The Chambers of the Romanov Boyars is a museum in Zaryadye, in the very center of Moscow, which is a branch of. It is the only one where the patriarchal life of the aristocracy of the pre-Petrine era has been preserved. Here, in an old boyar estate, according to legend, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the founder of a new royal dynasty in Rus', was born in 1596.
The chambers themselves are an architectural monument of the 15th century, which in the 19th century, by order of Tsar Alexander II, became one of the first museums in the capital. The architecture of the building is unusual - it is three-story, and each subsequent floor is smaller than the previous one. The museum collections contain household items of those years and ancient weapons. The building consists of several rooms: a vestibule, a chamber for meals, a boyar's business room, and a room for girls. In the underground part of the chambers there is another museum - an archaeological one, where there is an archaic pottery workshop typical of Moscow in the 15th century.
The Museum of the “Chambers of the Romanov Boyars” refutes the usual ideas about such institutions. Once a week there is a theatrical performance that completely breaks the stereotypes about small museums.
The chambers of the Romanov boyars are dedicated to everyday life. When hearing this word, many people immediately associate it with something ordinary and boring. But the whole “salt” is that the life here is shown not modern, but of the 17th century. Oddly enough, the main values human life have not changed at all since then - and now, as then, for the absolute and overwhelming number of people, the most important thing was not gold and silver, but the well-being of the family, as they used to say in those days, harmony in the house.
It is these family values, in the ancient manner, that the museum “Chambers of the Romanov Boyars” is dedicated to. A prosperous family needs a home, and a good owner needs a faithful wife. Everyone should have their own occupation, the husband should serve the Emperor and the Fatherland, and the wife’s task should be to maintain order in the house. Visitors to the exhibition will see how this was performed in those ancient times. At the same time, they will be told available historical details that will shed light on established, but no longer entirely clear, to modern man figures of speech such as “working carelessly”, a cry for help “Guard!”, the expression “walk as a trump card” and the meaning of the name “Zaryadye”.
Then the most exciting action begins. Guests are invited to the main room - the chambers, where they meet the housekeeper, trying to appease the brownie. She allows visitors to enter the house. First they are taken to the basement, which in the old days served as a giant refrigerator. Here guests are cordially treated to homemade liqueur. Giving guests water is very unusual and not typical for museums. But here the exception to the rule is the house of a noble boyar, and in houses in Rus', poor and rich, it has always been customary to treat guests to the best.
Then visitors go to the most guarded room of the house, where the boyar treasury lay. The word “treasury” then meant not only banknotes and jewelry, but also military ammunition, expensive clothes, furs, dishes - everything that in pre-Petrine times was called the word “junk.” A handsome young boyar runs into the room, preparing for a military campaign and grieving that he did not have time to woo the sweet hawthorn. All scenes show the usual friendly dialogues of those years, they are conducted taking into account historical facts, which, thanks to such presentation, are easily remembered and digested by the audience. The decoration of the chambers consists of genuine antique objects, which also has a positive effect on perception and memory.
Then everyone goes up the ornate staircase to the women's part of the house. There, young beauties, fashionistas and talkers passionately discuss their outfits. They find out what looks more beautiful, satin or brocade, and advise each other how to make their eyebrows blacker, their lips redder, and their cheeks rosy. In the room, the youngsters get to work on needlework, simultaneously marveling at overseas wonders: a terrible monster with two tails (an elephant) and a drink that smells like hayloft (tea).
Precisely recreated interiors of pre-Petrine times make the “Chamber of the Romanov Boyars” museum unique. There is no other one like it anywhere in the world; it is one of the best museums on the planet - this was recognized in 1998 at the European International Forum.
- The ancestral estate of the Romanov boyars(chambers of the 15th–17th centuries) were recreated in the 19th century at the direction of Alexander I, which was the first scientific restoration in Moscow.
- The museum presents authentic historical exhibits: weapons of the 16th–17th centuries, books, engravings, writing instruments, chests and other items.
- This is the only museum in Russia, introducing visitors to all aspects of the patriarchal life of the Moscow boyars of the 16th-17th centuries.
- Due to the nature of the building, the presence of visitors with It is not possible for children or wheelchairs.
- At the moment the museum is closed for repair and restoration work.
