Society and church: In the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was opened the Patriarchal Museum of Church Art

At the bottom of the cloister of the Church of the Transfiguration Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was opened the Patriarch museum of religious art.

Since 1998 in the gallery of the Church of Transfiguration was located the branch of the Museum of History of Moscow - The Museum of Christ the Savior. The exhibition was devoted to the history of the cathedral - its creation, death and rebirth. In 2003, the museum opened an exhibition of religious art.

Now, at the initiative of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, an exhibition of religious art takes on a new format and is becoming the Patriarchal Museum, where visitors can see a lot of unique pieces of religious art.

The exhibition includes, in particular, the monuments of religious art in the V-XX centuries, donated to the Russian Orthodox Church - the ever-memorable Patriarch Alexy II and Patriarch Kirill.

The exhibits presented at the exhibition demonstrate the diversity of the Christian culture of different countries, schools and trends. Much of the collection - icons, different in style, technique, time of writing, the degree of preservation. The exposition gives an idea of ​​the historical and geographical aspects of the development of icon painting as a genre of religious art. Monuments of the Byzantine Empire, Palestine, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Georgia and Northern Europe coexist in the exhibition with Russian icons of Novgorod, Moscow, Pskov, Stroganov School.

Also it is presented a triptych, written by V. M.  Vasnetsov for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1899.

There is an ongoing scientific study of the collection, the catalog will be published. Shortly after the opening of the main exhibition it will be equipped an additional exhibition hall.