Description of the attraction
The first Museum of the World Ocean in Russia is located on the embankment of Peter the Great in Kaliningrad. The unique museum of its kind, founded in April 1990, nowadays has about 55 thousand storage units in the main fund and covers an area of more than ten thousand square meters.
The exposition of the Museum of the World Ocean is devoted to the hydrology and geology of the World Ocean, marine flora and fauna, shipping, and also has an operating ecological station and a scientific library. In addition to the main building of the museum, the exposition is housed in the courts: "Cosmonaut Viktor Patsaev", "Vityaz" (which carried out 65 scientific expeditions in the World Ocean), submarine B-413, moored at the museum pier. The branches of the museum are located in the old buildings of the port warehouse, the Friedrichsburg Gate, the building of the Belgian Consulate and the Royal Gate. The most popular exhibits of the museum are: a fifteen-meter skeleton of a sperm whale discovered in the coastal zone of the Baltic Spit and is part of the exhibition "Ocean World. Touch", an archaeological find "Ship of the 19th century", underwater vehicles "Paysis-7" and "Tethys", a yacht of 1950 "Volksbot", boats of the barge "Kruzenshtern", hydrographic boat, etc., which are of particular value in the history of the study and development of the World Ocean.
Interesting collections of shells of sea molluscs and corals are presented in the large hall of the museum. In addition to geological and paleontological samples, you can clearly see the inhabitants of various parts of the World Ocean. Also in the funds of the museum are stored personal belongings and materials related to the activities of researchers and scientists - such as: V. G. Court, M. V. Klenov, P. P. Shirshov, P. L. Bezrukov, V. P. Zenkovich and many others. Among the most valuable exhibits are the archives of oceanographers and Soviet cosmonauts (including A. A. Leonov).
On the territory of the museum, there is the first and oldest surviving swing railway bridge of Kaliningrad, which in 1865 connected the Vorstadt and Laak districts in Königsberg across the Pregolya River. Nowadays, the historical bridge is the property of the Kaliningrad railway.
