Sightseeing

KUNSTKAMERA (The Chamber of Curiosities) Not far from the spit of the Vasilievsky Island, on the University embankment stands a green and white building crowned with a fine tower with a globe, which nowadays houses 2 museums – the museum of Ethnography and Anthropology of People and the Lomonosov museum, but originally it was built as Peter the Great's Cabinet of Curiosities and later on in 1724 it became a part of the newly formed Academy of Sciences. The history of Kunstkamera (or the Chamber of Curiosities) dates back to the early 18th century when Peter the Great, who had been collecting rarities from all over the world, commissioned architects Mattarnovy and Stassov to put up a building where he could stock up an enormous library and his collection of curiosities that included a remarkable variety of oddities gathered by the Tsar during his foreign travels: rare minerals, different outlandish animals, wet specimens of anatomic abnormalities, a number of freaks and monsters acquired in Amsterdam formed the basis of collection together with such items as deformed foetuses preserved in spirit, stuffed animals and large selection of strange instruments and gadgets. The collection, which was constantly enlarged, since Peter the Great issued instructions for anything odd and unusual to be brought to Kunstkamera, transformed to the first public museum in Russia. It’s remarkable that to lure people to the museum every visitor was entitled to a free glass of vodka. The building housed not only the lots of rarities and oddities, but also accommodated a big library, an anatomy theatre and the first Russian observatory and later on it became a home for the Lomonosov Museum. The famous Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov (1711 – 1765) - one of the great Russian figures of the Enlightenment Age - worked in this building for nearly 24 years, and in 1947, the museum bearing his name was founded here. Located on the three floors of the tower, the Lomonosov Museum exhibits documents and objects from Lomonov's time, including scientific instruments, books, portraits, and prints as well as scientific and cultural objects from the personal collection of the first Russian Academician. While the collection of the museum of Ethnography and Anthropology of People boasts over 1.8 million unique objects (including about 250,000 ethnographic, 500,000 archaeological, 380,000 pieces of physical anthropology and 800,000 illustrative material), depictions of the traditional cultures of the peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania as well as a historic display entitled "From the History of the Petersburg Kunstkamera". Open daily 11.00 - 16.30. Closed on Monday and the last Thursday of every month Address: Universitetskaya embankment, 3 Phone:328-14-12. Metro: Vasileostrovskaya

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