Suvorov Museum

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Suvorov Military Museum was scored to resemble a medieval Russian fortress.
Suvorov Military Museum was scored to resemble a medieval Russian fortress.

Suvorov Memorial Museum (Russian: Музей Суворова) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is a military museum dedicated to the memory of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov (1729-1800). It was founded in 1900 to commemorate the centenary of Suvorov's death and was inaugurated four years later, on the 175th anniversary of Suvorov's birth, with much pageantry, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II.

In 1904, the museum moved into the present building, purpose-built to a flamboyant design by Alexander von Hohen in a dramatic Russian Revival style. The building's austere outlook derives primarily from medieval Muscovite military architecture. Apart from the Suvorov family coat of arms and signs of military glory, the facade displays two mosaics representing "Suvorov Leaving Russia for Italy in 1799" and "Suvorov Crossing the Alps".

The museum's collections, exceeding 100,000 items in 2002, were acquired through purchase and private donations. The Communist authorities had the museum closed down in 1919 and the collections were dispersed to other museums. In the 1930s, the building housed the AeroMuseum. During the Siege of Leningrad, it was damaged by a bomb.

Ironically, it was during the WWII that the cult of Suvorov was restored in the Soviet military. As a consequence, the museum building was renovated in 1950 and resumed its activity the following year. The latest restoration was undertaken in 1995-2000.

[edit] Further reading

  • Музей А. В. Суворова: Путеводитель. Л., 1954;
  • Охотников И. В. Музей А. В. Суворова. Л., 1969;
  • Меерович Г. И. Музей А. В. Суворова: Историко-краеведческий очерк. Л., 1981.

[edit] External links

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