Asbest Historical Museum

About museum

The museum opened in 1984 and a year later became part of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. The exhibition "History of the City of Asbest" presents interesting facts about the mineral asbestos, which was used in everyday life by the ancient Greeks, the priests of Ancient India and by Corsicans in the 17th century. The largest deposits of the mineral chrysotile asbestos in the world are concentrated around the city of Asbest. Photographs and documents reflect the start of its extraction in these places in the late 19th century and key milestones in the achievement-filled history of the 130-year-old city. In addition, the first Russian emeralds were discovered in the vicinity of the future Asbest in the early 19th century. There is no space in the Urals comparable to the "Minerals of the Bazhenov Deposit" hall, where you can see all varieties and conditions of asbestos! In the display cases the "mountain flax" (asbestos) is shown alongside mica, garnet, chalcedony, calcite and other typical Ural rocks. In the exhibition "History of Peasant Life", looking at handmade household items, you can feel like a resident of the settlement Kudelka — that was the city's name until 1928. The large and small exhibition halls and even the museum lobby host traveling exhibitions from other museums, temporary exhibitions by artists and photographers from Asbest and nearby settlements, the decorative and applied arts of local craftsmen, and private collections. These halls annually host the traditional city art exhibitions "Spring Vernissage" and "Autumn Palette".