The Novgorod Museum was established in 1865 to mark the millennium of the Russian state, and is one of Russia’s oldest museums.
All architectural, historic and artistic landmarks and monuments in the city were gradually transferred under the Museum’s control between 1917 and 1940.
Its collections and buildings were partially destroyed, and partially taken away to Germany during the World War II.
After the war, the Novgorod Museum was recreated from scratch, gradually expanding from a regional history museum to a combined historic conservation area and museum of national significance, entered in the register of valuable and significant elements of the cultural heritage of peoples living in Russia.
Recreated archeological, numismatic, iconography, jewelry, book, and other collections are unique not only in their own right, but also in conjunction with the tremendous architectural and landmark and landscaping complex dating from 11th – 19th centuries (the Museum manages 95 architectural landmarks and monuments), which creates a great opportunity to follow the interconnected and continuous historic and artistic development of Veliky Novgorod over a full millennium. The museum holds more than 400,000 items rated for first-tier museum keeping.
The Novgorod Museum and Historic Conservation Area can be Russia’s only museum facility which has retained all its divisions and branches from before 1991: branches in Borovichi, Chudovom Valdai, Staraya Russa, Veliky Novgorod. The combined museum/conservation facility has 36 expositions and permanent exhibitions, half of which have been rebuilt over the past 10 years (including all expositions at Russian military commander Alexander V. Suvorov’s estate museum, the church bell collection in Valdai, the North-West Front Museum in Staraya Russa, Fedor M. Dostoevsky’s house museum in Staraya Russa, Savior’s Ilyin Church in Veliky Novgorod) or have been created from scratch: expositions at the Art Museum (the Nobility Assembly); Exhibition of face and ornamental needlework from the 12th – 17th centuries (John’s Building); permanent exhibitions Saved Murals (reception area at Yaroslav’s Court), exhibitions at architectural landmarks of the Antony’s Monastery’s Birth of Mother of God Cathedral, and Theodore Stratelates on the Brook and Christmas at the Cemetary churches of Veliky Novgorod, the Museum of a County Town in Valdai, and History of N.A. Nekrasov’s Agricultural School in Chudovo.
Hours:
The main building of the museum
Mon – Sun: 10.00 – 18.00
Closed on Tuesday
Сleaning day – last Thursday.