Exhibition "Save and Preserve. The History of the Creation of the Architectural Details Collection of the State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg"

About exhibition

The exhibition presents the holdings of the architectural details collection of the State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg: decorative elements of facades and interiors of Petersburg buildings from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century. The formation of the architectural details collection is inextricably linked to the inevitable process of restructuring and destruction of the city's architectural fabric that has accompanied the entire history of Saint Petersburg. The material way to record the vanishing architecture is the museification of its elements, to the extent permitted by the scale of this art form. The largest assemblage of architectural elements is kept at the Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg, where years of devoted work have produced a unique collection. A large part of the collection was formed in the 1970s–1980s during the collecting efforts of employees of the Architecture Sector of the Department of City History of the State Museum of the History of Leningrad. During that period there was a large-scale phase of rebuilding the buildings in the historic centre of Leningrad as part of extensive major repairs. The exhibition displays more than 80 works from the museum's holdings, which is only a small part of the unique collection. The selection, however, presents the collection comprehensively, demonstrating a variety of typologies of the holdings — from facade stucco and sculpture to stained glass and marble fireplaces.