Description of the attraction
State Research Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva is engaged in the study and popularization of urban planning and architectural heritage. The museum is named after the outstanding architect Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev.
At the end of the 19th century, interest in the national architectural heritage increased in Russia. Various museums and institutions were engaged in its study. They have accumulated a variety of materials that needed to be systematized. In January 1934, the Museum of Architecture was established. Simultaneously with the museum, the Academy of Architecture of the USSR was established, of which the museum was a part. In 1935, the Donskoy Monastery was transferred to the museum. The exposition of the museum was housed in its cathedral. On the territory of the monastery, in the open air, they placed fragments of destroyed architectural monuments, which were saved by the museum staff. These fragments became part of the museum's collection and exposition.
The museum funds collected a lot of materials on European and Byzantine architecture, as well as Middle Eastern architecture. The collection of the museum also contains exotic buildings. For example, a model of a New Zealand hut and a model of an Indo-Chinese pile dwelling. The buildings of the Donskoy Monastery also became part of the exposition.
All exhibits were preserved by the care of the museum staff during the Great Patriotic War. In 1945, Molotov signed a decree on the creation of a museum of Russian architecture in Moscow. The Talyzins' estate on Vozdvizhenka was allocated for the museum. The Russian and Soviet architect A. V. Shchusev played an important role in the creation of the museum. He also became its first director.
The permanent exhibition at the Museum of Architecture was opened in 1957. Scientific expeditionary activity has become an important aspect of the museum's activities. Expeditions to Pskov, Novgorod, the Volga region were engaged in the study of architectural monuments and their restoration. The architectural and design workshop, founded by Shchusev, carried out the restoration of historical buildings, turning them into "museum exhibits."
In 1990, the museum was moved to a building on Vozdvizhenka.
