The Central Naval Museum

The Central Naval Museum Saint Petersburg official museum site

The Central Naval Museum was founded in January 1709 as a Model Chamber of Saint Petersburg Admiralty. The main goal of the Model Chamber creation was to keep drawings, transport and warships draughts and models. In 1805 a Maritime Museum, where engravings and pictures on marine themes were collected, was created. In 1827 the Museum was closed.
Almost forty years later the Maritime Museum was recreated.
Its collection was enriched by many valuable objects.
In 1909 the Museum was renamed as Emperor Peter the Great's Maritime Museum.
In 1939 the Central Naval Museum was transferred to a building of former Stock exchange at the spit of Vasilyevsky island.

Collection of the Museum totals more than 700 000 items today.
The museum has one of the richest collections of ships' models in the world.
Most valuable of them are the following — model of an English 100-gun ship "Royal Sovereign", offered by English Queen Anna to Peter the Great (1695), model of a Maltese galley (1568), model of a frigate made by Peter the Great.

The Museum shows arms of various countries and peoples from Middle Ages up to now.
The collection of gold and St.George cold arms presented as awards is unique.
There is a great collection of paintings, engravings and sculptures by outstanding painters: I.K.Ayvazovsky, A.P.Bogolyubov, A.K.Beggrov, K.P.Bryullov, etc. sculptors: M.M.Antokolsky, P.K.Klodt, M.O.Mikeshin, N.S.Pimenov.

An important collection of Russian, Soviet and foreign awards, medals and decoration badges is kept at the Museum. A set of boards of the ships is of big value.
There is also a collection of seamen's uniform from the origin of the Russian fleet up to now. The Museum has the original flag of Moscow tsar, raised by Peter the Great in 1693 in navigation in the White Sea.

In drawing fund there are drawings of the ships with autographs of Peter the Great and other outstanding figures of the State and fleet.
The Central Naval Museum has four branches: on board a cruiser "Aurora" (open in 1956), "The Way of Life" (1972), "The Kronstadt fortress" (1980) and the submarine D-2 "Narodovolets" (1994).

Last years the Central Naval Museum participated in many exhibitions in Saint Petersburg, other Russian cities and abroad. The Maritime Museum of Russia meets the coming 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg by scientific activity and new exhibitions. The original "Admiralty ship" from the spike of the Saint Petersburg Admiralty — the most known symbol of the city on Neva is a part of the Central Naval Museum collection. It proves the importance of its collections.