The Museum “Chambers of the Romanov Boyars” is located near the Kremlin, in a historical building - chambers of the 15th–17th centuries. It is part of a unique medieval architectural ensemble on. It is believed that it was in these chambers that the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, was born. The museum premises display thematic exhibitions and reconstructions dedicated to the life of the former inhabitants of the estate. The museum seems to have been transported from the 16th to the 21st centuries, and it is worth visiting for everyone who is interested in the history of Russia.
About the museum
The ancestral estate of the Romanov boyars was recreated in the 19th century. at the direction of Emperor Alexander I, after which all Russian emperors, ending with Nicholas II, visited these chambers to bow to the memory of their ancestors. Under the leadership of the architect F. F. Richter, restoration work was carried out, as a result of which the chambers were returned to the original appearance of a rich boyar's house of the 16th–17th centuries. And in 1859, a museum was opened in the chambers. Both the lost architectural elements and the interiors of the building were recreated: tiled stoves, a wooden upper room, a “boyar’s office,” a “refectory chamber,” etc. The work carried out by F. F. Richter became the first case of scientific restoration of a building in Moscow.
Currently, the Romanov chambers are again decorated with family symbols of the dynasty: on the northern and eastern facades, the Romanov family coat of arms - a griffin (architect A. V. Chernousov) has been recreated.
Authentic historical exhibits give the museum a unique character. Here you can see authentic weapons (arquelas, spears, sabers) of the 16th–17th centuries, chests, books and engravings, writing instruments, household items (furniture, clothing, fabrics, jewelry, children's toys, silverware). Thematic exhibitions dedicated to different aspects of the life of the former inhabitants of the estate are presented. Thus, in the boyar’s office there are objects that tell about the owner’s level of education, his hobbies and service at court, in the “maid’s room” - about the occupations of women of the 16th–17th centuries: weaving, embroidery, raising children. The refectory chamber will give you an idea of the traditions of hospitality and feasts in the era of medieval Rus'. In the exhibition you can also see genuine silver dishes from the collection of the State Historical Museum. The walls of the refectory are covered with brocade fabric, recreated from surviving examples of the 19th century. The walls of the chambers, covered with brocade and leather wallpaper, bear the coats of arms and monograms of the boyar family.
In the basement there is a reconstruction of a traditional Russian stove and items related to household use of the 16th–17th centuries. A real 16th-century cooking stove, found during archaeological excavations in Zaryadye, can be seen in the underground part of the museum complex. Archaeological monuments of the 12th–16th centuries are also presented there, which will tell about the Moscow Zaryadye district and the estate of the Romanov boyars in different periods history.
History of the Romanov Chambers
The main chambers “in the upper cellars,” which date back to the 15th–17th centuries, have survived to this day. They repeatedly suffered from Moscow fires and were rebuilt. In these chambers the first king of the world was born. 
Romanov Dynasty - Mikhail Fedorovich. At the age of 16, he was elected to the throne, thereby beginning a 300-year dynasty. It was from these chambers that Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva, the first wife and mother of Fyodor Ioannovich, the last tsar from the Rurik dynasty, came from.
Initially, in the 15th century, this place was the site of the farmstead of the Khovrin merchants, who built a white-stone basement for storing expensive goods, and the first manor buildings. Later, the Yuryev-Romanov boyars became the owners, under whom the farmstead became a vast estate - stone chambers appeared with numerous courtyard buildings, glaciers and barns. The boyars were interested Western culture and maintained relations with their English neighbors who lived on the island, and in addition, collected Western books. The connection with Western culture and the high level of education of this family at that time were also reflected in the museum’s exhibition. In the 17th century Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich ordered the foundation of a monastery on the site of the family estate in honor of the family shrine - the Icon of the Sign Holy Mother of God. And the abbot of the monastery was housed in the chambers.
Next to the Kremlin, in the eastern direction, is located one of the oldest districts of Moscow, Zaryadye, which received its name back in the 16th century due to the fact that it was located “behind the rows” of retail shops. It is there that you can see a peculiar three-story building with a high hipped roof– the estate of the Romanov boyars, which is part of the “Chambers in Zaryadye” complex.
