Orthodox museums of the capital. Atlanteans hold the sky? Orthodox churches museums

CHURCH MUSEUMS

A group of museums created at churches, monasteries, dioceses, religious associations, which are their owners and founders; Currently, there is a tendency to increase the number of museums. Church museums arose as a group of historical museums with the purpose of collecting and storing monuments of church antiquity.

Church or church-archaeological museums were under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod and existed at theological academies, church-archaeological committees and societies, and Orthodox brotherhoods. The emergence of church museums was associated with the introduction of a course in church archeology into the curriculum of theological academies, the clarity of teaching of which was ensured by the demonstration of objects, as well as the need realized by society for the preservation of monuments of church antiquity. Church museums were created on the basis of collections of ancient repositories, which included collections of church utensils, vestments, books and set as their goal the education of the clergy and the secular public.

Story

The first church museums appeared in the last third of the 19th century. at the theological academies - Kyiv (1872), St. Petersburg (1879), Moscow (1880). The largest of them was the museum of the Kyiv Theological Academy, which consisted of a department of manuscripts, early printed books and engravings, architecture, icon painting, sculpture, numismatics, liturgical utensils and included historical relics (the cross with which, according to legend, St. Sergius of Radonezh blessed Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, etc.) Intensive collecting work significantly increased the number of museum items; the results of studies of individual exhibits and collections (see types of collections) were published in the proceedings of the academy.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. A number of museums were created on the initiative of church archaeological societies and committees. Museums of church antiquities opened in Rostov (1883), Tula (1885), Arkhangelsk (1886), Podolsk (1890), Stavropol (1894), Voronezh (1901), Chisinau (1904) g.), Orle (1905).

Church museums were also opened thanks to the activities of secular persons - in Vologda (1888), Tiflis (1888), Vitebsk (1893), Mogilev (1897)

At the preliminary congress of museum workers in Moscow (1912), convened to discuss pressing issues in the field of museum affairs, the group of representatives of church-archaeological museums was one of the most significant. By this time there were about 50 church museums in Russia.

After the October Revolution, church museums were liquidated, and their collections joined the collections of historical, art, and local history museums and formed “church” departments, which were replenished in the 1920s. cult objects of closed temples. In the 1930s many historical and art museums were closed or repurposed into local history and anti-religious museums. Church collections were partially lost, the most valuable ones went to the largest state museums - Central Museum Old Russian culture and art to them. A. Rublev, Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve, Novgorod United Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, local history museums.

The first museum after the liquidation of church museums was reopened in 1944 as the Church Archaeological Museum at the Moscow Theological Academy. Church museums are currently opening in both active monasteries (Museum of Russian History Orthodox Church in the St. Daniel Monastery, Memorial Museum of Patriarch Tikhon in the Donskoy Monastery), and in parish churches throughout Russia (Museum at the Cathedral in the city of Tutaev, Yaroslavl region, there are plans to open a museum at the Church of St. Great Martyr Barbara in the village. Povodnevo, Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl region, at the Trinity Cathedral in Saratov). Complex relationships that have emerged since the 1990s. between the largest museums and the Russian Orthodox Church on issues of ownership of collections of church antiquities, are currently not fully resolved.

28.02.2017

What can an Orthodox museum look like in a predominantly Muslim region? Is it even possible to make a temple museum - what will be its exposition, what excursions and other events can attract visitors here, and not only Orthodox ones? And how to prepare guides who can tell about the ancient temple not only as a historical monument? About the History Museum experience Annunciation Cathedral Olga Pekhteleva tells in the Kazan Kremlin. She heads this museum, which is a department of the State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve “Kazan Kremlin”.

For modern Russia, the Republic of Tatarstan and its capital Kazan are a positive example of peaceful interaction different cultures and confessions, primarily Muslim Tatar and Orthodox Russian. Historically, in the heart of Kazan - the Kazan Kremlin - the Orthodox Annunciation Cathedral of the mid-16th century and the Kul Sharif mosque, built in 1996 - 2005, are located not far from each other. According to the Concept of museumification and development of the Kazan Kremlin museum-reserve, in both buildings, each of which represents its own religion on Tatarstan land, there should be museum exhibitions, telling about the origins of Orthodox or Islamic culture both in a global historical context and in the aspect of local religious tradition.

The purpose of creating the museum is to show the history of the Kazan diocese and those most important events in which the special contribution of regional Orthodoxy to the history of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church was expressed. At the same time, one of our tasks is to familiarize current and future guides of Kazan, members of the Guild of Guides of Tatarstan with the history of Orthodoxy in the Kazan region and create an additional training base for current and future guides of our republic.

Temple Museum

The Museum of the History of the Annunciation Cathedral is one of the few museums in the world located at churches. The story of the oldest Orthodox Cathedral Kazan is inextricably linked with the history of the city itself and all the significant events that took place in it. It was in this temple that the first service was performed before the revealed Kazan image of the Mother of God; the cathedral was visited by all members of the Romanov dynasty who came to Kazan. In 1897, one of the most revered Russian saints, Reverend John of Kronstadt, served the liturgy in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin.

The museum's exhibition presents more than a hundred objects, works of art and documents that introduce the most striking pages of the history of the Orthodox church, from the mid-16th century to the present day. Now visitors will be able to get acquainted not only with the rich architectural decoration Annunciation Cathedral, but also to find out how diverse, interesting and even mysterious the Orthodox world of Kazan is. Among the exhibits - Orthodox books XVII - early XX centuries, icons of various styles and techniques, photographs of Orthodox monuments of pre-revolutionary Kazan, the first exhibited staff of the first Archbishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsk Guria, a model of the carriage presented in 1767 on behalf of the Kazan people to Empress Catherine II, which she presented to the Archbishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsk Benjamin, and much more.

An important part of the exhibition is devoted to the topic of the discovery and glorification of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and its subsequent veneration on Kazan land.

