The exposition “Exile in Vologda” is about the renowned Russian statesmen, scientists, researchers and cultural figures that objected to the policy of the leading party and were exiled to Vologda because of their opposition. The museum is housed in a two-storied wooden building that dates back to the early 20th century. It was chosen for a number of reasons. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin lived in this house in exile from December 1911 to February 1912.
The Saint Sophia Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church and the oldest extant building in the city of Vologda. It was erected between 1568 and 1570 under personal supervision of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in that period when Vologda was the capital of the Oprichnina lands in Russia. The construction was completed in 1587. The cathedral is located on the right bank of the Vologda River, just outside the former Archbishop’s Residence known as the Vologda Kremlin now.
A dog peeing on the lamp-post. This amusing monument makes citizens of Vologda and tourists smile. In fact, it is an exact copy of the first street-lamp which was lighted on May 21, 1904 - over 100 hundred years ago. The monument with the dog was unveiled on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of street lighting installation in Vologda.
It’s a very humorous monument about our main speech feature in Vologda. Instead of saying a letter A, local people say O. Muscovites usually mock at it, but here you can both hear our dialect and capture it on camera. You can find this art object in the very heart of the city, a few steps away from the Vologda Kremlin.
The museum opened in 1992 is located 12 km far from the city of Vologda on a high bank of the Vologda River. Historically this land belonged to the ancient Barskoye settlement (now the Mayskiy settlement). The total area of the museum is 12,7 hectares. Now there are 19 buildings in the museum: 10 houses, 6 barns, an ice-house, a bath-house and a chapel. All the buildings were erected in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The expositions in the houses are about different types of peasant’s activity. The section “Vologda Fair” representing a fair square with trading rows of stalls, swing and carousel is a part of the museum complex. Ethnographic and folklore festivities, festivals and theatrical shows are arranged there.
The museum was opened in 2005 and is about one of the most significant lyric poets of the 20th century Nikolay Rubtsov and famous Russian composer Valery Gavrilin. Its expositions tell about the life and creative work of both outstanding personalities who were born in the Vologda region.
The Memorial House of Konstantin Batyushkov is located in the building where Konstantin Batyushkov (1787-1855), famous Russian poet, native of the Vologda region, spent the last years of his life in the family of his nephew G. Grevens. Konstantin Batyushkov was a poetic teacher of Alexander Pushkin. The literary exposition “Life and Creative Work of Batyushkov” tells about the poet’s biography and the world of his poetic images. Books, paintings, drawings, autographs, units of the interior of the first half of the 19th century are displayed there.
The museum was opened in May 1991 in the wooden mansion of the middle of the 19th century. The exposition comprises two sections. “World of Forgotten Things” on the ground floor presents the culture and everyday life of the citizens in the pre-revolutionary period. The typical interiors of a living room, a dining room, a children’s room and a cabinet of the late 19th – early 20th centuries are reconstructed there. The exhibition “History of the Vologda Portrait of the 18th - 19th centuries” from the wooden manors of the Vologda province is housed on the first floor of the building. Literary, musical and children’s parties are organized in the museum. Descendants of the Vologda noblemen that gently preserve the family traditions often visit this museum. Displays of the relics from family collections and archives are held on the second floor.
The House-Museum of Peter I is a one-storeyed stone building with a vaulted ceiling and two Dutch stoves decorated with ornamented tiles. It is a monument of architecture of the 17th century. This house is interesting thanks to its architecture and as a place connected with the visits of Peter I to Vologda. There are more than 100 exhibits in the museum, including the unique one such as the clothing of Peter I, a death-mask of the emperor, a cup of generalissimo Alexander Menshikov, two Dutch chairs dated from 1706, a semantron (a wooden plate used instead of church bells) with Peter’s monogram dated from 1706, “zertsalo” (a triangular prism with 3 printed copies of the edicts of Peter I that was usually kept in offices) with Peter’s edicts, a soldier’s flask, trunks of cannons, a musket, a bronze gun dating back to the period of Peter’s reign, a coat of arms over the entrance of the house with the “H.R.S.” (Dutch Republican States) initials.
This house was bought from private owners in 1872, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter I, and it was decided to found a museum there. The first museum of the Vologda province – the House of Peter I – was opened on June 5th, 1885, on the day when Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich arrived in Vologda. Its exposition was changed for the last time in 1987.
The basic exposition of the museum is placed on the area of 1.5 thousand square meters and tells about to the development of the traditional decorative handicraft of the Vologda region and the world tendencies of lace-making since the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The exhibits from the European lace centers – from Germany, France, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain – and of the epoch of the origin of lace-making art (the 17th-18th centuries) are displayed there. The exhibitions in the main gallery present the lace in the peasant’s costume and ethnographic textile, the lace articles of the 1920-1940s, and the authors’ works of the designers of the association “Snezhinka” (Snowflake). There are exhibition halls, an art gallery-store, a café and a classroom on the ground floor of the museum and show-rooms on the first floor.
The Vologda Kremlin is a historical and architectural ensemble that was built as a fortress in 1567 by the order of Ivan the Terrible and played an important fortification role in the 16th - 17th centuries. The walls and towers of the Kremlin were dismantled by the 1820s. Now the complex of the Vologda Kremlin traditionally embraces the former Archbishop’s house – a number of buildings in the court of the Vologda’s archbishops (mainly because of its high walls), the Resurrection Cathedral and the St. Sophia Belfry. The St. Sophia Cathedral built on the high bank of the Vologda River is the first stone church in the city erected under Ivan the Terrible. The smaller Resurrection Cathedral was constructed near it, on the site of the dismantled south-eastern tower of the fortifications.
The present area of the Kremlin surrounded with high stone walls is divided into three parts. The central yard, that is the basic one, occupies the main area; a small Consistorial yard is located in the north-eastern corner, and a service yard - in the north-western one.
This set of buildings that is called the Vologda Kremlin has been erected for several centuries. Their appearance greatly differs from each other. They don’t have a uniform style as they were built at different times.