Museum of Nature and Environmental Protection

About museum

The building of the Upper Provision Warehouse, which houses the Museum of Nature and Environmental Protection, is an architectural monument of regional significance. The Upper Provision Warehouse is one of the city's oldest stone buildings, constructed between 1809 and 1824; the architect is unknown. It was originally used to store food supplies. At the end of the 19th century it housed the 'metal shop' of merchant Zlokazov. From 1920 until the early 1980s the building accommodated the garages of the City Council executive committee. In 1987 the monument was transferred to the Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve. Restoration began in 1989, during which the covered galleries on the north and south façades were restored; forged metal doors and decorative grilles for the window openings were made according to historical models; breaches were sealed with large-format brick. In the exhibition halls the original structural elements of the building were preserved — columns and beams of centuries-old larch and masonry of large-format antique brick. In 2005 the new Museum of Nature and Environmental Protection opened its doors to its first visitors. In the museum's tenth year, 2015, its exhibition was significantly updated. Today the 'Malachite Hall' is open, celebrating the beauty of Tagil malachite and displaying its finest specimens, stone-carved and jewelry items made from this stone. The Mednorudyanskoye malachite deposit in Nizhny Tagil, the development of which began in 1814, is known worldwide. It gained fame not only because of the large quantity of malachite extracted here, but also because of its high quality. On the museum's second floor two exhibitions are on display: 'Perfection of Wondrous Facets' and 'Tagil's Stone Chronicle', which present the richness of the mineralogical collection of the Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve. The museum runs the 'Special Vault' project, within which works by the country's jewelers and stone-cutters are exhibited.