MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY

4/1 Inzhenernaya ulitsa 191011 St. Petersburg
Open: 10am - 5pm
Closed: Mondays and the last Friday of every month
Tel. 210-4421, 210-4320
Nearest metro stations: Nevsky prospekt and Gostiny Dvor

The museum is devoted to the culture and everyday life of the peoples of Russia. One of the world's largest ethnographic museums, it began to acquire its first collections from the mid-1890s as part of the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum. In 1934 it became an independent institution, renamed the State Museum of the Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR in 1948. It acquired its current title in 1992.

The museum building adjoins the Mikhailovsky Palace and was specially constructed for the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum (1900-11, architect Vasily Svinin). Its extremely rich collections, totalling over 500,000 items, reflect the material and spiritual culture of the more than 150 peoples living in the Russian Federation today.

The tools, domestic items, folk costumes, utensils and objects of ritual that are exhibited in the 24 halls of the museum, give an idea about the occupations of the population, their dwellings, holidays, rites and religious beliefs. There is a unique photographic library and a scientific archive.

Most of the exhibits illustrating the domestic culture of the various peoples of Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries are presented in the form of lifesize models.

The focal point of the museum is its Special Storeroom which contains a great variety of national ornaments, weaponry and devational objects, made of precious metals, pearl and precious and semiprecious stones. Many of these artefacts are the only ones of their kind and the art of their production has long been forgotten. The displays "The Slavs of Eastern Europe" and "From the History of St.Petersburg Gubernia" dwell on the distinctive features of regional cultures.

The museum contains a shop where tourists can buy handcrafted goods.