It also includes several churches and temples. The House of Romanov is divided into two parts - male and female. There are storage rooms in the basements. The interior of the estate is represented by authentic objects of the 17th century, from which one can judge the culture and life of the Russian nobility of that time.
The foundation of the chambers is considered to be the end of the 15th century, because the chambers were marked on the first map of Moscow in 1597. The estate was built by Nikita Romanovich, whose father, Roman Yuryevich, began the dynasty of Russian tsars Romanov, brother of Anastasia, the wife of Ivan the Terrible, grandfather of Mikhail Fedorovich, the first Russian sovereign Romanov. Alas, only the basement, the construction of which dates back to the 16th century, has survived to this day in its original form.
In 1571, Nikita Romanovich's house is believed to have suffered from a fire accompanying the Devlet-Girey invasion, like the entire city. And ten years later, the owner of the chambers was disgraced by Ivan the Terrible, who sent archers to him to plunder his fortune, depriving him of shelter. Left in complete poverty, Nikita Romanovich resorted to the help of his English neighbors, with whom he supported good relationship during its prosperity. Ivan the Terrible nevertheless returned favor to his wife’s relative and, being near death, appointed Nikita Romanovich as an advisor to his son, reigning Fyodor Ivanovich.
Having inherited the estate, Fyodor Nikitich, being on good terms with his cousin Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, brought the courtyard into good condition. According to legend, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich was born here. During the time of Boris Godunov, the Romanovs, being contenders for the royal throne, again fell out of favor. Fyodor Nikitich was imprisoned in 1599 and then forcibly tonsured a monk, receiving the name Filaret. Despite the fact that Filaret Nikitich lived for some time in Moscow under the impostors, as a monk, he could not be in his house.
After the election of Mikhail Fedorovich as sovereign, who occupied the Kremlin chambers, the estate was revived and became known as the “Old Sovereign’s Court.” At that time, no one lived in the wards, although there was Archpriest Jacob and two priests at the Church of the Sign. After the tsar’s mother, nun Marfa Ivanovna, died, he created a decree on the Znamensky Monastery, to which the tsar’s estates and lands, in particular the family estate, should go. Thanks to the efforts of the monastery inhabitants, two brick floors were built in the basements - a residential one, with heavy vaulted ceilings, and a basement. In addition to the two buildings that were the chambers of the Romanovs, wooden cells and a hospital were built.
In 1668, the Znamensky Monastery and the estate were damaged during a fire, which was reported to Alexei Mikhailovich, who reigned at that time. The house was dismantled down to the basement and in its place, thanks to the efforts of master Meletiy Alekseev, a new stone building with a porch was built, which today is a museum. From 1679 to 1752, the chambers housed the monastery administration and treasure storage. In 1737, another fire occurred, so the state cells were moved to another place, and in 1752 the Georgian Metropolitan Athanasius began to live in the estate with his entourage, who stayed there for 10 years. From then until 1856, due to the poverty of the monastery, the chambers were rented out. After the capital was moved to St. Petersburg, the condition of the estate and the monastery itself left much to be desired.
Only in the middle of the 19th century did Emperor Alexander II decide to establish a museum in the family estate, which was called the “House of the Romanov Boyars.” All layers that appeared during the lease were removed, the estate was measured and restored. Thanks to historical analogues, court architect F.F. Richter recreated the upper wooden floor and added a porch. The rooms were decorated with tiled stoves, and expensive brocade with royal monograms appeared on the walls, which partially survive to this day.
After the revolution, the estate received the name “Museum of Old Russian Life,” which preserved authentic objects of bygone antiquity. The chamber received the status of a branch of the State Historical Museum in 1932. A unique find was discovered on the territory of the estate - a pottery workshop of the 15th-17th centuries and about 500 clay objects, including toys, tiles, and fragments of dishes.
The chambers represent a Russian hut in classic style in the shape of the letter "G". The outside walls of the hut are decorated with window frames, cornices, and corner semi-columns. Inside, there are small rooms with low vaulted ceilings, thick walls and stoves. The decoration of the rooms corresponds to the interior of the 17th century.
