The Semenov Museum of History and Art is the central museum of the history and culture of Semenov and Semenovsky District.

The essence of the museum

This cultural institution exists to popularize the history and culture of the The Kerzhenets River region, reflecting the beauty, richness, traditions, and customs of the trans-Volga forestland.

Among the museums of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast it holds a prominent place; in 2011 it turned 77 years old.

History of the museum

In 1934 the Board of Vsekopromsoyuz decided to organize, in the city of Semenov, in aid of the school and the artisans, a museum of samples and visual aids for the wood-turning, carving, and toy trades associated with Khokhloma technique painting. Organizing the museum was entrusted to Georgy Petrovich Matveyev, a talented organizer, a master-teacher, and the museum's first director. For many years he collected and preserved the remarkable works of folk craftsmen.

Exhibits

One of the halls is devoted to merchant life in the second half of the 19th century, and the house in which the Semenov museum is located is itself a former merchant mansion that belonged to P. P. Sharygin, a trader in wood-chip goods (a household-goods merchant). Of particular interest are materials telling of the history of the Old Believer hermitages and the life and everyday ways of the Old Believers of Semenovsky Uyezd, as well as interiors and ethnographic exhibits illustrating the everyday life of peasants and townspeople at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.

Wooden toys

The history of the Kerzhenets region is inseparably linked with folk crafts. The products of local craftsmen have gained worldwide renown. The exhibit devoted to wooden toys offers both old and modern examples for viewing. The oldest toy, the "fedoseyevskaya," is made using only a knife and an axe, alongside lathe-turned and joinery-made toys.

Spoon-carving craft

An indispensable feature of the Russian table is the wooden spoon. In Semenovsky Uyezd entire families engaged in the spoon-carving trade. The museum's collection of spoons is rich and varied.

House carving

The museum displays fragments of house carving, which absorbed the ancient traditions of carved art and the ornamentation of classical architecture. Talented craftsmen worked in the tradition of old blind (relief) carving, decorating household items. The works of L. P. Levin, D. N. Mazin, and I. T. Abramov, on display in the museum's exhibit, are unique and varied in genre.

Semenov literature

Lovers and admirers of Russian poetry can become acquainted, in the Semenov museum's literary hall, with an exhibit devoted to the life and work of the poet and native son B. P. Kornilov. Set to the sparkling melody by D. Shostakovich, "Song of the Counterplan" ("Песня о встречном"), written to verses by B. Kornilov, was beloved by the people in the 1930s. This hall offers visitors an account of the poet's life and work and of his tragic death.

Tours

Visitors are offered general, thematic, and dramatized tours of the museum and integrated programs, as well as walking tours of the city and excursions to the sites of the former Old Believer hermitages of Semenovsky Uyezd.

Address

Phone numbers

  • (831-62) 5-19-30 — museum director
  • (831-62) 5-27-1 — excursion department
  • fax: 8 (83162) 5-14-06

Email

  • M645@mail.museum.ru

See also