Exhibition «Gostiny Dvory: Labyrinth of History»

About exhibition

Gostiny Dvory is a unique monument of Russia’s historical and architectural heritage and, for Arkhangelsk, one of the city’s symbols. The monument’s history is rich but complicated due to the absence of original drawings and the many reconstructions and alterations it has undergone. Successive eras changed it, leaving little of its original appearance. Equally complex is the history of its functional use, because the building housed numerous institutions, services and organizations. These two aspects of the historical and architectural complex’s biography have created a true labyrinth in which every “nook” preserves unique pages of history not only of the monument but of Arkhangelsk as well. The new exhibition is a guide through this labyrinth. For the first time, plans of the building and of its individual parts will be displayed, along with photographs from the A.V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture and the State Archive of the Arkhangelsk Region; items from archaeological excavations carried out over the years on the site of the historical and architectural complex will be presented, as well as a collection of photographs of the facades and interiors of Gostiny Dvory from the 1970s–1980s.