The largest room is the boyar dining room, intended for lunches, feasts, and receiving guests. The windows of the room look out onto Varvarka Street. In the corner of the room there was a table at which people sat in accordance with their official positions: the most honored guests sat near the owners of the estate, less noble ones - on the opposite side. Hands could be washed in a kumgan (washbasin) using a basin. The room contains five armchairs, which was rare in Russian houses, wooden benches, and caskets upholstered with slotted iron. The dining room is also decorated with foreign objects: a Swedish chandelier, Turkish velvet shelf holders, a cabinet with mica doors, the lower doors of which are decorated with paintings.
The windows of the boyar's office adjacent to the dining room overlook the courtyard. The room was a place of leisure and conduct of business for the owner of the house. The room contains chairs, an armchair, a bench and a table with writing utensils, above which an icon hangs. In the room you can see books bound in leather, located in a chest-terem, an Amsterdam globe, a work of art from 1642, a portrait of T. Gramotin, dating back to XVII century and a picture. The walls are upholstered in cloth and gilded Flemish leather, a particularly exquisite decoration for the 17th century. The stove is decorated with green glazed patterns, on which historical subjects, fairy tales and everyday scenes are depicted in relief.
To get to another part of the house, you need to go through the landing. The first room from the site is the canopy, which was used as “sleeping closets” and places to store things necessary for everyday life. In the room there are boxes, boxes and caskets with lace and fabrics. The wall niches are decorated with kokoshniks and a drum with bobbins and splinters. From the entryway you can go into the light room, the women's room. The room is bright with three windows. The room especially conveys the essence of the life of women of the 17th century. The interior of the room is furnished with items related to sewing: hoops with samples of ornamental sewing, a chest containing sewing. The wall is decorated with an embroidered shroud depicting Jesus Christ. In the room you can also see a folding mirror, boxes for fabrics, a casket for jewelry, and a bench covered with velvet.
The 16th-century cellar, which has survived to this day, is accessible via an internal staircase. There are chests for valuables and money, various clothes and shoes, cutlery, and iron lights. Special attention attracted by armor, horse attire, cold and firearms, with whom the boyar served his military service.
All these sights, which are priceless objects of art, are presented in an interesting way to museum visitors. Guests and residents of the capital will enjoy a theatrical excursion with a detailed story about the life of the nobles of the 17th century, as well as songs and treats.
Address: 121345, Moscow, st. Varvarka, 10, Kitay-Gorod metro station
Opening hours:
Mon., Thu., Fri., Sat., Sun. - from 10.00 to 18.00, ticket office until 17.00
Wed - from 11.00 to 19.00, ticket office until 18.00
Tuesday - day off
The first Monday of every month is sanitary day
The Romanov Chambers are located in Zaryadye, a district of Moscow located “behind the rows” of retail shops, east of the Kremlin, between Varvarka Street, which in Soviet times was named after Razin, and the Moscow River. It received its name in the 16th century. The Romanov Chambers in Zaryadye are the only building remaining from the large estate of the Romanov boyars.
The complex includes ancient chambers, a cathedral with gilded domes, churches, a battlemented fortress wall—eleven buildings of various purposes and styles from the 16th–18th centuries. This is a huge museum of ancient Russian architecture under open air. Previously, next to it there was a huge building of the Rossiya Hotel.
In the area adjacent to Red Square, among the buildings of old and new Moscow, on Varvarka Street, building 10, there is a unique three-story building topped with a high hipped roof, each floor of which decreases in size as it rises in height. These are the Chambers of the 16th-17th centuries, a branch of the State Historical Museum, “Chambers in Zaryadye”.
Varvarka and Zaryadye with the chambers of the Romanov boyars in the 19th century
There are several churches on the territory of the complex, although there were even more of them before the revolution. Among them are the Church of the Great Martyr Barbara, after which the street was named, the Cathedral of the Znamensky Monastery, the churches of St. Maximus the Blessed and St. George on Pskov Hill, as well as the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist with a chapel in honor of Clement, Pope of Rome, on Varvarskaya Square. Also located here are probably the oldest surviving buildings in the city - the Old English Court and the Chambers of the Romanov Boyars. The architectural ensemble is completed by the battlemented fortress wall of Kitay-Gorod.
