin of historical buildings. In addition, various interior items of ancient buildings were transferred to the museum.
In 1946, the old buildings of the estate (late 18th century) of the Talyzin-Ustinovs were transferred into ownership. Their location on Vozdvizhenka, in the vicinity of the Kremlin, speaks of the kindness of the former owners. The "feeding chamber", a rare architectural monument of the 17th century, which is the refectory of the Pharmaceutical courtyard, also entered the manor complex. At the beginning of the 20th century, a stone building built in 1676 was built on the second floor.
A person close to museum circles will note that this historical museum, whose architecture is very curious, has been experiencing great difficulties for about the past 20 years, since its collection was once located on the territory of the Don Monastery transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991. All these years, it remained just an exhibition space, since almost all collections were stored in storage.
Opening of the permanent exhibition
A symbolic event happened recently, on June 19, 2012. -This is the opening of a permanent exhibition in this museum. In order to see the unique object presented in it, citizens from all over the city reached the exhibition building. This is where surrealism begins for the average visitor.
The Museum of Architecture is located in the very center of the city, in the large Talizin Palace, a building dating back to the 18th century. It also includes a manor outhouse called "Ruin", and a 17th-century building where the Pharmaceutical Order was located. Between these three buildings is a small courtyard, also adapted for the exhibition.
Museum Description
The first thing you see when you get here is the lonely checkout counter and the central empty lobby. A very curious sight is sometimes presented by Russian museums. The visitor, hoping for interesting architectural revelations, abruptly rises to the second floor through the palace stairs - and ends up in the Looking Glass. An entire suite of empty halls goes to infinity, as if reflected in a giant mirror.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that these empty halls contain the State Museum of Architecture: there really is nothing here except for exquisitely hung exhibits, for example, photographs of Roman imaginary theaters. According to an ordinary visitor, this may look like a fashionable art gallery today, of which there are so many, but not the main research center and architectural museum in the country. With interest, however, it is possible to consider sculptural medallions, ceiling painting, stucco moldings, high reliefs, walls made of artificial marble. But the museum received these palace interiors along with the building. They were restored in the middle of the 20th century and are not considered to be exhibits.
Unique exhibit
Under the permanent exhibition were given two large halls on June 19, 2012. It is intended to symbolize the revival of this museum. We are talking about one amazing exhibit - this is the model (wooden) of the Grand Kremlin Palace, which is by far the largest model in the world. It was created in early 1770 by order of Catherine II Vasily Bazhenov. The length of the layout is 17 meters. It is so huge that, ideally, it requires a separate pavilion: in the two museum halls mentioned above there are only fragments of it, although very impressive.
Criticism
Today, in specialized communities, disputes around the current state of the museum do not cease, but its actions, lectures and exhibitions in the professional environment are still valued. We will not express the opinion of an ordinary, unprofessional visitor that he does not have enough staff, space and facilities. These problems are understandable to everyone, they cause only sincere sympathy. But an attentive visitor will be able to notice several inexplicable, from a "financial" point of view, unpleasant details.
For example, it is forbidden to photograph Bazhenov’s model. The ban is categorical - for no fee, even on the phone. Employees cannot explain why, they say that this is the case. Although any photo posted to the blog can bring several visitors here, and paying for it can add some money to the museum’s rather poor cash register.
It cannot be explained by economic difficulties why the “dining room for architects”, which is, in fact, a sushi restaurant, is arranged in the building of the old Pharmaceutical Order; why air conditioners "decorate" the facade of the building, and in front of ancient sculptures depicting lions, there is a parking on the patio. The bas-reliefs piled on its territory are rather random - evidence of a lack of funding and space.
D.S. Khmelnitsky, an architecture researcher, criticizes this museum for the lack of any systematic information about the collections and collections (its last thematic catalog was published in 1991), as well as the very complicated procedure for researchers and historians to access archives. The Melnikov Museum is a branch of the Muar. A big resonance in the summer of 2014 was caused by the situation with the penetration of his employees there in the absence of Melnikov's heiress living there.
Museum Fund
The museum first specialized only in Russian architecture. But the employees collected materials on modern projects and history, took photographs, took measurements, analyzed the transformation and development of urban planning policy. As a result, this Museum of Moscow Architecture has gathered a huge fund, where today almost everything is represented: from modern photographs to the plinth of Sofia Kievskaya, from design documents of various types of buildings to masterpieces of construction equipment.
Fund replenishment
The museum fund in the mid-1980s replenished with an invaluable collection. It is an archive of Baranovsky Petr Dmitrievich, an outstanding restorer and architect of the Soviet era. Since 1984, this archive has hardly been investigated - there is not enough time for this, specialists. Museum funds are a little-known world that many generations of scientists will have to study.
In the early 1990s, the disastrous time came that this museum of Moscow architecture is still experiencing. Today, the main task is to solve the urgent problem of exposure. So far, the visitor can only guess about the greatness that the museum’s collection conceals in itself, leafing through booklets telling about its history.