The museum exhibition is complemented by projectors that play films. Orthodox themes, including the feature-documentary film “Intercessor” about the Kazan Icon of the Queen of Heaven. To help those interested in the artistic content of the cathedral’s interior, an “electronic kiosk” is available, with which you can look into the most hidden corner of the wall paintings.

To the temple - for a lesson

A significant part of the target audience of the Museum of the History of the Annunciation Cathedral are schoolchildren of the city, and of the entire republic.

The Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve has prepared a series of cultural and educational programs for school students within the framework of the subject “Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics of the Peoples of Russia,” adapted for the Republic of Tatarstan in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard.

The programs are developed in the format of lessons in the exhibitions of the Museum of Islamic Culture and the Museum of the History of the Annunciation Cathedral. The program cycle consists of six sessions, three in each of these museums. Each lesson, in an accessible interactive form, reveals one of the educational topics on the history of culture and traditions of Orthodox Christianity and Islam on the territory of modern Tatarstan, complements and consolidates students’ knowledge of the subject, and contributes to the aesthetic education of schoolchildren.

The cycle is designed for a chronological presentation of educational material and begins with lessons devoted to the topic “Orthodoxy in the Muscovite Kingdom”: children are successively told about the construction of the wooden Annunciation Church and the discovery of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. And the cycle ends with the theme “Orthodoxy in the era of the Romanovs” and a story about the Annunciation Cathedral. All lesson topics are adapted to the textbook.

During the lesson, the children are given the opportunity to get acquainted with the appearance of the first wooden religious building in Kazan after the city annexed to the Kingdom of Moscow. Also, many of the students see for the first time the appearance of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, presented in printed copies of the Facial Chronicle. The children are told in a playful, accessible manner about the significance of Russian book miniatures, which preserved and conveyed to us important historical moments and images. The development of memory is facilitated by the task of finding the image of the king in the remaining materials of the arch presented in the museum.

The development of associative thinking and logic is also facilitated by the first important “secret” task - to find an item from the collection that is depicted in the portrait of a historical person whom we meet during the lesson. All the children are enthusiastically recognizing the staff of the first Archbishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsk, Gury, which they had previously seen in the hand of a papier-mâché figurine of the saint near the historical reconstruction of the church.

During the lesson about the construction of the first wooden Annunciation Church, four tasks are completed. At the end of each task, the first to answer correctly receive prizes. Then everyone starts the last one together creative task– collecting puzzles in teams. This is the most exciting part of the lesson and the noisiest, I must admit, because the competitive spirit of schoolchildren is very developed. But in addition, children also develop the skill of working in a team - all teachers note this. The feeling of satisfaction at the end is divided exactly by how many people worked together to assemble a large and rather complex drawing.

Puzzles are collected by topic: Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin and the icon of the Annunciation Holy Mother of God» XVIII century from the sacristy of the Annunciation Cathedral.

Two other lessons on the topics “The Finding of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God” and “The Annunciation Cathedral - the main altar of Kazan” are also built on an interactive principle with elements of games, conversation and using audiovisual means: the documentary film “Intercessor” and music recordings of the Baroque era. The lesson dedicated to the miraculous icon is conducted in the form of a quest: after familiarizing themselves with the exhibits telling the history of the main shrine of the Kazan diocese, the children fill out a guidebook. The first five winners receive prizes.

Seminary tradition

The descendants of the pre-revolutionary clergy of Kazan, teachers of the Kazan Theological Seminary and Academy truly become co-workers of the museum and care about increasing the number of exhibitions telling about the history of the largest theological schools in Russia and the priestly elite.

The exhibition touches on the spiritual and educational activities of teachers and graduates of the Kazan Theological Seminary and the Kazan Theological Academy. In the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The Kazan Theological Academy was a major educational, educational and scientific center of pre-revolutionary Russia, the only higher Orthodox educational institution in the country where oriental disciplines, foreign languages, ethnography, the doctrine of foreigners and missionary pedagogy were taught. Teachers and students of the Kazan Theological Academy were the first missionaries in Russia to receive professional oriental education.

The decoration of the section is a fully attributed album of teachers and graduates of the Kazan Theological Academy at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The study of materials on this theological school continues together with the staff of the Kazan Seminary archive and the descendants of the academy professors.

Tragic age

History of the Kazan diocese Soviet period represented by a few exhibits - research continues for this period.

The most precious exhibit is, without a doubt, an authentic photograph of a meeting of the Holy Synod in the 20s, where through the portrait hanging above the heads of the members of the Synod led by Metropolitan Sergius, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon himself, now glorified as new martyrs and confessors, is invisibly present.

In this photograph you can see many outstanding church figures of the era of the atheism, and among them the future martyr Metropolitan of Kazan and Sviyazhsk Anatoly (Grisyuk).

Main holidays

Every year, new interesting sections appear within the exhibition, dedicated to such church celebrations as Easter and Christmas. The first exhibition in Tatarstan on the topic of popularizing Orthodox culture was the exhibition “The Holy Fire of the Lord. Easter”, where the cross-cutting theme of the entire exhibition complex of objects was the Holy Resurrection of Christ as a pan-Christian celebration. The culture of celebrating “the holiday of holidays and the celebration of celebrations” in the Orthodox community is dedicated to the annual section of the exhibition, which opens on the eve of the celebration.

The discovery of the culture of Orthodox Christmas was the exhibition “The Light of the Star of Bethlehem”, where for the first time Christmas nativity scenes were presented to the public for viewing, especially for which podiums with excerpts from the Gospel readings telling about the Birth of the Divine Child were prepared. Icons, books, utensils and the “stars of Bethlehem” themselves accompanying visitors, and, of course, a “delicious” tree with edible decorations on its branches like pre-revolutionary Christmas trees pleased not only delighted children, but also adult visitors who rediscovered quiet joy and maternal tenderness of one of the most touching holidays of Orthodoxy.