The wards are divided into two halves - male and female. On the ground floor, the men's half, the interiors are presented: “Dining Chamber”, “Boyar’s Office”, “Library”, “Elder Sons’ Room”. On the second floor, women's half, "Seni", "Boyaryna's Room", "Svetlitsa". The basements contain storage rooms. The interiors of the ancient Chambers convey the originality of Russian life and culture of the 17th century. The interiors and furnishings of the rooms are made up mainly of authentic objects of the 17th century: tiled stoves, silver and enamel-painted dishes, sewing, women's jewelry, chests, boxes, furniture, beautiful paintings on the walls.
A. P. Ryabushkin, “The sitting of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich with the boyars in his sovereign room.” 1893. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The white stone building of the chambers was once part of a vast city courtyard. According to scientists, the founding of the estate dates back to the end of the 16th century - it is already indicated in the foreground of Moscow in 1597. According to legend, here, on July 12, 1596, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the founder of the new royal dynasty, was born.
Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov
The estate itself, from the 16th century, belonged to his grandfather - Nikita Romanovich Zakharyev-Yuryev, the son of the same Roman Yuryevich, who gave rise to the dynasty of Russian Tsars Romanov, brother of Anastasia Romanova, who became the wife of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, grandfather of the first reigning Romanov - Mikhail Fedorovich . The building itself, unfortunately, has not reached us in its original form. But the deep white stone basement, built in the 16th century, has been preserved. The Chambers themselves at one time belonged to the monastery courtyard, and were subsequently repeatedly subjected to fire and looting.
During the reign of Boris Godunov, the Romanovs, as the most likely contenders for the Russian throne, fell into disgrace. In 1599, Fyodor Nikitich was imprisoned and then forcibly tonsured a monk under the name of Philaret. Since that time, the Chambers have remained ownerless. And, despite the fact that Filaret Nikitich was with the impostors in Moscow, he did not live for a long time and, being a monk, did not live in his house.
The estate was once extensive, and occupied a prominent place in the topography of Moscow in the 16th century. It was even specially noted on the city plan of 1613. In the corner of the estate there was then another building - “Chambers in the upper cellars”; it was probably one of the auxiliary buildings of the estate, which arose gradually in connection with the growth of family household needs. The main living quarters of the Romanov boyar family were the more extensive “Chambers in the Lower Cellars,” which stood in the center of the estate.
On May 3, 1626, in Moscow, there was a fire that devastated the city. The raging fire did not spare the Sovereign's Court either. After the fire, Varvarskaya Street was expanded. The revival of the court began only after the election of Mikhail Fedorovich to the Russian throne. The new Sovereign settled in the royal chambers in the Kremlin, which is why the house became known as “The Old Sovereign’s Court, on the Varvarsky Sacrum or at Varvara Mountain.” By this time, at the Znamenskaya Church in the sovereign’s courtyard, there was already Archpriest Jacob with two priests and a third chapel and other clergy. The royal chambers themselves were hardly occupied by anyone.
On September 24, 1631, after the death of his mother, nun Marfa Ivanovna, Mikhail Fedorovich signed royal decree on the founding of the Znamensky Monastery, and with a charter dated November 1, 1631, he endowed the monastery with the former royal populated estates and lands behind it, as well as the Chambers themselves, together with the entire estate - the “Old Sovereign's Courtyard”, which became an integral part of the monastery. The monastery, on white stone basements, built two floors of brick - the basement and the first residential floor with heavy vaulted ceilings. In addition to the two buildings that directly comprised the Romanov chambers, wooden cells and a hospital were also built. The entire area of the monastery was partially surrounded by a lattice fence, but mostly by a palisade.
During the fire of 1668, the Znamensky Monastery was severely damaged, about which a report and petition was submitted to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The Chambers themselves were also badly damaged, and in 1674 they were dismantled for a “cellar vault” (basement). On the site of the preserved white stone foundation of the 16th century. master Melety Alekseev “and his comrades” built new Chambers with a porch in stone - the current first and second floors of the museum branch. In 1675-1679, the rebuilt building served as cells for monks. And in 1679-1752. - “state cells” (monastery administration), which were considered the first place in the monastery after the temples of God, since the monastery administration was located in them and jewelry was kept.
