The Hermitage Exhibition in Staraya Ladoga

On 30 June, 2003, on the occasion of the international conference "Staraya Ladoga and Origins of Russian Statehood and Culture" in Staraya Ladoga was opened the Museum of Archeology. The first exhibition in the new museum accommodated in the former home of merchant Kalyazin is organized by the Hermitage in honor of St. Alexander Nevsky. It showcases about 50 items from the museum’s collection, including the Star and Cross of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, ecclesiastical garments of the middle of the 19th century bearing the Order’s regalia, St. Alexander Nevsky dinner set designed by G.I. Kozlov and fabricated at Gardner’s porcelain works near Moscow, and icon of St. Alexander Nevsky and Mary Magdalene attending the Theotokos of Bogolyubovo. Alongside them are showed views of St. Petersburg of the 18th - early 19th centuries executed in various styles and techniques.

Staraya Ladoga is a unique archeological site with strata containing antiquities of the 8th-10th centuries. The oldest building in Zemlyanoye Gorodishche dates from 753.
The Archeology Museum’s exhibition is opened by a collection of neolithic artifacts from Lake Ladoga and the rivers Svir, Pasha and Oyat. A Stone Age site has been unearthed in the mouth of the river Ladozhka where the Ladoga fortress was built during the Middle Ages. At the center of the display is Ladoga’s medieval archeology, including a model of a Viking drakkar. The exhibition showcases medieval weapons such as arrows, knives or battle axes and decorations, including beautiful beads imported to Ladoga from Northern Europe, Black Sea and other areas. Ancient Ladoga’s industry is represented by casting molds.
Along with archeological sites, Ladoga is famous for its 12th century architecture, including the northernmost frescoed churches built prior to the Mongol invasion. Though part of their paintings have been lost, a sizable collection put together by researchers will now be displayed at the museum. Fresco fragments come from three places — the Churches of St. George in the fortress of Staraya Ladoga, Assumption of Theotokos in the Assumption Monastery and St. Nicholas in Nikolskoye. Frescos from the Church of St. George were laid into foundation when the entire composition of ancient mural paintings was reconstructed. These reconstructions are also showed in the exhibition. Models of the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and Assumption recreate their appearance in the late Middle Ages.

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The Churches of
St. George

Mikhail Piotrovsky,
State Hermitage Director, opening the exhibition

Mikhail Piotrovsky, State Hermitage Director,
Ludmila Gubchevskaya, Director of the Museum of History, Architecture and Archeology in Staraya Ladoga, and
Valery Serdyukov, Governor of the Leningrad Region, opening the Museum of Archeology

At the exhibition organized by the Hermitage