Territory of Russia: The exhibition “Stone keys of Sortavala” in the Republic of Karelia

January 26, 2015 at the Regional Museum of Northern Ladoga (Sortavala, the Republic of Karelia) will be officially open the exhibition "Stone keys Sortavala".

The new exposition is prepared in 2013-2014 in the framework of the Russian-Finnish project "Euroregion Karelia: the museum hypertext", supported by the CBC program of the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument "Karelia 2007-2013". The objectives of the international project is the promotion of common cultural space in the region, identifying and interpreting historical and cultural features, both internal and external relations between the cities and regions of Karelia on both sides of the border, cooperation between museums. The partners of the project are 12 organizations from the Republic of Karelia (Russia) and North Karelia (Finland). The main results of the project were the modernization of exhibitions in museums - participants in the project, the introduction of new information technologies in museum activities, including the creation of an information system "Open Karelia".

The exhibition "Stone keys of Sortavala" is located in the former home of Sortavala doctor Gustav Winter, built in 1900. The exposition opens museum visitors the natural, historical and cultural features of Sortavala and Northern Ladoga. As a symbolic key to help the visitor to uncover these features, are used stones, which are rich in Ladoga land - minerals and rock samples from the museum's collection. The exhibition consists of the gaming unit with maps of Sortavala and Northern Ladoga and six sections of "keys" that can be viewed in any order. Some of the exhibits are equipped with electronic labels with QR-codes that can be read using a tablet computer.

Sections "Geology and landscapes" and "Mining and Metallurgy" are dedicated to geological development, the formation of the unique landscapes of the region, as well as the history of ore mining and smelting in the North Ladoga area. In the windows there are samples of different minerals, rocks and fossils of plants and animals. In the layout of the gallery, you can see ancient tools of miners. Interactive sandbox allows museum visitors to imagine a better geological processes taking place in the region.

Section "Archaeology and Ethnography" tells about the culture of the peoples of Northern Ladoga from the Stone Age to the present day. Here you can see the costumes of ancient Karelians, Kantele. In the "Architecture and Art" visitor learns about the building stone on Northern Ladoga and its application in the architecture of Russian and Finnish cities. Section "War and politics" is about the complex history of relations Karel, Russian, Swedish, Finnish - peoples who inhabited the region for the last thousand years. Section "Key", "Communication" reveals the transport links for centuries of Sortavala connecting with different cities of Russia and Finland.