Fedor III Alekseevich. Beauty (Artist - K.E. Makovsky)
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Tsarevich Fyodor Alekseevich, declared heir to the throne after the death of his elder brother Alexei, was in very poor health, like all the sons of Alexei Mikhailovich from Maria Miloslavskaya. Since childhood, he suffered from many diseases, including paralysis and scurvy. It so happened that he became king after the death of his father, at the age of fourteen. The Miloslavskys, who had faded into the background during the life of Alexei Mikhailovich and his young wife Natalya Naryshkina, perked up. The older sisters helped Fedor as best they could. The young tsar, like all the children of Alexei Mikhailovich, was very well educated and was interested in European politics. At meetings of the Boyar Duma, reviews of the Western press (chimes) compiled in the Ambassadorial Prikaz were read to him and the boyars. The king was fond of music and singing. |
In 1680, Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich (grandson of Mikhail Fedorovich), after his wedding to Agafya Grushetskaya (July 28, 1680), began building new wooden mansions, both for himself and for his wife, Agafya Grushetskaya, and for his sisters, larger and lesser princesses. His mansions were placed near the tower, near the western wall of the Resurrection Terem Church; Natalya Kirillovna’s mansion was also moved here.
In 1737, the monastery and chambers were again subjected to fire. In the first half of the 18th century, the state cells from the chambers were transferred to another place, and the Georgian Metropolitan Athanasius, along with his staff, lived in the chambers. He lived in them for ten years, from 1752 to 1762, which is why the chambers were called bishops' chambers. From 1752 to 1856, the building was rented to various persons.
House of the Romanov boyars in 1857 (before restoration).
Facades: courtyard and from the Varvarka side.
Already in 1857, the building began to bear the status of a historical monument. This was served by the appearance in the middle of the 19th century. interest in ancient monuments, including this building, as directly related to the Romanov family. Emperor Alexander II established the House of the Romanov Boyars Museum on his ancestral estate, one of the first museums in Moscow. The chambers were purchased from the monastery, cleared of later deposits, carefully measured and restored.
The ensemble project was developed by the court architect F. F. Richter, who used historical analogues in his work. The idea of the founders of the museum was that it was supposed to recreate the everyday environment of the ancestors of the Russian Tsar. The restoration was carried out in 1857-1858.
The completely lost upper wooden floor was built on in the form of a tower with a high roof, and a porch was added. Rich tiled stoves were installed in the rooms, parquet was laid, and the walls were covered with expensive brocade with royal monograms. This upholstery has been partially preserved today. The rooms also contained silver and enamels-painted dishes, sewing, women's jewelry, chests, boxes, furniture, and the walls were decorated with beautiful paintings. And, although the building was built as part of a monastery, a legend composed in the 1850s by court circles began to call it the birthplace of Tsar Mikhail Romanov.
Living quarters were small rooms with heavy vaulted ceilings and were intended for men. In addition to the common “refectory”, where the family dined and received guests, there is a “boyar’s office” and a “room for the eldest sons” with an extensive library and “ teaching aids": astrolabe, telescope, geographical maps. Women were assigned to the upper wooden floor, which was called the tower.
Here, on the contrary, there are large and spacious rooms, illuminated by many windows. The brightest of the rooms, the light room, was intended for doing handicrafts. In the women's quarter there was also large number books, mirrors, various feminine accessories: boxes and caskets for blush, whitewash and surmil, earrings, rings, fans, as well as materials for all kinds of handicrafts. The boyar's daughter worked on the spinning wheel or hoop along with her maids.
In those days, a girl was ashamed to get married without learning to sew, spin and embroider. The bride had to make her dowry with her own hands. Only after getting married did the noblewoman become the full-fledged mistress of the house. And, although she was not privy to her husband’s trade or government affairs, she often had a decisive voice in the household.
Chess of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in the Chambers of the Romanov Boyars
After the revolution of 1917, the “Museum of Old Russian Life”, or “Museum of Boyar Life”, was opened in the museum, preserving authentic objects from long ago. The museum has been partially rebuilt.
Since 1932 it has been a branch of the State Historical Museum. A unique wooden structure was discovered on the territory of the museum - three crowns of a log house, columns supporting its base, fragments of Russian stove masonry, as well as a necropolis from the 16th century. The most interesting and important find is an industrial complex of the late 15th-17th centuries with two simultaneously operating kilns - a pottery workshop. Clay toys, fragments of dishes, tiles—about 500 items in total—were discovered near the forges.
