Nerchinsk Local History Museum

About museum

The Nerchinsk Local History Museum was founded in 1886 by the political exile A. K. Kuznetsov and is the oldest museum in Zabaykalsky Krai. It was highly praised by many famous visitors, including the heir to the Russian throne, Nicholas, but later went through a series of setbacks: the buildings housing it changed, and its collections were looted and destroyed. In 1938 the museum was moved to the Resurrection Cathedral, where it remained until 2003. It was then relocated to the Merchant M. D. Butin's Palace, a federally significant architectural monument. The museum has many notable exhibits, including mirrors by Saint-Gobain and a stained-glass window by F. K. Zettler. Today the museum is an important cultural institution of Siberia and the Russian Far East, with more than 40,000 storage units and carrying out sociocultural projects in the Nerchinsk district.