One day here equals one decade…

On April 25, the exhibition “10 Days in the Life of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve” opened in the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

The exhibition is dedicated to the great anniversary – this year the museum turned 100 years old. Although this place has been known since much more ancient times, it was in 1923 that a museum-reserve of Russian wooden architecture appeared here, from which the modern Kolomenskoye originates. The exposition tells about the history of Kolomenskoye from the moment of its foundation to the present, and one day here is equal to one decade. Among the exhibits of the exhibition are archival documents related not only to the history of the reserve, but also to people who have invested a lot of effort in preserving the monuments and the museum’s collection.

The starting point for the complex and eventful museum life of Kolomenskoye was a document dated February 10, 1923 – a mandate to appoint the architect-restorer Pyotr Baranovsky as head of architectural monuments on the territory of the former suburban royal residence.

There is no Muscovite who would not know and love Kolomenskoye. This amazingly beautiful and even a little fabulous place was first mentioned in 1336 and 1339, in the spiritual letters of the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita. After the death of Kalita, the estate was given to his grandson, Prince Vladimir of Serpukhov, cousin of Dmitry Donskoy: soldiers were met here after the victory on the Kulikovo field. In the 16th century, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Church of St. George the Victorious were built. In the XVII century – the wooden palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich liked to relax here in the summer, and young Peter Alekseevich grew up here too: the future ruler staged battles of amusing troops, which served as the first experience for creating a regular army in Russia. In the vicinity of Kolomenskoye there were villages in which people lived serving the royal possessions. Over time, the estate grew and changed. Each sovereign tried, to one degree or another, to bring something new and beautiful to the appearance of the old Kolomenskoye.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Kolomenskoye became the religious center of the district: there were four functioning churches. After the revolution of 1917, the estate was nationalized, the churches were closed, looted and were about to be demolished. The well-known architect-restorer Pyotr Baranovsky stood up to defend Kolomenskoye. He proposed to consider churches not as religious buildings, but as the cultural heritage of the country. The activity of Pyotr Baranovsky was distinguished by a broad vision of the restoration process, as well as a complex perception of the monument as a carrier of historical and cultural information. Baranovsky actively advocated the museumification of the area and the preservation of historical monuments of Kolomenskoye, associated with many historical events and personalities. On February 10, 1923 (the same starting point), by a decree of the Glavnauka of the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, a mandate was issued “to manage the architectural monuments of the village of Kolomenskoye-Dyakovo.”

Gradually, the museum began to form a collection. In the 1920s and 1930s, when churches and monasteries were closed and ruined throughout the country, the museum staff saved historical and cultural values: iconostases, tiles, libraries. This made it possible to open expositions dedicated to the art of the masters of ancient Moscow. At that time, work was carried out on the study and scientific restoration of architectural monuments located on the territory, the first expositions were created, and most importantly, the foundations of the collection were laid – a unique collection of Russian iconography, old books and arts and crafts. At the same time, an archaeological collection began to form on the basis of excavations of the area.

In 1971, by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the organization was given the independent status of a museum-reserve. In 1983, the first specialized depository building among Moscow museums was built in Kolomenskoye to accommodate and store museum collections, equipped in accordance with international standards. In 2010, the wooden palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was recreated, which in the 17th century was called the “eighth wonder of the world.”

The exhibits presented at the exhibition cover a wide time period – from the Neolithic era to historical and cultural monuments of the mid-twentieth century. The icons “John the Baptist – the Angel of the Desert” of the 16th century and “Christ before Anna” of the 17th century, which are part of the treasury of national art, deserve special mention. Of great historical importance is the ceremonial coverlet of the 18th century, which was supposedly used to decorate a table with regalia of royal power, as well as a unique hanging shroud for the icon of the Sovereign Mother of God, found in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in 1917. Of particular interest are objects from the collection of small architectural forms, which the founder and first director of the museum began to collect. At the exhibition, you can see a 17th century mica window and samples of original house carvings, among which wooden carved boards of the 18th century from the Nizhny Novgorod province should be highlighted. Through these and other items from the museum’s collection, as if through the prism of time, the pages of the museum’s history are revealed, the achievements of restorers are demonstrated, as well as new acquisitions that have replenished the collection in recent years.

In addition, from April 15 to August 26 in the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a Saturday lecture hall “The History of the Museum – in Persons” dedicated to the centenary of the museum-reserve will be open. Listeners will be able to learn about the main architectural masterpiece of Kolomenskoye – the Church of the Ascension of the Lord – the reformer Tsar Peter I and Empress Catherine II, about how the museum was created in the former royal estate, about the architect and restorer Pyotr Baranovsky and architectural photographer Ivan Barshchevsky.

The great and brilliant Pyotr Baranovsky deserves not only a separate lecture, but also a separate museum! All his life, Baranovsky saved beauty for us: he won back the pearls of architecture from the crazed builders of the new state – he raised the trampled down ones, revived the destroyed ones. The list of national shrines saved by Pyotr Baranovsky alone occupies 40 printed pages in a book about him! Among them are the Krutitsy Compound, the Boldinsky Monastery, the Kolomenskoye and many other unique architectural ensembles. He was a competent and meticulous researcher, an outstanding archaeologist, a talented architect and restorer. Having become the director of the Kolomenskoye Museum, Baranovsky was engaged in the restoration of the Church of the Ascension, St. George’s Church, the Front Gate and the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, restoring their original appearance. The first exposition he created was dedicated to ancient Russian craftsmen and construction techniques.

During numerous expeditions, Baranovsky explored architectural monuments located throughout the entire USSR. From expeditions, he brought icons, church utensils, elements of architectural decoration – all this became the basis of the museum collection. Baranovsky voiced the idea of ​​creating a museum of wooden architecture after traveling around the Russian North: “I don’t know anything more wonderful than Russian wooden architecture!” he wrote. In 1924, Baranovsky achieved the establishment of the Kolomna Museum of Folk Art and became its first director. In 1927-1933, he found, took to Kolomenskoye and preserved for the future monuments of wooden architecture: the house of Peter I, the Mokhovaya Tower from Sumy prison, an outbuilding from Preobrazhensky, etc. Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky lived on the territory of the museum in Kolomenskoye, in the Front Gate complex , which today is evidenced by a commemorative plaque.

In Kolomenskoye, Baranovsky created a restoration school, and today the museum has its own restoration workshops, where specialists conduct scientific research on objects stored in the museum’s funds, restore them, and prepare them for display to the audience. The work of Pyotr Baranovsky continues: this amazing person has been able to inspire for several generations to develop and increase the historical riches of an amazing place, which is Kolomenskoye even now.

The centenary of the Kolomenskoye Museum will be celebrated throughout 2023. All events are dedicated to this date to one degree or another: walking and cycling tours, exhibitions. Specially for the anniversary, a two-volume edition “Kolomenskoye-100” was prepared, which for the first time tells the history of the museum in detail. For him, the curators, historians, art critics of the museum wrote an essay about the history of the place, the stock collection and the people who worked and work here.

Mikhail Kovalyov.

Photo by the author and from the archive of the museum