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The subject index / Kunstkammer

Kunstkammer


Categories / Science. Education/Museums
Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Public Buildings and Edifices

KUNSTKAMMER (from German "Kunstkammer" - "chambers of curiosities, museum") (3 Universitetskaya Embankment). The oldest museum in Russia, was founded in 1714 based on the private collections of Peter the Great, acquired during his travels around Western Europe (were assembled in the Summer Palace of Peter the Great). The Kunstkammer collections were constantly enriched with items from Russia and abroad, since 1719 they were exhibited in the Kikiny Palaty and open to public viewing. In 1724, Kunstkammer became a part of the Academy of Science and was turned into a museum complex, where the collections of minerals, numerous anatomical anomalies, animals and birds' skeletons, works of art and weapons were housed; after the death of Peter the Great, a memorial collection was added (today in the State Hermitage). Since 1727, the Kunstkammer was quartered in a specially constructed building (1718-34, architects G. Mattarnovi, N.F. Gerbel, G. Chiaveri, M. G. Zemtsov). Following a fire in 1754-58, the building was reconstructed by architect S.I. Chevakinsky. It consists of two practically identical wings joined by a central building crowned with a multi-tiered tower finished of with an armillary dome. The tower and the central part of the building housed an observatory and a dissecting room; in the round hall of the third floor the Gottorpsky globe was placed. The interiors are adorned with sculptural compositions and busts of outstanding scientists. M.V. Lomonosov, P.S. Pallas, V.M. Severgin and other scientists worked at Kunstkammer. In the 1830s, Kunstkammer was divided into several museums: Zoological, Ethnographical, Botanical and Mineralogical. Today Kunstkammer houses the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography and the Memorial Museum of M.V. Lomonosov.

References: Карпеев Э. П., Шафрановская Т. К. Кунсткамера. СПб., 1996; Петр I и Голландия: Рус.-голланд. науч. и худож. связи в эпоху Петра Великого: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 1997; Моисеева Т. М. Петровская Кунсткамера в контексте западноевропейских музеев ХVI-XVIII вв. // 285 лет петербургской Кунсткамере. СПб., 2000. С. 24-34. (Сб. Музея антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого; Т. 48).

O. A. Chekanova.

Persons
Chiaveri Gaetano
Gerbel Nikolay Fedorovich
Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilievich
Mattarnovi Georg Iogann
Pallas Peter Simon
Peter I, Emperor
Severgin Vasily Mikhailovich
Zemtsov Mikhail Grigorievich

Addresses
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 3

The subject Index
Kikiny Palaty (Kikin's Chambers)
Russian Academy of Sciences
Hermitage
Hermitage
Gottorp Globe
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
M. V. Lomonosov Museum

Chronograph
1714
1728
1734
1747
1949


Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences

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Blumentrost L. L. (1692-1755), court physician, first President of the Petersburg Academy of Science

BLUMENTROST Lavrenty Lavrentievich (1692-1755, St. Petersburg), court physician, first President of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He studied at the Universities of Halle, Oxford, and Leiden and earned the degree of Doctor of Medicine (1713)

Bolshaya Neva

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Book Trade (entry)

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Chevakinsky S. I. (1713-1783), architect

CHEVAKINSKY Savva Ivanovich (1713-1783), architect, representative of the Baroque. From 1729, studied at the Moscow Preparatory School of the St. Petersburg Naval Academy, in 1732-38 apprenticed in architecture with I.K

City Archaeology

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Gottorp Globe

GOTTORP GLOBE, a unique planetarium globe - a hollow rotating sphere over 3.1 metres in diameter with the Earth surface pictured on the outside and a celestial map on the inside of the sphere

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch

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Kikiny Palaty (Kikin's Chambers)

KIKINY PALATY (Kikin's Chambers) (9 Stavropolskaya Street), an architectural monument of the Petrine Baroque. Constructed in 1714-20 (architect A. Schluter) for the Admiralty Councillor A.V

Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences

LIBRARY OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (BAN) (1 Birzhevaya Line), founded in 1714 by the decree of Peter the Great as His Majesty’s Library (also called public and state library)

M. V. Lomonosov Museum

M. V. LOMONOSOV MUSEUM (3 University Embankment) opened in 1949 within the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (becoming a branch of the museum in 1994) in the Kunstkammer building, where in 1741-65 M. V

Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography

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Museum of Zoology

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Museums (general article)

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Patronage of Art (entry)

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Peter the Great (1672-1725), Emperor

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Postwar Restoration of Architectural Monuments

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Russian Academy of Sciences

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Spit of Vasilievsky Island

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Tozelli А., (?-1826 or 1827), artist

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Universitetskaya Embankment

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Vasilievsky Island

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Zemtsov M.G. (1688-1743), architect.

ZEMTSOV Mikhail Grigoryevich (1688-1743, St. Petersburg), architect, graphic artist, theorist of architecture, representative of the early Baroque. He studied at the Armoury Printing House School in Moscow. He worked in St