| Name: |
Arctic and Antarctic
Museum |
| |
 |
| Address: |
24a ulitsa Marata (metro stations:
Vladimirskaya and Dostoyevskaya) |
| Phone: |
+7 (812) 311-2549 |
| Open: |
Open: 10am - 6pm
Closed: Mondays, Tuesdays and the last Saturday of every month |
| Description: |
The Arctic and Antarctic Museum,
devoted to man's exploration of the North and South Poles
and the earth's polar regions, is the only one of its kind
in the world. Founded in 1930 as a department of the Research
Institute and opened to visitors in 1937, it is housed in
the building of the former Old Believers' Church of St. Nicholas
(1838, architect Avraam Melnikov), which has been converted
into a museum.
The museum has several departments which deal with the nature
of the polar regions, the history of the opening up of the
Northern Sea Route, expeditions to the North and South Poles,
and the development of the economy and art of the peoples
of the North. About 5,000 items are kept and displayed here,
including personal collections belonging to polar explorers,
documents, photographs, archaeological artefacts, models of
ships, and authentic objects and equipment from the historical
expeditions of Willem Barents and the Soviet and international
expeditions of the recent past. Among the exhibits are such
unusual objects as the ice-reconnaissance plane SH-2 and a
tent used on Ivan Papanin's first drifting station. On display
are materials relating to the Russian expeditions of Semen
Dezhnev, Ermak, Vitus Bering, Fedor Matiushkin, Fedor Lutke,
Gavriil Sarychev, Georgy Sedov, Faddei Bellingshausen and
Mikhail Lazarev, as well as the Soviet expeditions on board
the ice-breakers Sibiriakov, Lutke, Cheliuskin and Sedov. |
