14 Kozlov val Street, Vladimir, tel.: +7 4922 32-54-51.
The Old Vladimir exposition is situated in the building of a former water tower, at a short distance from the Golden Gates. The water tower, which was built in 1912 as a part of the city's public water supply system, has long lost its original utilitarian function. Currently, the tower hosts the original exhibition that tells about the city of Vladimir in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Without making a claim to fully cover the life of what was then the administrative centre of a governorate (guberniya), the exhibition shows the everyday flow of the city life and reconstructs the atmosphere of old Vladimir that includes urban commoners, civil servants and merchants. In order to emphasise the colour of the epoch, the following has been reconstructed: a room of a well-to-do city dweller, a church shop, and a police station, an inn featuring a traditional samovar, painted trays, many bottles and carafes. The role of explanatory texts is played by authentic excerpts from books, newspapers and magazines of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Vladimir journalists tell us about the city, sometimes seriously and sometimes humorously.
The exhibition occupies the ground, first and second floors, while the third floor offers an observation deck. The exhibition room of the ground floor contains photographs and postcards of the late 19th and early 20th centuries depicting streets, squares, ancient cathedrals and churches and some public buildings of Vladimir that provide an idea of the city's image; documents on municipal services, on activities of the city government (uprava), on the construction of the first water supply system, on the first power plant and on the fire brigade. The room also displays clothes worn by city dwellers of various social estates.
The exhibition of the first floor introduces the inhabitants of the city. The stands present photographs of nobility, merchants, clergy, urban commoners, raznochintsy ("people of miscellaneous ranks"), military people, and civil servants of various agencies. Documents on traditional occupations of the city dwellers (the cabman business and gardening) are on display. Among the exhibits, there are awards received by kitchen gardeners of Vladimir from Russian agricultural exhibitions, watches of cabmen and sleigh-bells. The attention of visitors will be attracted by vivid, diverse advertisements of trading companies as well as of hotels, restaurants, inns, photographer's parlours, hairdresser's shops and other businesses of Vladimir. The third-floor exhibition room is dedicated to the spiritual life of the city dwellers. According to a contemporary, "Vladimir is one of the most religious places in Russia: here one may find many holy legends, wonder-working icons, relics, prayers and ancient churches." The stands present photographs of Vladimir's monasteries and religious processions in the main street of the city.
Among the exhibits, there are materials about various educational institutions of Vladimir: the boys' gymnasium, the girls' gymnasium, the seminary and the non-classical secondary school (Realschule). The construction of the Vladimir Trade School, one of the best in Russia, was funded by the art patrons Maltsovs, the owners of the Gus Crystal Production Plant.
At the exhibition, one may find concert and recital advertisements and newspapers that used to be published in Vladimir.
Theatre bills of 1901 give an idea of the Vladimir's theatre repertoire. On its stage, plays by Aleksandr Ostrovsky and Nikolay Gogol were performed, but vaudevilles were most often.
The life of Vladimir as the centre of a governorate was lively and diverse, constantly changing and, in many ways, similar to the life of other Russian cities. A contemporary wrote, "The city of Vladimir is one of the most typical representatives of the Russian urban life. In Holy Russia, there are not so many cities like Saint Petersburg and Moscow, while there is a legion of cities like Vladimir."
Having seen the exhibition, visitors may climb the observation deck. It offers a picturesque panorama of the far-away lands beyond the Klyazma River as well as of the city that concentrates many architectural monuments within a small area, the 12th century white-stone cathedrals being the most noticeable.
The State Tretyakov Gallery is one of the greatest museums in the world. It is fabulously popular. Every year hundreds of thousands of people come to the quite Lavrushinsky Lane, situated in one of the oldest districts of Moscow — Zamoskvorechye, to see the Gallery's treasuries.
The Gallery's collection consists entirely of Russian fine art and ...
The country estate Arkhangelskoye is a wonderful monument of Russian culture from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. The estate is widely known for sublime beauty of the palace and park ensemble and its splendid collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, pieces of applied art, and also rare books.
In 1820s, the Arkhan...
The Moscow Zoo has come a long way from small zoological gardens to a large scientific, cultural, educational, and nature-oriented organization.
The Zoo (then called the Moscow Zoological Gardens) was founded by the Russian Imperial Society for Plant and Animal Acclimatization in the middle of the XIX century. On the 13th February, 1864, it was ...
WorldWalk.info
en
info@worldwalk.info