Kursk State Museum of Archaeology

Kursk Oblast
the city of Kursk, street of Pioneers, building No. 6

The permanent exhibition occupies 8 halls and tells about the history of the Kursk Region from the Stone Age to the developed Middle Ages. Visitors can see the diorama of the Avdiivka Paleolithic site. Models of dwellings and costumes of people are recreated in accordance with the latest scientific research. The reconstruction of the sites of the Lipinsky settlement of the 11th-13th centuries and the Kursk Fortress of the first half of the 17th century are also interesting.
Today, the museum has more than 140 thousand items of storage, including tools, ceramics, women's jewelry, sculptures, weapons and military equipment, household and household utensils, coins. Among the most valuable collections Kapanowski treasure, Novoseljanski and smorodinskii treasures, objects from the burial near the village of Salnikova, Paleolithic sites Avdeeva and Bulls.

The first state-owned collection of antiquities in Kursk was collected in the 19th century by employees of the Kursk Provincial Statistical Committee. among the collected rarities were mammoth bones, roman coins, and greek vessels, as well as many artifacts found at the excavations of ancient settlements and mounds. In 1899, the governor, Count Alexey Dmitrievich Milyutin, instructed to compile a catalog of the collection and arrange a suitable storage for it, in order to later organize a museum. Three years later, the new governor, Nikolai Nikolaevich Gordeev, carefully studied the items collected in the repository and came to the conclusion that they were still too few for the museum. But he liked the idea so much that during an audience with Emperor Nicholas II, Gordeev presented him with an album with photos of the exhibits and asked him to support the museum. The emperor allocated ten thousand rubles to start with.
Thus, the Kursk Historical, Archaeological and Handicraft Museum was established and opened in 1905, with Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich as its patron. Visiting the museum was free for the townspeople, and for the wealthy gentlemen they made one paid day a week so that they could view the exhibits without the crowd.

After the revolution, the historical and archaeological museum became part of the unified Kursk Provincial (later regional) Museum of Local lore. only in 1991, its archaeological department again became an independent institution-first as a branch of the kokm, and later as an independent kursk state regional museum of archaeology. He was given two of the oldest surviving buildings in Kursk – a two-story building known as the" Chambers of the Boyars of Romodanovsky", and a one-story wing.

"Chambers of the Boyars of Romodanovsky" - the subject of many urban legends, one of them is associated with the name of Stepan Razin: he allegedly spent one night chained to the wall in the cellars under the chambers. However, modern research shows that these buildings have nothing to do with the Princes Romodanovsky. It would be more correct to call them "Khloponin's Estate" - after the name of the first known owner, the merchant of the first guild, and later the mayor.
In 1902, Kursk was the site of maneuvers of the Russian Army, which was attended by Nicholas II. A document has been preserved that reads: "The Emperor has agreed to assign the name of the museum:" Kursk Historical, Archaeological and Handicraft Museum in memory of his Imperial Majesty's visit to the city of Kursk in 1902."
At the exhibition" Gold of the Huns " you can see objects from the burial of a warrior-rider near the village of Volnikovka, including metal parts of belt sets, weapons and horse harness. The burial ground was destroyed in 2010 by so-called "black diggers" to take valuables abroad. But law enforcement agencies stopped the crime and transferred the finds to the museum.