For International Museum Day

May 18, 2016

The museum is a church where artefacts created at different stages of the development of society are carefully collected and preserved. Invaluable collections of painting, interior and everyday items, sculpture, coins, manuscripts and early printed books, monuments of natural history are centuries-old heritage the value of which will only increase every year. Collecting and preserving the artefacts, museums carry out large scientific and educational work.  

An extensive network of state, municipal, school and private museums has been formed in the Kirillov district within the last decades. The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve is the only federal museum in the Vologda region; it is among the hundred largest museums of the Russian Federation. Its branch - the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes – preserves the architectural and art ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery included into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. 305 thousand people visited the museum-reserve in 2015.

The museum staff consists of art critics, historians, specialists in museum management, guides, custodians, accountants, drivers, workers, electricians and plumbers. Thanks to them, the museum exercises its main functions – collection, preservation and presentation of movable and immovable monuments. Besides, there are many people in the district who are not indifferent to the Russian history, who like their native region, take pride in the achievements of our ancestors and willingly replenish museum collections. They also make their contribution to preservation of history and are good assistants of these institutions.

On the International Museum Day, we should express gratitude to all museum employees, local historians, amateurs of history for their invaluable contribution to preservation of historical and cultural monuments.

M.N. Sharomazov, director of the Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve