Rarities from church vaults are on display at the Presidential Library

From July 27 to September 20, 2018 the Presidential Library Is hosting the exhibition "Keeping Orthodox Faith: The History of Church Museums. Marking the1030th anniversary of Christianization of Rus’". The exposition in the Presidential Library illustrates how the church relics have been collected and preserved for several centuries, why it may become necessary to establish the first church museums.

A new exposition in the Presidential Library will showcase how the church relics have been collected and preserved for several centuries, why it has become necessary to create the first church museums.

Visitors of the exhibition will be able to see objects from the XVIII and XIX centuries from the Museum-Ancient repository of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the sacristy of the Smolny Cathedral. Among them - details of the episcopal vestments, antimins (boards with a part of the relics sewn into it) of the second half of the XVIII century, icons, rare archive documents, books. Research monographs, periodicals and catalogs of church collections of the XIX century will allow viewers to get familiar with the history of the appearance of church museums- of ancient repositories, their collections and destiny. At the exposition there will be also presented unique photographs of the photographer of the Imperial Academy of Arts and the recognized master of Russian architectural photography I. Barshchevsky and the pioneer of Russian color photograph S. Prokudin-Gorsky.

The partners of the exhibition were the Museum-Ancient repository of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ (Smolny Cathedral) in St. Petersburg, the library of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Gorky Science Library of the St. Petersburg State University.

To visit the exposition, please, pre-register by phone (812) 334-25-14 or send an email to: excursion@prlib.ru.

Preservation of cultural and historical heritage is one of the key areas of the Presidential Library, which is located in the building of the Holy Synod in St. Petersburg. The constantly replenishing digital fund of the library includes a large number of materials about the Russian Orthodox Church, which form thematic collections. For example, on the portal you are available the collection "History of the Russian Orthodox Church", which includes the fundamental works of significant church figures and church historians; the collection "Orthodox Russia. Monasteries and Icons" covers materials from the period of the XIX - early XX century, describing the history of individual Orthodox monasteries and especially revered icons.