The historical, cultural and natural museum-reserve, founded on the
basis of the local history society in the Batalpashinsky village (now
the city of Cherkessk) in 1916, is now known throughout Russia.
The first collections for the museum were collected by local doctors,
civil servants, teachers and students of the Batalpashinsky gymnasiums.
Samples of minerals, photographs, antiquities and herbariums - all this
was shown at regular school exhibitions. Therefore, initially the museum
was called "school". In 1922-23 the museum was located in a classroom at
an educational institution, but in 1930 a separate building was
allocated to it. By 1942, the museum had three departments: history,
nature and social construction. Also, a zoo was organized here with a
widely represented Caucasian fauna. During the war, all museum
collections perished.
In the post-war period, the institution was
slowly restored, and already in 1947, the departments of archeology,
nature, social construction and ethnography functioned in it. In 1967,
the museum was given a new building - an architectural monument of the
early 20th century.
At present, the museum-reserve in Cherkessk
includes several branches: the museum of local lore located in the city
itself, the museum-monument to the defenders of the Caucasus passes
during the Great Patriotic War, the art gallery, the museum of the
history of Teberda, the Shoaninsky historical and architectural complex
(10-11 centuries) , Sentinsky historical, architectural and
archaeological complex (10-19 centuries), Krasnogorsk watchtower (19
centuries) and Adiyukh tower (18 centuries), Nizhne-Arkhyz historical,
architectural and archaeological complex (9-13 centuries), Humarin
settlement (9-10 centuries). In total, the museum funds include over 80
thousand items. storage.
A museum association has been created to
protect, record, use and restore immovable and movable historical and
cultural monuments of the peoples of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, to
present the history of the region, from ancient times to the present.