Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve

About museum

Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve is the calling card of Vologda Oblast. It has been included in the State Register of Particularly Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage of the Russian Federation since 1997. The museum houses excellent collections of Old Russian painting, liturgical and ornamental embroidery, manuscript and early printed books, archaeology, and decorative-applied and folk arts. It comprises the architectural ensemble of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the Ferapontov Monastery (1398), which has been under UNESCO protection since 2000, and the wooden Church of Elijah the Prophet (1775). It was included in the World Heritage list thanks to the wonderfully preserved unique frescoes by the Moscow painter Dionisy, who decorated the Nativity of the Theotokos Cathedral in the early 16th century.