The Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad) has a large collection of historical artifacts, where Prussian history is intertwined with Soviet and modern. A huge number of archival documents, several branches allow the tourist to get acquainted with the conflicts, achievements and facts that are saturated with the historical life of the city and the region.
History
The Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad) was founded as a museum of local lore in the same year that the entire Kaliningrad region. Over the next two years, it existed only on paper, in the form of a decree on its organization, the exhibits were stored in different rooms of the city - there was no suitable building for the exposition. Since 1949, the premises on the street. Bogdan Khmelnitsky became a museum house for 22 years. The organization had 16 employees who, by the fifth anniversary of the museum, opened the first permanent exhibition, which included materials on the history and nature of the Kaliningrad region.
The most extensive funds were materials from the period of the Great Patriotic War, which allowed in 1968 to open a thematic branch "Dugout". The exposition recreates the setting in which the surrender of the German units, which had settled in the Koenigsberg fortress, was signed. The next branch - "Command post 43 Army" - was opened in 1969 in the village of Kholmogorovka.
New home for the museum
The Museum of Local History (Kaliningrad) moved to a new place in the fall of 1972. A year later, an extensive (800 sq. M.) Exposition was opened, which constantly received visitors for 18 years. During this period, employees created the art department and the Amber Museum, which opened in 1979. Two new branches were also opened - the Kristionas Donelaitis Museum and the Fort No. 5 Memorial, today it is a separate exposition of fortification and military technology.
A large number of open branches, active work on filling expositions and the opening of new departments allowed the museum of local lore to change its status. Since 1977, the institution received a new name - the Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad). In 1984, the “Sculpture Park” was opened by the efforts of employees, its area covers 12 hectares on the Kneiphof island.
An association
In 1988, the Kaliningrad Museum of History and Art was replenished with a branch of the natural sciences called the Curonian Spit Museum of Nature, and now the branch is part of the Curonian Spit National Natural Arboretum. In 1993, the museum staff initiated the opening of the next branch - the Museum of the History of the city of Sovetsk, which is currently municipal.
Since 1990, the museum has become an association with the common name - “Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art and its Branches”. The main building of the museum is located in the former Stadthalle Concert Hall, whose construction dates back to 1912. The association includes:
- Head Museum.
- Museum of K. Donelaitis.
- Memorial "Dugout".
- The memorial "Command post 43 Army."
- Sculpture park.
To replenish the funds, employees continue to search the archives, collaborate with archaeological expeditions. Director of the Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad) - T. A. Alexandrova makes a lot of efforts for the further prosperity of the institution.
Collections
The Regional Museum of History and Art has been compiling a collection of museum exhibits for seventy years. The first exhibits that appeared in the funds were samples of products of industrial enterprises of the Kaliningrad region, finds from excavations of archaeological expeditions, a jewelry exhibition was laid by a collection of products from the Kaliningrad Amber Factory. Some material values brought residents of the city, most of them belonged to the pre-war period.
Today, the museum funds more than 140 thousand items. The most extensive collection is an archive of documents and photographs, the total number of which is 78 thousand items. The collected materials reflect the events of the assault on Koenigsberg, the development of the Kaliningrad region, the events of the First World War and the Great Patriotic War.
The archaeological section of the museum contains more than 22 thousand exhibits. This collection is world-famous and annually replenished with new items provided by the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of expeditions in the region.
The Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad) is proud of its collection of objects of a historical and domestic direction. It contains more than 12 thousand exhibits, reflecting the post-war life, the fashion of that time, the products of enterprises, as well as personal belongings of the first settlers and famous people of the region.
The museum also has a numismatic collection (about 12 thousand exhibits), works of fine art (6 thousand copies), part of which is the thematic collection "Hoffmannian", amber products, a collection of works in various techniques by Kaliningrad authors. The natural part of the collection is represented by a large collection of taxidermy exhibits, various herbariums, and a collection of minerals.
Thematic collections are supplemented by systematic ones, which have great scientific and research value. The items were inherited from the Konigsberg Museum of Paleontology, and the archaeological collection has been preserved from the Prussia Museum. For the historian, the fate and origin of each individual exhibit and the museums themselves are interesting.
Tours
The Museum of History and Art invites visitors to five halls, where the permanent exhibition is located:
- Hall of nature. There are several dioramas in the hall, recreating the characteristic landscape of the region. The stands show minerals, stuffed animals common in the field, and flora samples.