The branch building consists of three parts, divided into different historical segments: the boyar storeroom of the 16th century, the monastic cells of the 17th century. and the museum superstructure of the 19th century. The chambers retained the classic type of Russian hut, consisting of a “cage” (living space) and a “podklet” (utility room).
They were built, as is typical for most Russian houses of the 17th century, in the form of the letter “G”. On the outside, the walls have decorative decoration from the 17th century, window frames, cornices, and semi-columns at the corners. Inside the tower there are small rooms, low, vaulted ceilings, thick walls, doors, windows and stoves with rounded tops. Two rooms in the basement and four rooms on the second floor of the building are decorated in the interiors of a boyar's house characteristic of that time. The decoration of the rooms consists mainly of original objects from the 17th century.
In the interior
Boyarskaya dining room- the largest of the rooms, with windows facing the street. Varvarka. This is the room where the family gathered for dinner. Feasts were held here, sometimes of an official nature, and guests were received.
In the very corner there is a table, the order of seats at which was observed according to the custom of “localism” - distribution official positions on the basis of nobility: the most noble guests sat near the host, the less noble - at the opposite end of the table.
Next to the table is a small table with a kumgan (washbasin) and a bowl (tub) - accessories for washing hands during the feast. The spacious dining room has five armchairs, which were rare in a Russian house in the 17th century. There are many traditional benches along the walls and table. The shops will show off different types and the size of wooden caskets, upholstered with slotted iron, with lids elegantly painted on the inside. There is a stand against the wall, which looks like a slide with ledges, on which tableware is placed.
Also in the dining room are exhibited foreign objects indicating the development of trade relations Russia with East and West. Among them are a Swedish chandelier, Turkish velvet shelves, a German engraving, a framed portrait of the boyar T. Streshnev (at that time portraits were just coming into use and only a small circle of the nobility could afford them), a cabinet with mica doors, a figured pediment, and decorated painted in the form of large tulips, lower doors.
The room adjacent to the dining room is decorated as boyar's office. Its windows face the courtyard. The room presents the everyday atmosphere of household chores and served for the leisure of the head of the house. Under the icon there is a desk with writing materials.
Near the table there is an armchair, a bench and two chairs. Also in the room there is a chest-terem with leather-bound books, a Dutch globe made in Amsterdam in 1642, and a portrait of a Russian diplomat of the 17th century. and Duma clerk I.T. Gramotin and the painting “The Siege of Smolensk by Polish-Lithuanian troops in 1610.”
Two walls of the room are covered with cloth and two more with gilded Flanders leather, which was considered in those days to be a particularly exquisite decoration. Near the entrance door there is a stove made of green glazed tiles, with relief images of historical subjects, fairy tales and everyday scenes (“Alexander the Great”, “The Nightingale the Robber”, “Fighters Are Fighting” and others).
The passage to the other half of the house, consisting of two rooms, passes through the landing of the stairs. The first room from the staircase is decorated in the form of a vestibule, which served in boyar houses both as “sleeping closets” and as storage places for necessary equipment. everyday life things. Around the room on benches there are caskets, boxes and boxes containing lace and fabrics. In the wall niches there are kokoshniks (women's hats) and a drum with bobbins and splinters. From here, from the entryway, there is an entrance to the women’s room, a small room with windows on three sides.
This is the location women's room, behind the porch, in an isolated part of the house, best conveys characteristic features women's life in the 17th century The only entertainment for a woman of that time (unless, of course, she could read) was sewing, which filled her leisure time.
Accordingly, the main furnishings of the interior of the room are items related to sewing: a hoop containing samples of ornamental sewing, a chest containing sewing, and on the wall there is an embroidered shroud with the image of Christ in the tomb (Shroud). In addition, in the room there is a mirror with doors, “boxes” and a casket for fabrics and jewelry, a wide bench covered with velvet, on which there is a headrest - a casket with a beveled top, which at night was placed at the head of the bed, under the pillow.
Further, from the living rooms, an internal staircase leads to the 16th century basement, which once belonged to the boyar Nikita Romanovich. In the basement there are chests for money and valuables, fabrics, clothes and shoes, iron lights, and dishes. In addition, items that remind you of military service boyar, who was obliged to come to war with his own weapons and on his horse - bladed weapons and firearms, armor and horse harness.