From the Kremlin to the Kremlin

As part of the cooperation between Russian Kremlins, it was the Museum of the History of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin that was awarded the honor of hosting the values ​​of Russian spiritual culture - a collection of images of saints of the 14th-19th centuries from the collection of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve.

The exhibition presented eighty most valuable monuments of icon painting, sewing and decorative and applied art of the 14th – 19th centuries. Among them are icons of the 16th century, which were once objects of special veneration in Veliky Novgorod and in Rus' as a whole. The exhibition “Like bright stars illuminating us...” became a bright and memorable event in cultural life Kazan.

Not just exposition

However, the Museum of the History of the Annunciation Cathedral lives not only through exhibition activities. Thus, the first Orthodox quest “The Secret of St. Gurias” was developed, introducing the life of the first Archbishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsk.

The museum’s range of master classes is constantly being updated. During the Christmas celebrations, culinary classes aroused great interest " Gingerbread house" and "Gingerbread". Decorating gingerbread cookies baked specially for Christmas and New Year has long been an indispensable attribute of celebrating the most family holidays of the calendar year. In pre-revolutionary Russia, decorated with my own hands Gingerbread personified the coziness of the family Christmas hearth and occupied an important place on the holiday tree. And creating a house from a fairy tale with your own hands is a child’s dream come true. Coming up with your own idea of ​​what your favorite character’s fairy-tale home looks like and making it from delicious delicacies is an unforgettable joy that will accompany your baby throughout holidays. This is what happens at the most fabulous master classes of the Christmas season.

The Easter period was marked by unprecedented interest in master classes at the Museum of the History of the Annunciation Cathedral, or rather, already in the Cathedral of the Annunciation itself. A huge number of people came to the “Easter Bell Ring” - with a sparkle in their eyes, they learned from the professional bell ringer of the diocese the sounds of Orthodox Easter: Easter holiday can sound, and you can give her this sound!

This school season has already gained unprecedented popularity new master class our museum – “Old Russian Calligraphy”. A letter is perhaps the most complex look human activity. And the most developing. At the tips of the thumb, index and middle fingers, which we use when writing with a pen, there are nerve cells that are most connected to the brain. By activating them, we develop our speech, thinking and attention, and at the same time form such fundamental character traits as patience, diligence, accuracy, precision.

Meet me in Blagoveshchensk

Historians, local historians, ordinary residents of Kazan and the republic who are interested in the historical and cultural heritage of their “small homeland” have become an important audience of the Museum of Orthodox Culture. A series of popular science lectures “Meetings in Blagoveshchensk” has been developed for them.

Guests of the cathedral were able to hear lectures on the creation of the first Orthodox community of the city and St. Guria of Kazan, on the discovery of the miraculous Kazan image Holy Mother of God, about Saint Hermogenes, directly related to this event, and his literary and spiritual heritage, about the history and monuments of Old Believer Kazan, about the Kazan archpastors of the 17th century and the Sedmiezernaya Hermitage.

On a monthly basis, the museum hosts the “Orthodox Kazan” series. Six thematic excursions have been developed: “Creation of the Kazan diocese. 16th century”, “Monasteries-deserts”, “Holy Assumption Monastery on Zilantova Mountain and the temple-monument of the Savior Not Made by Hands”, “Torgovy Posad. The 18th century”, “Orthodox Kazan – new times”, “Sviyazhsk as a mirror of Russian history”. During these trips, it is proposed, for example, to visit the historical places of Orthodox Kazan, directly connected with the 16th century: the Kazan Bogoroditsky Monastery, the Ioanno-Predtechensky Monastery, the historical and architectural complex of the Kazan Kremlin. Participants of the excursion can get acquainted with the history and worship the shrines of monastic monasteries created in the Kazan region in different periods of the 17th century - the route covers the Raifa Mother of God Monastery, the Monastery of the Nine Martyrs of Kizicheskiy and the Sedmiezerny Mother of God Monastery. You can also make a historical journey to the monastery associated with the stay of the young Russian Tsar in Kazan, in relation to which he himself commanded: “The monastery should be moved from the Russian cemetery and placed on Zilantovaya Mountain.” Those who go on excursions will also see the Torgovy Posad, created by Russian merchants who spared no expense in creating and maintaining Orthodox churches in the 18th century: Peter and Paul Cathedral, Intercession Cathedral and St. Nicholas Church, Epiphany Cathedral; and return to a new time, marked by the construction in Kazan of a theological seminary complex, the Bishop's Compound in the name of the Hieromartyr Kirill of Kazan, and a church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring”. The cycle ends with an acquaintance with the unique history of the first Orthodox fortress city in the Kazan region - Sviyazhsk and a visit to the Assumption Monastery, headed by St. Herman of Kazan.

As part of the museum's exhibition "The Miracle of Nevyansk", the first methodological lesson in the history of Kazan was organized - an excursion to historical places associated with Old Believer Kazan.

Guides for pilgrims and sightseers

In 2004, as part of the courses at the training center of the Kazan Institute of History federal university The direction “History and monuments of religious architecture of Kazan” was opened. The purpose of creating just such a direction was the growing interest in the history of architectural monuments and places associated with a religious purpose: Christian churches, mosques and synagogues. This course was also intended as a second step in the advanced training of existing tour guides.

The final moment of completion of training is the defense of a qualifying work - an author's excursion on the nomenclature of topics approved by the vice-rector of the university. The form of knowledge testing is an exam. The document confirming completion of training is a state-issued certificate and the assignment of the qualification “Tour guide in the direction of “History and monuments of religious architecture of Kazan”.

Since 2015, within the framework of the “Orthodoxy” module, 27 academic hours have been devoted to topics touching on theological issues. When drawing up the schedule, the opinion and interest of potential listeners was taken into account. Twenty academic hours given practical classes in Orthodox churches of the city of Kazan - excursion master classes. Nine academic hours are devoted to methodological lessons on drawing up a route and conducting excursions to monuments of religious architecture in classrooms.

