This year sees the 100th anniversary of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Preserve of History, Architecture and Art, and the latest edition of the magazine Gorny Mir Museyev [The Mining World of Museums] is entirely devoted to its history, collections and fields of activity.
“In the 100 years that have passed since its foundation, the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Preserve has acquired the status of the largest museum complex in Vologda Region and has become the sole museum with federal-level status in those parts. Today the museum-preserve is not only the ‘calling card’ of the Vologda Region, but also serves as a important centre for the preservation of historical and cultural artefacts within their landscape setting, for the study of the heritage of the Beloye Ozero [White Lake] area, the restoration and management of museum collections. Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Preserve is one of only a few places in Russia where rare examples of icons, frescoes, artworks and objects from daily life, manuscripts and books are kept on such a scale. It is a real treasury of Russian culture.” Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage and President of the Union of Museums of Russia, wrote in his salute published in the magazine.
The materials that the staff of the museum-preserve prepared for the publication tell about the architectural ensembles of the Kirillo-Belozersky and Ferapontov Monasteries, their conservation and restoration. They also cover modern technologies in the museum, distinctive aspects of restoration methods, means of monitoring and maintaining a microclimate in the museum’s premises, and much more.
An important place is taken by an account of the preservation and restoration of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Ferapontov Monastery with its frescoes by Dionysius – the first work in our country, the state of which is acknowledged to accord with all the standards for the keeping of Early Russian monumental painting.
A special section is devoted to the museum’s stocks, including the collections of 16th- to early 20th-century artistic silver, locks and keys from the 10th to 20th centuries, military headwear of the 15th to 17th centuries, and numismatic items.
The article on the casting of bells in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery deserves special attention. From it, readers will learn that the monastery was famous for their size and number. Some of the bells were bought in, but the largest were cast on site. The monks invited bellfounders from Moscow, Yaroslavl and Belozersk for this purpose, but a considerable portion of the tools and equipment required was kept on monastery grounds.
The magazine was produced by the Ore & Metals publishing house in Russian and contains a brief English translation of the contents.
The issue was worked on by editor-in-chief Alexander Vorobyov, leading editors Liudmila Kostina and Natalia Kolykhalova.