Coat of arms on the Romanov Chambers
The coat of arms of the Romanovs - with the image of a griffin - was located on the facade of the museum above front door northern façade from Varvarki Street. “In Soviet times, the niche was filled up, the griffin was removed, and the further fate of this monument is not known. During restoration work 1984-1991. the niche has been revealed. Its purpose was discovered as a result of work in the archives. We found a number of little-known projects by F. F. Richter and a photograph from 1913, which depicts Emperor Nicholas II against the backdrop of the northern façade of the chambers, with a griffin clearly visible above the entrance.”
In 2008, the descendants of F. F. Richter - the Chernov-Richter family and Paul Edward Kulikovsky, a descendant of the sister of Nicholas II, financially helped to reconstruct these two reliefs depicting heraldic griffins on the facades of the building
Kondratiev I.K. “The Gray Old Man of Moscow.”
Kondratiev I.K. “Architectural monuments of Moscow.”
Chamber Museum in Zaryadye (Moscow, Russia) - exhibitions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.
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The Chambers in Zaryadye Museum is located near the Kremlin in the center of Moscow. This is the only building that has survived from the large estate of the Romanov boyars. In the 19th century, by decree of Emperor Alexander, one of the first museums in Moscow, the “House of the Romanov Boyars,” was opened in the chambers.
The Romanov Chambers is a three-story building, two floors of which are made of stone and the top one is made of wood. Due to the difference in terrain, only top floor, all three floors open only from the courtyard.
Unlike most modern house-museums, which bore visitors with the monotony of their exhibitions, this museum has an amazing atmosphere of patriarchal Rus', and the variety of its exhibitions will not leave even the most demanding visitor disappointed.
Museum exposition
According to the tradition of that time, the chambers are divided into a male half, occupying the entire first floor, in which are located:
The “dining room” is the largest room on the first floor, where all the expensive dishes that appeared only at dinner parties are displayed on the table to show the wealth of the owners of the house. In the corner there is an original cupboard with mica doors.
The boyar's office, surprising with leather wallpaper covering all the walls of the room.
The library, which is connected by a separate entrance to the boyar’s office. Here the most valuable things were kept in large chests - books. The museum displays authentic tomes dating back four hundred years, including books on military affairs and the first book of the Old Testament.
Chamber Museum in Zaryadye
Upon reaching the age of six, the sons were taken from the women's half of the house to the men's, where they were equipped with a “room for the eldest sons.” Here children received an education that, in addition to learning to write and read, also included geography, as evidenced by the large floor globe located right in the room.
A special pleasure for visitors who have modern ideas about our “ flat earth", consider a globe on which some countries are not yet marked and the ocean is almost unexplored.
Only from the boyar's room and the room of the eldest sons can one, along a narrow, narrow staircase (leaving an unforgettable impression), reach the upper, wooden floor - the women's half of the house. Contrary to popular belief and fiction, describing the gloomy medieval ways of life of a woman, the third floor is surprisingly bright and cozy. It consists of:
The entryway is a small room where items from the noblewoman’s wardrobe are now displayed.
The noblewoman's rooms with a child's corner and the bright room - the brightest room of the house, where the noblewoman with her daughters or maids did needlework.
It is noteworthy that in each room of the chambers there is a red corner with icons. Having visited all the floors of the museum, you can go down to the basement-storerooms of the house, where the original stone masonry of the floors has been preserved and chests with the owners’ supplies from coins to cannons and rifles are displayed.
If desired, the museum can use the services of experienced guides (maximum group of 25 people), who, like guides through time, immerse visitors in the atmosphere of four hundred years ago. Next to the museum is the English Court and the English Embassy, which Catherine II herself visited.
Museum coordinates
Address: Moscow, st. Varvarka, 10
Directions: st. m. "China-Gorod"
Opening hours: Every day - from 10:00 - 18:00, on Wednesday from 11:00 - 19:00, closed on Tuesday.
Admission: Adults 350 RUB, schoolchildren 150 RUB, full-time students 150 RUB, pensioners 150 RUB.
Website: www.shm.ru Prices on the page are indicated as of November 2018.