Say “temple of art” and everyone will understand that you are talking about a museum. Despite the fact that in reality there is now a serious war going on between churches and art. It includes a dispute about cultural values ​​that were once confiscated from the Church and transferred to museums, and the Church’s wary attitude towards artistic events that offend the religious feelings of believers. Unexpectedly, one of the most famous museum workers in the country, director of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky, and the vicar of the famous Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Bishop of Vyborg Nazariy (Lavrinenko), decided to enter into a real dialogue. A RG correspondent witnessed it.

Time to find solutions

What is the goal of your dialogue?

Bishop Nazariy: At the beginning, Mikhail Borisovich and I did not have a dialogue. Everyone stuck to their position. But in last years It became obvious that we needed to start a constructive conversation. Otherwise, we will bring the state of affairs to a dead end. His Holiness the Patriarch advises us to be sure to talk with people of a different position in all high-profile events. And so Mikhail Borisovich and I met. After the meeting, I didn’t say “we don’t need anything from museums,” and he didn’t say “take everything you want,” but after talking, we saw where and what compromises were possible.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: I don’t like disdain for conversations: “Well, they say, this is all a talking shop.” The talking room is a very important part of our life. Firstly, we communicate with each other as human beings, and secondly, we develop common recipes. Moreover, the found recipe for a solution does not at all oblige us to abandon our fundamental positions. Although the most important thing for us is the understanding that culture and the Church are engaged in one thing: they make a person better. But in different ways.

Bishop Nazariy: We have a wonderful example of cooperation - the Hermitage returned to us the central chandelier of the Trinity Cathedral. Of course, not without a fight. But nonetheless...

Mikhail Piotrovsky: This chandelier ended up in the Hermitage after the looting of the Trinity Cathedral. And when, during the war, a silver chandelier in our Petrovsky Hall shattered in a terrible way, beyond the possibility of restoration, the chandelier “saved” us by illuminating the Small Throne Hall. But we understood that there was meaning in his return to the Trinity Cathedral. Therefore, after a lot of discussion, we decided at a meeting of the academic council: it served us, but its cultural role has been played, and we can return it with gratitude. True, we didn’t have anything in the Petrovsky Hall for a long time, but now we have already found it.

What position do you take on the issue of returning museum valuables to the Church?

Bishop Nazariy: As a person of the Church, I take the position: what was taken from the Church must return. But you can’t just “take and take”, as well as “take and leave”. Mikhail Borisovich does not keep what was taken from him at his dacha, and I don’t want to take it to the dacha either. The Hermitage is a state institution, the Church is a huge public organization, it is necessary to take into account all the subtleties: state policy, and the law on museum valuables, and the opinion of many people, both church and secular. I believe that the time for compromise has not yet come. We need to fully clarify our positions, take into account everything that happened before us, and atone for the sins of others. But we already understand that it is possible and necessary to seek compromises. To begin with, it seems to me that we would have to find and accept the “zero option”. For me it looks like this: of all the church items located in museums, first of all, it is necessary to return the Miraculous icons and relics. They have sacred meaning and are objects of worship. Moreover, museums often store miraculous icons, which in terms of their artistic value are not that significant for them. And the relics lie somewhere in the cabinets.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: As for the relics, I absolutely agree. We have prepared a list - about 50 pieces of relics are stored in the Hermitage - for their possible transfer to the Church. Everything had already been agreed upon, but during the transfer of the relics in the Kremlin, it turned out that along with the particles of the relics, relics of artistic value should also be transferred, and everything in Moscow came to a standstill. And we stopped behind them. But everything is prepared to do this. By the way, we handed over the relics of the saints to the Armenian Church.

Bishop Nazariy: I would also raise the question of the return of the Eucharistic vessels to the Church, because the Sacrament of the Eucharist took place in them. There are also questions regarding the proper storage of shrines. I personally saw when the Museum of the History of Religion moved from the Kazan Cathedral that liturgical vessels stand in the same boxes in which they were once taken from the Church, without numbers, without accounting.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Each such case, I think, needs to be discussed. It is possible that the boxes were reused for the move. In fact, the records were kept very carefully, since everything that was taken from the churches was intended for melting down. And what was left in the museums was what was saved.

Thing in a different context

The Church wants to get back what was once taken from it, but museums resist this. What is the basis for this resistance?

Mikhail Piotrovsky: The historical role of museums has always been to preserve cultural heritage, of which the church heritage is part, and to further transmit it in a slightly different context. Let's say Christianity destroyed ancient sculptures...

Bishop Nazariy: I hope you know better than me that they also erased the name of the previous pharaoh from the pyramids...

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Yes, but at the same time - under the auspices of Christianity - museums arose, where ancient sculptures were transferred as museum objects. Indeed, during revolutions the cultural values ​​of opponents were trampled upon, but one of the functions of museums is to take things out of their previous context, call them art and, independently, preserve them. And, by the way, they acquire new facets in museums. Religious objects confiscated from the Church and kept in museums during Soviet times educated the public in a certain way. Including religiously. Children were always brought to Raphael's paintings to tell them about the Bible. And who the Apostle Paul was in Soviet times was learned from the painting of the great Veronese “The Conversion of Saul.”

Bishop Nazariy: An icon exhibited in a museum like a painting does not lose its sacred content, this is true, but this does not depend on the museum.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: However, people come to museums who would not come to church. Therefore, it is very important that we meet them with church art.

