Description of the attraction
One of the most beautiful places in St. Petersburg - on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island - houses one of the oldest museums in Russia and one of the largest maritime museums in the world - the Central Naval Museum.
The beginning of the museum was laid by the Model-Chamber, established by Tsar Peter I at the Admiralty in St. Petersburg in 1709 to collect and store drawings and models of sea ships. In 1805, on the basis of this collection, by the decree of Emperor Alexander I, the "Maritime Museum" was created. In this new museum, not only was the replenishment of the collection of ship machines, books on navigation, maritime rarities and wonders continued, but also the accumulation of the latest navigational devices and instruments with which Russian ships set off on long voyages were completed. Later, the "Maritime Museum" was merged with the library of the Admiralty Collegium, as a result of which a large cultural center of the Russian fleet was formed. At the beginning of the 19th century, a model workshop was organized at the museum, which later served as the basis for the development of domestic ship modeling.
After the revolution of 1917, the museum was "reborn" - its exposition began to be actively replenished at the expense of the expropriated funds of the museums of the Guards Naval Crew and the Naval Cadet Corps. In 1924 the museum received a new name - the Central Naval Museum. And in 1939, the museum was moved from the building of the Main Admiralty, where it originally existed, to the premises of the former Stock Exchange, a beautiful building built according to a project originally started by the architect Quarenghi.
Currently, the museum's exposition is dedicated to the history of Russian navigation and the navy from ancient times to the present day.
The main exposition is located in ten rooms on the first floor of the museum. More than 800 thousand exhibits are stored here - models of ships, samples of weapons and military equipment, military trophies, navigation devices, maps, flags and banners, personal belongings of famous Russian sailors and naval commanders, photographic materials, collections of paintings on marine themes by I. Aivazovsky, L. Karavak, A. Bogolyubov, U. Hackert). The second floor hosts temporary exhibitions of the Central Naval Museum itself and other museums and private collections.
The oldest exhibit in the museum's collection is an ancient one-tree canoe, which dates back to the beginning of the first millennium BC. And the most famous exhibit - "the grandfather of the Russian fleet" - the famous boat of Peter I.
Museum visitors get acquainted with the history of the creation of the Russian fleet, descriptions of the most important naval battles that brought glory to Russia, stories about voyages and expeditions around the world, and geographical discoveries.
The viewing ends with that part of the exposition, which is devoted to the organization in our country of an ocean-going nuclear missile fleet and the modern activities of the Russian Navy.
