Description of the attraction
The museum of the county town is located in the Novgorod region in the city of Valdai, namely on Lunacharsky Street in a two-story building of the 19th century. Previously, the building belonged to a certain Valdai noblewoman KO Mikhailova. At the beginning of the 20th century, this house was rented out to various public structures for the needs of state premises. The building housed the office of the Leader of the Uyezd Nobility, the Noble Guardianship, the Society for the Care of Students and Teachers of the Valdai County, the County Congress of Justices of the Peace, the Society for the Care of Prisoners, and the Military Presence.
The entire social life of Valdai was concentrated within the walls of this particular building, and for this reason it was absolutely logical to place a museum here, which involved its visitors in the wonderful world of provincial Russian life, typical for all of Russia, as well as the whole of Valdai.
The Valdai County Museum is a kind of family album of the city of Valdai. It attaches great importance to those people who lived in this city and created and created its history. The self-worth of a person is a distinctive feature of provincial Russian life. It is for this reason that the museum has many portraits - group, pair or single, which at one time filled the interiors of many Valdai houses.
The museum was founded in 1918 on the basis of the sacristy of the Valdai Iversky Monastery. By about the 80s, the main collection of the museum, representing the collection of bells, was formed here - this made it possible, on the eve of 1995, to open a retrospective museum dedicated to the collection of Russian bells.
A distinctive feature and feature of the museum is that all museum exhibits can not only be viewed, but also listened to. In addition, there is an opportunity to see the bell ringing techniques and techniques, as well as try to call yourself.
The museum has five halls, which are very different from each other. In the first hall you can see Valdai antiquities, explaining in detail the concept of Valdai, as well as the town planning of Valdai in the 18th century, the Moscow-Petersburg road and its connection with Valdai. Materials on the history of the formation of the Iversky Monastery are presented, travelers and travels, coachmen and inns, as well as the railway and all the changes in the way of life that followed its construction are presented.
In the second room, crafts are presented. The general facade of the city is created by skilled people - carpenters, bricklayers, brick-makers and others. Bell-makers, chariots, blacksmiths, soap-makers, sheep-women became the pride of handicraft Valdai. An important feature of the province is the versatility of craftsmanship, which is not surprising, because, for example, A. Ya. Levikhin. was not only the owner of the printing house, but also a photographer and fireman.
The craft was part of the family business. The dynasties of artisan bell-makers Stukolkin, Smirnov, Usachev are well known. The Udalovs were engaged in harmonious affairs, and the son of the icon painter Tsvetaev Grigory became a famous gilder; her daughter became a talented dressmaker.
The third hall is a hall of public organizations and state institutions, the largest number of which were located in this building, for example, the noble guardianship, the county congress of justices of the peace, the military presence and others. In addition, there are memorial items from the free firefighter society and zemstvo, pharmacy and theater, as well as city schools. The above materials tell about the significant role of the Russian intelligentsia in the moral and spiritual life of society.
The fourth hall is a hall dedicated to Valdai families, filled with memorial things, as well as family relics of Bystrova, Bogdanovs, Prilezhaev, Robek, Nikolsky.
The fifth hall became a dedication to Valdai summer residents: publicist of the newspaper "Novoye Vremya" M. Menshikov, writer V. Solovyov, professor of political economics P. Georgievsky, artist, philosopher and archaeologist N. Roerich. and many others.
All the clocks in the museum stop the past time, where there is no rush and fuss. Everyone who enters the museum will find themselves in that past time, in that traditional Russia, in that Valdai district, which is a province.