Bishop Nazariy: Anyone can come to both the museum and the temple. We don’t ask on the threshold of the temple: are you a believer or not? A person comes and that’s it. But I want to note that museum specialists know church art well only from the point of view of art. And from the point of view of the internal spiritual content with which every detail is imbued, alas, even the greatest art critics do not know it. Therefore, we should not delude ourselves that people who go to museums and do not go to church will understand the essence of faith.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: But in a museum they learn more about many things than in a temple. Museums are educational institutions. Although, probably, some things can only be learned in the temple. In a church and a museum there are different contexts of perception. And, taking into account the new museum function that has arisen in relation to a thing already removed from the church context, it is necessary to separately discuss and decide in each case: here taking it out of context is normal, but here it by and large does not correspond to the meaning of the thing, as is the case with the relics in the museum .

Cancer controversy

Mikhail Piotrovsky: And here the story that is now on everyone’s lips is very indicative for us: with the tombstone of Alexander Nevsky. This is not an icon, not an object of worship.

Bishop Nazariy: However, she is not free from the sacral origin of cancer. For a believer, anything that comes into contact with holy relics also becomes a shrine. And the icon will be consecrated if the relics are placed in it.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: But for us, this is precisely a thing taken out of context and given a new context in the museum. Its new function actively fit into the life of the Hermitage. Yes, it was taken away from the Church, but let’s look at history: Peter once took the relics of Alexander Nevsky from Vladimir and moved them to St. Petersburg, so why not return them to Vladimir now?

Bishop Nazariy: The relics were not alienated from the Church, they remained in it, although, probably, the people of Vladimir themselves did not rejoice over the emperor’s decree.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: But now, not the relics, but the tombstone stands in the Winter Palace, the entire internal program of which is built as a symbol of the military triumph of Russia: the Field Marshal's Hall, the military gallery, Alexander I on all corners. And Alexander Nevsky with his victories over the Germans on the Neva is depicted on our bas-reliefs. And therefore, his tombstone fit perfectly into the overall historical and symbolic “scheme” of the Winter Palace. Our Palace Museum, if it doesn’t accept something, doesn’t accept it. And he “accepted” this thing. Millions of people come to the Hermitage to look at her. I believe that nothing bad will happen if the tombstone remains in the museum, and a copy is made and consecrated to store the relics of the saint. Moreover, being consecrated and coming into contact with the relics, this copy will acquire a sacred meaning.

Bishop Nazariy: But if we have cancer, then go to church more people will go. But the main thing is that she will stand in her place! If something was done specifically to store the shrine in the temple, you will agree that there is a triumph of justice in ensuring that it corresponds to its purpose. And its museum function at this place will not be diminished. But in the Hermitage, excuse me, she stands in the Dance Hall.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: No, it’s called the Concert Hall, although there are never any concerts there. This is just the name of one of the state rooms of the Winter Palace. Shouldn't we rename it?

Bishop Nazariy: But we must try to explain all this. Because one of the main arguments of those who support the removal of the raki is that it doesn’t belong there. We respect museums and the qualified specialists working in them, who have devoted so much effort to the preservation of church values. The same shrine of St. Alexander Nevsky was saved by them from being melted down more than once! These efforts should be highly appreciated and grateful. But regarding the fate of the crayfish, the Cultural Council under the Patriarch and His Holiness the Patriarch himself will develop a position. And I, even if I have a slightly different view, will submit to the conciliar reason, as is customary among us. However, the most important thing is that we already understand that we will “settle” the situation. This is, no joke, a resonant matter, and we must look for the most acceptable ways to solve it.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: First you need to make a copy. In addition to “zero decisions”, there are so-called deferred ones. The question of the tombstone of Alexander Nevsky can so far be classified as one of these. I specifically say “tombstone”, “sarcophagus”, and not cancer, because cancer is still a wooden coffin...

Bishop Nazariy:..which is also located in the Hermitage.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Yes, we have it too - it’s an ancient, painted shrine...

Does this history require a precedent-setting decision?

Mikhail Piotrovsky: I have been corresponding for a long time - Vladyka knows - about the tombstone. And my position is this: since the state that arose after the revolution robbed both the Church and museums, and its ideology was often primitively simple: take, sell, melt down, then now the moral duty of the state is to compensate for what was taken from the Church. And the state's debt should not be reduced to light forms transfers back and forth. We need a solution that will both repay the debt to the Church and not harm Russian culture.

This is not a chase for one and a half tons of silver

Do you already have examples of solutions that would suit both parties?

Mikhail Piotrovsky: The Lavra had a famous incident with the Russian Museum...

Bishop Nazariy: I fought for six or seven years not to transfer back to the museum Grigory Ugryumov’s painting “The Grand Entry of Alexander Nevsky into the City of Pskov...”, which we had in safekeeping, and earlier - before the revolution - was donated to the Trinity Cathedral of the Lavra Catherine II. I didn’t give it away because I heard: “You pay, we’ll make a copy, and we’ll take the original.” In the end, the Russian Museum agreed to make a copy at its own expense. We brought her, and she fell right into our place. And we handed over the original to the museum a year earlier. I later told Vladimir Gusev: “When we handed over the original to you, there was no press, but what a press ball you threw at the Marble Palace on the topic: “The Russian Museum wrote a copy for the Lavra!”

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Situations when the Church and museums meet each other halfway should not be hushed up.

Bishop Nazariy: U We have precedents for mutual cooperation. For the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', museums donated 15 objects to the Lavra for temporary placement. We annually submit information about them and confirm our responsibility for them. Museum control continues over what was handed over to us...

Mikhail Piotrovsky: This story with the transfer of the painting to the museum is very good example. And we really appreciate what the Church does.

Bishop Nazariy: In our lives, the public usually looks only for examples of stubbornness. No, if there is reason and serious arguments, the Church can make compromises. And not just “grab”, as angry bloggers write: “The Church wanted one and a half tons of silver.” But silver is only important because such a great saint should not be in plastic. We don’t need the state to bring one and a half tons of silver bullion. We process so much silver in a short time in our official jewelry workshop, in which it is turned into crosses and chasubles for icons. So, if someone really needs it for a good cause, we could donate one and a half tons of silver ourselves.

