Exhibitions
6+Kizhi: message from heaven
Kolomenskoe
February 29 — June 2, 2024
Tue. - Thu., Sun. 10:00-18:00
bldg 69, 39 Prospekt Andropova, Small Exhibition Hall, Palace of Tsar Alexey Romanov, Entrance 3
Kolomenskoe Museum-Reserve opens the Kizhi: Message from Heaven exhibition at the Palace of Tsar Alexey Romanov. The display will bring together unique ‘celestial icons’ originating from chapels located on northern Lake Onega islands and now making part of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve collection and Kolomenskoe Museum exhibits illustrating such art phenomena as wooden architecture and North Russian church art in particular.
The first of the four thematic exhibition sections will be dedicated to the lost celestial icons of the famous Transfiguration Church built on the Kizhi Island in 1714. In North Russian wooden churches, a special ceiling construction was traditionally known as the ‘heavens’. It consists of several parts, each one composed as an individual painting, but all following one design conception. ‘Heavens’ have been known in Northern Russia since the XVII century. The exhibition is centered on a wooden architecture masterpiece lost during the World War II, the story of its rediscovery which is worth a detective writer’s attention and a detailed account of its restoration presently carried out by the Kizhi Museum-Reserve experts.
The second section goes more thoroughly into the traditional wooden architecture of the Northern regions. Russian wooden churches make an important part of this architectural trend. The museum collection items chosen for display vividly illustrate its particular traits. By the way, the Kizhi Pogost (churchyard), a gem of the Russian wooden church architecture that includes the Transfiguration church, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The third section will feature icons coming from Karelia and the neighboring Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions and showing saints that are most revered in Northern Russia.
The final section focuses on the open-air Museum of Wooden Architecture, the only one in Moscow, located within the Kolomenskoe Museum grounds. It was conceived and created by Peter Baranovsky, architect and restorer. The idea came to him on his travels to Northern Russia in the 1920s. Many of the local examples of wooden architecture he came across were rather worn-out, and some on the edge of destruction so that their transportation to Moscow meant salvation. The present-day Museum of Wooden Architecture comprises five XVI and XVII century buildings brought to Kolomenskoe after scientific expeditions to Northern Russia and Siberia, viz. Church of Great Martyr St. George the Victorious, Mokhovaya (Moss) Tower of the Suma Stockaded Fort, Passage Gate Tower of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery, Tower of Bratsk Stockaded Fort and a service building known as Mead Brewery.