- Hall of archeology. There are exhibits covering the history from ancient times - Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Bronze Age to the era of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. Also in this room are exhibited items of the once extensive Museum of Prussia, which were considered lost. Found them in the nineties.
- Hall of regional history. The exposition is composed of household items, furniture, weapons and covers the period from the Teutonic invasion of Prussia to 1945.
- The hall of war. Here, evidence of military operations of the period of occupation and the liberation of the region from fascist invaders is collected.
- Hall "Horizons of memory." The stands display items related to the development of the Kaliningrad region by the first settlers, amber products, industrial goods of the first enterprises of the region, dismantled monuments to Lenin.
In the halls of the permanent exhibition to help the school curriculum, thematic tours for children of different ages are held. In total, the plan contains 14 excursions and lectures. For children, the Young Local Lore Club has been organized, where each student who has attended at least four lectures is awarded a diploma.
Excursions at KOIHM branches
Employees of the Museum of History and Art are invited to familiarize themselves with the expositions of the branches:
- Museum "Bunker". The exposition is located in two rooms. The main part is dedicated to the assault on the Konigsberg fortress from the sixth to the ninth of April 1945. In addition to stands with materials, five dioramas, recreating the active phase of the fighting and the surrender of the German command, are invited to the attention of the excursionists. The main excursion program is supplemented by four topics.
- Museum "Fort No. 5". The historical and memorial complex was built in 1878 and has a second name - "King Frederick William III". The defensive structure was part of the Konigsberg defense complex. The fort was used during the period of military operations both during the war with Napoleon and in the Great Patriotic War. The tour allows you to get into the interior, get acquainted with military equipment and several military-historical expositions.
- "Sculpture Park." It is located on the Central Island, where sculptures are gathered throughout the space, united by the common theme "Man and the World." In total there are about thirty works. In addition to sculptural compositions, the park has a dendrological collection of 1030 flora specimens, which includes trees, shrubs, grasses. Here you can meet immigrants from the plant world from Europe, Mexico, Japan and other countries.
- "The Royal Castle". Currently, excursions are conducted only in the warm season, upon prior request. The whole complex is a castle built in 1255 of great historical value. It was destroyed during the British air raids in 1944. Today, excavations are being carried out on the territory, as a result of which a large number of rarities with high historical and artistic value are born.
- Museum "Command post 43 army." Located on the territory of the former Fuchsberg estate. The museum is currently temporarily closed.
- Museum of Kristionas Donelaitis. The museum and the exposition are dedicated to the 18th-century Lithuanian poet, who left a rich literary and musical heritage and did a lot for the people. On the territory of the complex, visitors get acquainted with the restored Lutheran church, a pastoral house. The exposition contains more than 200 exhibits, documents and material evidence of everyday life of that time, poetry works of the poet.
- "Kant's House", or, the official name, "The House of the Pastor of the Yudtshen Parish, XVIII - XIX centuries." The object is connected with the life of Immanuel Kant. At the moment, the concept of a new complex is being implemented, an ethnographic exposition and other components are being created, reflecting the environment in which one of the greatest thinkers of mankind grew, formed and created.
Time visits
Six existing branches and one in the stage of formation are organized by employees, whose main love is the Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad). The schedule of excursions in the main exhibition center and in the branches is as follows: from 10:00 to 18:00, the ticket office stops working at 17:00, and the day off is every Monday. The museum introduced one day (Wednesday) of accessible visits when entrance fees are not charged from certain groups of the population (people with disabilities, orphans living in boarding schools, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, etc.).
Exhibitions
Not only the creation of new branches, the collection of historical rarities and educational work is carried out within the walls of the museum. A large number of cultural events cover the whole of Kaliningrad. The Museum of History and Art holds exhibitions and events all the time. For the winter holidays for children, children's parties are planned, interesting fairytale excursions, paleontological expositions.
For adults, KOIHM also prepared many interesting things, for example, the exhibition “Posters of War. On the way to the Great Victory ”, canvases from a private collection in the framework of the exhibition“ Winter Nature Sleeps … ”, concert“ Christmas Fantasy ”. All visitors will be interested in the informative and spectacular exposition "Animals of Bygone Eras" in 3D-format.