50 pieces of relics are kept in the Hermitage. The museum has prepared a list of them for transfer to the Church

Museum in the church

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Still, it’s not for nothing that one of important topics our department at the Faculty of Philosophy "Museums and Churches". I think that church museums will soon become relevant; they need to be developed.

Bishop Nazariy: Before the revolution they were commonplace. In our monastery there was a famous Tree Storage. And now there are objects worthy of museumification, and we are finishing the renovation of the premises for the museum.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: This is a special type of museum. We already have people studying at our department who will work in church museums.

Bishop Nazariy: In secular museums and in the Church, many things are organized differently. Scientific restoration, for example, has the goal of clearing and fixing the preserved image as much as possible, while church restoration replenishes it, but in such a way that at any moment everything can be returned to its original state.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Indeed, according to the Venice Charter, museum workers are not allowed to add anything during the restoration of paintings. Although the Hermitage restoration artists tint the image so that people can see the whole. And in the church, I think the reversible restoration that the Bishop spoke about is acceptable. And it is very important to revive and preserve these features of church restoration. And “church archeology” is a separate archeology, it has its own aesthetic principles and a slightly different attitude.

Will the main personnel - experts, specialists - for church museums be invited from the museum world or cultivated within the Church?

Bishop Nazariy: Icon-painting departments have appeared in our educational institutions, and courses in “church archeology” are taught. But, of course, the museum business itself, art criticism, we will need to learn from museums. And I think that they will not refuse to help us, despite the disagreements. Mikhail Borisovich and I cannot afford to quarrel like Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich.

Church in a museum

How was the issue with the palace church in the Hermitage resolved? Will services be held there?

Mikhail Piotrovsky: The Church of the Winter Palace is currently being restored; a competition for the restoration of the iconostasis has just been held. By the way, there are parts in it, I showed the bishop, which in principle can be restored. We have already discussed with him that, having restored the iconostasis, we will place in the icon cases some of the best Byzantine icons that we have, so that they will have a dual function - museum and church. And on December 25, the day of expulsion of enemies from the borders of the Fatherland, we will definitely spend church service. This holiday was once a state holiday, but then fell out of the secular calendar and remained only a church holiday. And we would like to revive it in a secular version: in the church - a prayer service, in the Winter Palace - a small parade.

Bishop Nazariy: Well, the patronal feast is a must...

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Yes, but we need to find a solution acceptable to both sides. We cannot have frequent services; in museum mode, we cannot burn candles, perform funeral services for the dead, or hold weddings.

Warranties and technologies

Can the Church calmly accept the valuables returned to it by museums and guarantee their safety?

Bishop Nazariy: We often hear the accusation: the Church will not be able to preserve museum treasures. There is some truth in this. Not every temple or monastery can properly preserve a cultural masterpiece. But I say with full responsibility: Lavra can. We have a restoration workshop, experienced specialists, and the opportunity to show objects of great cultural value, on display in our museum. By taking this or that rarity, we certainly do not limit its museum life. Having discovered 30 tombstones in the Fedorovskaya Church over the burials of Georgian kings who found themselves in the Russian capital after the Pact of St. George, we shelled out so much money to museumify them - to recreate them, cover them with special glass! But I do not deny that there are temples where a cultural masterpiece can be lost. When I sometimes visit ancient churches in the Yaroslavl region and see how they carefully wipe down beautiful icons with a raised layer of paint, it puts me in a pre-infarction state. And besides, the temple is not heated, we haven’t even heard of ventilation... I just want to take a team of restorers and come for conservation work. It seems to me that academic courses are needed at the Theological Academies for those who want to devote themselves to church art. And we must rely on the experience of museums.

Does the Church need modern museum technology?

Bishop Nazariy: Certainly! We are not amateurish; we involve only licensed specialists in restoration work, although they are much more expensive. Mikhail Borisovich, you will not be surprised if I say that some Hermitage employees work for us...

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Well, why not, if after the main working day.

Bishop Nazariy: In addition to exhibits, monasteries and churches also need special storage places, arranged according to all the rules, with a specified temperature, etc. In this regard, a “seditious” but important thought came to me. If there were a real mutual understanding between the Church and museums, our icons - cultural masterpieces - we could, if necessary, be kept in museum storage facilities. On the condition that they remain ours, and, when necessary, we take them for service or for display in a church museum. We would draw up an agreement on transferring them for storage, and as payment we could give the museum the opportunity to exhibit them.

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Right. These are the kind of dynamic schemes that should work in the 21st century. This requires a system of guarantees, electronic tracking, etc. I believe that museum items can be temporarily in the Church, and church items can be temporarily in a museum and become an object of scientific research there. We have experience, and this experience is more important than an argument.

Direct speech

Mikhail Piotrovsky. Photo: Alexey Danichev / RIA Novosti www.ria.ru

Bishop Nazariy. Photo: Stanislav Marchenko

Mikhail Piotrovsky: Religious objects confiscated from the Church and kept in museums during Soviet times educated the public in a certain way. Including religiously. Children were always brought to Raphael's paintings to tell them about the Bible. And who the Apostle Paul was in Soviet times was learned from the painting of the great Veronese “The Conversion of Saul.”

And in a museum they learn more about many things than in a temple, since museums are educational institutions. The Church and the museum have different contexts of perception. And in each case it is necessary to separately discuss and decide: here taking it out of context is normal, but here it by and large does not correspond to the meaning of the thing, as in the case of relics in a museum.

Bishop Nazariy: And so Mikhail Borisovich and I met. After the meeting, I didn’t say “we don’t need anything from museums,” and he didn’t say “take everything you want,” but after talking, we saw where, how, and what compromises were possible. And we already have a wonderful example of interaction - the Hermitage returned to us the central chandelier of the Trinity Cathedral.

