Description of the attraction
The State Museum of Urban Sculpture is located in St. Petersburg. It has existed since 1939 and is the only museum in Russia engaged in the research, protection and restoration of monuments in an open urban space.
The museum manages 1,500 memorial plaques and more than 200 monuments. Museum objects include the Narva and Moscow Triumphal Gates, Rostral Columns, Horse Groups on the Anichkov Bridge, Sphinxes on the pier near the Academy of Arts, monuments to Peter I, Nicholas I, Catherine II, M. V. Lomonosov, A. S. Pushkin, A. V. Suvorov and many others. The main exposition of the museum is the tombs and necropolises of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
The Church of the Annunciation, built in 1717-1724 by architects D. Trezzini and T. Schwertfeger, is the oldest stone church in St. Petersburg, an outstanding architectural monument of the Peter the Great Baroque. Here lies the body of A. V. Suvorov, the most valuable artistic and historical gravestones of the 18th-19th centuries are located. The exposition is represented by a unique collection of works by the talented sculptor of Russian classicism I. P. Martos: gravestones of E. I. Gagarina, E. S. Kurakina, N. I. Panin and others. The tomb is rightfully called the I Russian Pantheon: members of the royal family, famous statesmen of the 18th century are buried here.
The Lazarevskoye cemetery (now the 18th century necropolis) is one of the first in St. Petersburg. In 1923 it became an open-air museum. There are more than 1000 tombstones from the 18th-early 20th century. XX centuries, among which there are monuments to the contemporaries of Peter the Great, figures of national science, history and culture, representatives of the most famous noble families in Russian history: D. I. Fonvizin, M. V. Lomonosov, field marshals P. I. Shuvalov, B. P. Sheremetev, admirals N. S. Mordvinov, V. Ya. Chichagov, the widow of A. S. Pushkin - N. N. Lanskoy, grandfather of A. S. Pushkin - I. A. Hannibal and many others.
In the Necropolis of Masters of Arts (the former Tikhvin cemetery) there are about 200 tombstones for musicians, writers, artists of the 19th century, actors and theatrical figures of the 19th-20th centuries: M. P. Mussorgsky, M. I. Glinka, P. I. Tchaikovsky, I. A. Krylova, N. M. Karamzin, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. A. Ivanova, I. I. Shishkin, P. A. Fedotova, B. M. Kustodieva, A. I. Kuindzhi and others. Artistic gravestones of the 18th-20th centuries are the works of the greatest masters of Russian monumental art: M. I. Kozlovsky, I. P. Martos, V. A. Beklemisheva, F. G. Gordeeva, A. V. Shchuseva, A. N. Benois, M. K. Anikushin.
A part of the museum memorial ensemble is also the Literatorskie Mostki necropolis museum at the Volkovskoye cemetery. Here V. G. Belinsky, A. N. Radishchev, N. S. Leskov, I. P. Turgenev, I. P. Pavlov, D. I. Mendeleev and many other outstanding figures of Leningrad science and culture of the XX century.
The museum funds contain amazing collections of graphics and sculpture. For many years the museum has been organizing exhibitions dedicated to contemporary art.
In 2002, a new museum exhibition building was opened in Chernoretsky Lane, which immediately became a popular platform in the city for interesting exhibition projects. It organizes personal exhibitions of local sculptors and artists and thematic exhibitions from museum funds.
The museum is one of the leading institutions in the city, which is engaged in restoration activities. In the early 70s of the XX century, a stone restoration workshop was established in the museum. High-level professionals from St. Petersburg are involved in the restoration of plaster, metal, graphics, as well as in the most complex works on marble.
In recent years, the Museum has carried out unique restoration projects for the equestrian groups of the Anichkov Bridge, Rostral Columns, Alexander Column, monuments to the Field of Mars, Moscow Triumphal Gates, Sphinxes near the Academy of Arts.
