MUSEUM OF THE EARLY RUSSIAN CULTURE AND ART NAMED AFTER ANDREI RUBLEV
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Address:
Andronnikovskaya Sq., 10 |
In the middle of the 20th century the Soviet authorities
finally acknowledged Andrei Rublev being an outstanding Russian painter
and decreed that the Museum-Preserve of the Old Russian Culture and
Art should be established.
The Museum was to be established on the territory
of St. Andronicus Monastery of the Savior where presumably the grave
of the great icon painter Andrei Rublev is located. Founded in the beginning
of the 15th century by Andronicus, who was the follower of Sergey Radonezhsky,
the monastery for many centuries played an important role in the religious
life of the country. In the early 15th century Andrei Rublev became
a monk of St. Andronicus Monastery. There he created a plenty of splendid
icons and painted the walls and vaults of the Savior Cathedral that
is nowadays one of the oldest monuments of Moscow stone architecture.
In St. Andronicus Monastery of the Savior Andrei Rublev spent the last
years of his life and in 1430 was buried on the monastery territory.
The monastery that had been savagely damaged in the
years of the atheism was carefully restored. Even the brick wall with
the towers that had been partly demolished took its original form.
The opening of the Museum took place in 1960 and was
timed to the six-hundredth anniversary of the great Russian painter's
birth. At first the Museum collection included only copies and photos
but gradually it was enriched with icons that were wrote off as dilapidated
ones in provincial museums. The collection of the Museum was also enlarged
with the unique finds of scientific expeditions to different regions
of Central and North Russia. 
Nowadays the Museum is proud of its rich collection
that features icons of the 14-19th centuries including works of Moscow,
Novgorod, Tver and North Russian icon schools. The Museum also represents
the fragments of religious monumental painting from the architectural
ensembles of the 12-15th centuries as well as Old Russian wooden sculpture
and unique works of decorative and applied art. The collection of the
Old Russian books features books and manuscripts kept in the library
of St. Andronicus Monastery and hand-written books of the 15-20th centuries.
The pride of the Museum is the collection of the original frescoes of
the 15-19th centuries and copies from church and monastery frescoes
preserved in the unique religious architectural monuments of Russia
of the 16-18th centuries. 
In 1985 in the small park in front of the entrance
to the Museum the monument to Andrei Rublev was opened. The accuracy
of the portrait is rather relative, as the description of the painter's
appearance hasn't preserved.
On the territory of the Museum different types of
excursions are held, giving the visitors a chance to get acquainted
with the masterpieces of the Old Russian culture and art in the natural
surrounding.