We respect museums and the qualified specialists working in them, who have devoted so much effort to the preservation of church values. The same shrine of St. Alexander Nevsky was saved by them from being melted down more than once! These efforts should be highly appreciated and grateful.

By the way

The ark with the relics of more than 30 saints was transferred from the storerooms of the Tretyakov Gallery to the Church-Museum of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi. The ark contains the relics of such saints as the apostles Peter and Paul, Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and Nicholas the Wonderworker.

“Today the whole Church rejoices because the saints have found their home,” said the rector of the church, Archpriest Nikolai Sokolov.

In the Church-Museum of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, which is a department of the Tretyakov Gallery, services have been resumed for 20 years. Previously, great Christian shrines were transferred to this temple for storage: the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, the miraculous Cross of Dmitrov.

A single monument of religious (mainly Orthodox) architecture with the aim of preserving and revealing its cultural and historical value, which is the purpose of the exhibition interpretation.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg

A museum-temple is considered to be only a monument that is museumified as a museum, when the means of museum interpretation are aimed at revealing the meaning of the monument itself. Churches adapted for extraneous exhibitions that are not related to the monument itself do not belong to temple museums. The nature of the exhibition in the museum-temple is dictated primarily by the preservation of the monument. In buildings with a high degree of preservation, the original interior is preserved as much as possible, supplemented by information on the history of the temple, its artistic features, restoration, etc. If the degree of preservation is low, a typological exposition of the temple interior for a certain date is created in the interior, or an exposition is created in the empty interior, revealing the historical and artistic significance of the monument.

Petersburg. Saint Isaac's Cathedral

A network of museum-temples took shape in Russia in the first post-October decade. After 1927, the vast majority of museum-temples were closed as ideologically harmful. This type of museum is being reborn after the Great Patriotic War, in the 1970-80s. It becomes widespread and comes in a variety of forms. Since the early 1990s. A significant number of museumized monuments of religious architecture were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church; the surviving museum-temples, as a rule, combine the functions of a museum and a religious building.

The most famous temple museums:

Moscow:

As part of the Moscow Kremlin Museum-Reserve:

• Assumption Cathedral
• Cathedral of the Archangel
• Blagoveshchensky cathedral
• Church of the Deposition of the Robe

Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Fili

Church of the Georgian Mother of God

St. Nicholas Church in Tolmachi (as part of the State Tretyakov Gallery)

Saint Petersburg:

Saint Isaac's Cathedral

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Cathedral of Peter and Paul of the Peter and Paul Fortress (as part of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg)

Vladimir:

Assumption Cathedral (in joint use of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve and the Vladimir Diocese)

Dmitrovsky Cathedral

Suzdal:

Cathedral of the Nativity

Vologda:

Saint Sophia Cathedral

"Kizhi", museum-reserve:

Church of the Transfiguration

Church of the Intercession

Kargopol:

Nativity of Christ Cathedral

Kulikovo field:

Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh

Novgorod:

Saint Sophia Cathedral

Church of the Savior on Ilyin Street

Church of Theodore Stratilates

Church of the Savior on Nereditsa

Pereslavl-Zalessky

Transfiguration Cathedral

Pskov

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral of the Mirozh Monastery

Church of St. Nicholas of Usokha

Ryazan

Assumption Cathedral

Uglich

Church of St. Dmitry on Spilled Blood

Yuriev Polsky

St. George's Cathedral

Yaroslavl

Transfiguration Cathedral

Church of Elijah the Prophet

Church of the Nativity

Story

Since the Middle Ages, churches in Rus' have performed additional functions a concentration of relics and memorial objects, works of art, as well as monuments in honor of significant events, which makes them similar to proto-museums. The first attempts to use temple premises as museums in Russia date back to the end of the 19th century.

Trinity Church in Nikitniki. Moscow

The process of mass conversion of churches into museums began in Russia after the October Revolution under the conditions of anti-religious propaganda and the nationalization of church property. Giving the status of museums to monuments of religious architecture was the optimal, and often the only way to preserve the most valuable of them. K ser. 1920s Dozens of churches in Moscow, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Ryazan and other provinces were turned into museums. The activities of these museums were controlled by the Administration of Estate Museums, Temple Museums and Monastery Museums created within the framework of the People's Commissariat for Education. Initially, museumification was carried out by simply fixing the monument with all the objects of its interior, but the transformation of the most significant churches (the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Petrograd) into museums included Scientific research, restoration and, in some cases, reconstruction of the interior for the optimal date. There are many examples of constructive interaction between museums and churches in order to preserve cultural heritage; the joint use of religious buildings by the museum and the community was often initiated by the clergy themselves.

After 1927, most of the temple museums were closed; many religious buildings have been demolished or adapted for local history and other exhibitions not related to the monument, thus, temple museums as a special type of museum have almost ceased to exist. Only individual churches, as a rule, with highly artistic paintings and iconostases, were preserved in the 1930-50s. as independent objects of museum display (Trinity Church in Nikitniki, Moscow; Church of Elijah the Prophet, Yaroslavl); At this time, there were isolated cases of organizing new museum-temples (Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Suzdal) and joint use of the monument by the museum and the diocese (Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir).

A new stage in the development of museum-temples in the late 1950s. associated with a revision of the attitude towards the ancient Russian heritage and the formation of a network of museum-reserves, many of which included temple buildings. The exhibitions of museum-temples of this time were built using a significant number of written and photographic documents, archaeological finds in order to acquaint the visitor with the history of the monument and its restoration (currently, the work of Russian restorers continues to restore the paintings of the Novgorod churches of the Savior on Nereditsa and the Assumption on Volotovo Field, destroyed by the fascists , Spasa on Kovalevo, etc.). In churches built in honor of significant events, they tried to organize an exhibition dedicated to this event (in the Cathedral of the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery - the Battle of Borodino, in the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the Red Hill - the Battle of Kulikovo, in the Archangel Cathedral of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin - Kozma Minin, there was also the ashes of the great Nizhny Novgorod resident were transferred, and the fight against the Polish-Lithuanian intervention). Monuments of religious architecture that do not have high historical and cultural value could be used for any displays and exhibitions.

