Romanov Museum (Романовский Музей) was opened in Kostroma in 1913 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. It gather the collection of antiquities under supervision of historian N.N. Selifontov and Provincial Arhives Commission. The exposition was presented on the first floor of the building of the Noble Assembly as an addition of the historic museum that opened in 1891. Romanov Museum grew in size and it became evident that the collection a new building. It was constructed in 1904- 11 and new museum of Kostroma was inaugurated in May 19, 1913 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II, the royal family and other distinguished guests. Surprisingly after the revolution Romanov Museum survived looting and destruction. Instead the new government turned it into Kostroma regional museum devoted to history of the city and its surroundings.
The forerunner of the Romanov Museum was the
"collection of antiquities" collected by members of the Kostroma
Provincial Scientific Archival Commission (KGUAK) under the guidance of
historian N. N. Selifontov (1835-1900). The Provincial Archival
Scientific Commission, established in July 1885, was engaged in
collecting, researching, describing and publishing written sources,
located in several rooms in the building of the Noble Assembly on
Pavlovskaya Street (now Mira Ave.). It was here that in 1891 the
Kostroma Museum of Antiquities was opened in two rooms on the ground
floor, the first museum institution in the Kostroma province. Soon the
commission raised the issue of the need to build a separate museum
building, and the Kostroma nobility donated a small neighboring plot of
land for the construction.
Since 1899, several projects have been
drawn up by the provincial engineer L. Trebert and the city architect N.
I. Gorlitsyn. But construction plans began to be implemented only in
1904, when, in preparation for the celebration of the 300th anniversary
of the Romanov dynasty, a decision was made at the highest level to
create a museum whose collections would be connected with the history of
the Romanov family. Along with the grandiose monument, the Romanov
Hospital and the Romanov Teachers' Institute, the museum was to form an
impressive complex of the "cradle of the Romanov dynasty" in Kostroma.
The new project of the building "in the style of ancient Russian
towers", compiled by N. I. Gorlitsyn and agreed with Nicholas II,
exceeded the original one both in size and in architectural merit. Funds
for the construction were collected from donations, and partly allocated
by the treasury. The largest private contribution was the contribution
of the Krasnoyarsk industrialist G.V. Yudin (the Yudin family, or, more
precisely, the Yudins, came from the Kostroma province), it amounted to
10 thousand rubles out of almost 100 thousand that were eventually spent
on construction. The laying of the building took place in July 1909
during the archaeological congress in Kostroma, in the presence of a
number of prominent Russian scientists. Construction continued until
1911; interior decoration completed in 1913.
There is now a big
holiday in Kostroma; she opens the Romanov Museum, where the talking
stones of antiquity will be kept, and some charter (parchment) scrolls
already similar to stone and all kinds of written and printed jewelry.
- V. V. Rozanov "Kostroma and Kostroma"
The grand opening of the
museum took place on May 19 in the presence of Nicholas II, the imperial
family and numerous guests, becoming one of the central events of the
celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
Built to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty and
honored by the Emperor's visit on May 21 this year, the museum
represents the pride of Kostroma, "the cradle of the Romanov dynasty."
Built on well-wishing donations designed by the architect Gorlitsyn in
the style of ancient Russian towers, the museum contains collections of
rare and valuable items of native antiquity. The archive and library of
the Kostroma Archival Commission are located on the lower floor; on the
middle floor there is an extensive ethnographic department - a
collection of local peasant costumes, household utensils, and household
items. Along with this, antiques of the landlords were also collected:
furniture, dishes, luxury items, paintings painted by serf artists. On
the top floor - the main part of the museum - there is a large hall
lined with showcases with ancient acts-monuments of the era of the
Romanov dynasty. Our entire Royal House in portraits is placed on the
walls of the hall. On the right side of the floor there is a
church-archaeological department in the form of a collection of ancient
icons and liturgical items and a numismatic department containing a rich
and valuable collection of coins from the city of Sakharov.
The
attraction of the museum is a rare collection of engraved portraits
(more than 4,000 sheets) of Russian figures over the past tercentenary.
This collection, which occupies a special room on the left side of the
floor, is a gift from Kostroma native K. N. Kozyrev.
- Niva magazine,
No. 27, 1913.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the museum
was transferred to the Kostroma Scientific Society for the study of the
local region. The society, which arose in 1912, had a biological,
geophysical and ethnological station, a geological laboratory, was
active in publishing research results and included its collection in the
museum collection. An extensive network of county and volost cells was
created.
In 1945, the Kostroma Art Gallery was opened in the
building, and on November 10, 1966, the building was transferred to the
Kostroma Regional Museum of Fine Arts (now the Kostroma State
Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve).
The two-story building on the basement is made in the
Russian style (“Old Russian tower”). The brick building has a
rectangular volume elongated along the street; it faces the street with
a complex facade framed on the sides by turrets. On the central
transverse axis there is a massive elevated risalit on the main facade
from the side of the street and a narrower one - from the side of the
courtyard. A strongly protruding porch, decorated with two-part arches
with a hanging "weight" in the center, serves as the basis for the
balcony of the second floor.
The external decor is intended to
evoke associations with Russian architecture of the 17th-18th centuries:
a carved frieze runs along the entire perimeter, the walls of the first
floor are covered with “diamond” rustication, and the decorations of the
second floor reproduce the decor of Russian patterning. The windows are
framed with architraves with columns made up of various fractional
elements.
The layout of all floors has a strictly symmetrical
composition. The interior perfectly meets the museum's purpose: a
spacious vestibule, a wide front staircase with magnificent railings,
two pairs of spacious rectangular rooms with huge windows (there is also
a square central hall on the second floor). Interesting doors imitating
ancient Russian canvases have been preserved in the interior.
Since 2005, the former Romanov Museum has been
included in the Kostroma State Historical, Architectural and Art
Museum-Reserve.
Currently, the building exhibits collections of
paintings (a museum in the museum) by E. V. Chestnyakov (among them such
well-known canvases as “Festive procession with a song. Kolyada” and
“City of General Welfare”) and B. M. Kustodiev. The Kostroma Museum is
the sole owner of Chestnyakov's works, it was here that the actual
discovery of his work to the world took place in 1975 after a great
research and restoration work under the guidance of V. Ya. Ignatiev and
S. V. Yamshchikov. The Kustodiev Museum presents exhibits from the funds
of the museum-reserve, in particular, a collection of the artist's
museum redesigned a few years ago in the village. Ostrovskoye (formerly
the village of Semenovskoye-Lapotnoye).
In addition, in the
former The Romanov Museum has a permanent exhibition "Kostroma boyars:
personnel for the throne", dedicated to the events of the Time of
Troubles and the fate of two boyar families - the Godunovs and the
Romanovs, as well as monthly exhibitions of contemporary Russian
artists.