By the 1980s include attempts to complement the interiors of museum-temples with music, play of light, and theatrical performances, thereby restoring emotional richness. Concerts of sacred music and choral singing in Moscow have become popular. (Cathedral of the Smolny Monastery in Leningrad, Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye in Moscow). Attempts were made to recreate the “synthesis of arts” (which, according to P. Florensky, is the temple action) using technical capabilities: for example, the display of the interior of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the Moscow Kremlin was carried out using audiovisual means. At the beginning of the 21st century. An attempt was made to “virtually reconstruct” in a real exhibition space the interior of the Church of the Assumption on Volotovo Field, destroyed during the Great Patriotic War.

Since the early 1990s. a significant number of religious buildings were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, others began to be used jointly by museums and dioceses (the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, the Church of the Intercession in Fili (Moscow), the Peter and Paul Cathedral (St. Petersburg), St. Sophia Cathedral (Novgorod). Number museum-temples have greatly decreased, only a few monuments of religious architecture, which underwent restoration in the 1990s, received the status of museums: the Cathedral of the Resurrection (Savior on Spilled Blood) in St. Petersburg, the Church of the Entry into Jerusalem in Totma, Vologda region. - the temple by the end of the 20th century is a monument with a completely reconstructed interior decoration, in which services are held on certain Christian holidays.

Literature

Golovkin K.G. Review of legislative and regulatory acts Russian Federation about the transfer real estate religious purposes for religious associations (1990-2000) // Heritage and modernity. Information collection. - Vol. No. 9. - M., 2002. - P. 171-195 (Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after D.S. Likhachev);

State-church relations in Russia (past experience and current state). - M., 1996;

Davydova A.S. Issues of preservation and use of interiors of monuments of ancient Russian architecture for museum purposes // Issues of protection, restoration and promotion of historical and cultural monuments. - M., 1979. - P.31-36. (Collected scientific works/ Scientific Research Institute of Culture);

Novodevichy Convent

The Novodevichy Convent ceased to function in 1922, at which time a museum was organized within its walls. In the early 30s, the museum became part of the structure of the Historical Museum of Moscow. The museum collection here was created on the basis of the rich sacristy of the monastery. In addition, the entire architectural ensemble of the monastery, dating back to the construction of the 16th-18th centuries, is of interest. Many of the museum's exhibits appeared in the Novodevichy Convent from former closed churches and monasteries in Moscow and the region.

The museum is notable for the fact that its permanent exhibition was developed over many decades. We must pay tribute to the former directors and curators of the museum, who did not allow a single exhibit to be removed from the monastery. Currently, the museum's collections contain over 10,000 items.

Exposition of the Novodevichy Convent Museum

The main exhibits of the museum are the richest collection of paintings, because the Novodevichy Convent has always occupied a privileged position. It includes icons that belonged to numerous churches of the monastery. There are also unique exhibits here - tombstone iconostases of princesses who were relatives of Peter the Great, as well as icons from the cells of nuns of the monastery. Many icons date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1600, Boris Godunov, by his decree, donated to the Novodevichy Convent over 600 icons that were previously part of the iconostasis of the Smolensk Cathedral. At the end of the 17th century, the monastery included seven more churches, for which the famous isographers of the Armory Chamber painted icons - Fyodor Zubov, Simon Ushakov, Vasily Pakhomov. Of great artistic value is the icon “John the Baptist”, which is made in a frame of blackened silver, dating back to the 16th century. This icon was part of the cell collection of Tsarina Irina Godunova. The exhibition includes a collection of icons from a later period, dating back to the 18th-20th centuries.

A significant part of the exhibition is a collection of precious fabrics, many of which were brought to the monastery from different countries peace. Here, in the monastery workshop, they were used to sew ceremonial vestments, phelonnies and surplices for priestly vestments. At the Novodevichy Convent there was an embroidery workshop in which amazing images were created, embroidered with silk and gold. To this day, embroidered works by craftswomen of the 16th century have been preserved - “Praise to the Virgin Mary” and “Our Lady of Smolensk”.

The valuable exposition of the museum consists of a collection of objects with inlaid inscriptions. Here are the contributions of Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Princess Sofia Alekseevna, Boyar Khitrovo, Abbess Durova and other historical figures.
Part of the exhibition is dedicated to metal products, jewelry, handwritten books and documents dating back to different historical eras.

The structure of the museum complex of the Novodevichy Convent

Since 1994, the convent began to function here again, but it is still a functioning museum complex. The Novodevichy Convent is a real fortress, built of brick and white stone. The main buildings of the monastery date back to the 17th century. Part of the main entrance to the museum is the magnificent Gate Church of the Transfiguration. In the very center of the complex is the five-domed Smolensk Cathedral with a carved gilded iconostasis made by masters of the Armory Chamber. The old bell tower with stone lace still rings the surrounding area with the ringing of the bell, cast under Ivan the Terrible.

An example of Russian cathedral architecture is the Assumption Church with a refectory and a famous shrine - the icon of the Iveron Mother of God. Since ancient times, the monastery has been a shelter for members of the royal family, who came here of their own free will or against it. On the territory of the monastery, the chambers of Irina Godunova, Evdokia Lopukhina, Evdokia Miloslavskaya and the Nadprudnaya Tower, in which Princess Sophia was imprisoned, have been preserved.

Famous objects of the Novodevichy Convent

A picturesque park with a large pond;
- a cemetery at the monastery, where poets, writers, actors and politicians known throughout the country are buried.

The Novodevichy Convent is a large museum complex and architectural ensemble located in a picturesque location in the capital.