TOBOLSK
Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve

The Tobolsk Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve (THAMR) is one of the oldest museums of Siberia. It was founded (8) on April 21, 1870 at the initiative of the Secretary of  the Tobolsk provincial statistical committee, IN Yushkova  and with the support of the governor Alexander Sologub,  what is testified in  "The magazine of the Tobolsk statistical committee №7" of 08.04.1870. Originally the Museum had no official financial support and functioned at the committee mentioned above. With the formation of the museum, the fossils of ancient animals and plants found on the territory of Western Siberia, found their place in one of the earliest collections of paleontology. In the 80-ies of the XIX century in connection with the increase of the Museum collections and the problem of their storage, the administrative power of the province made the decision to construct  the special building of the Tobolsk museum. The place for construction of the building was chosen perfectly, in the upper part of the city, near the popular place for walking and relaxing in the city - Yermak's garden.

 In the day of celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Tobolsk, June 4, 1887, the laying of the foundation of the museum took place. The building was constructed by architect Aplecheev on donations of residents of Tobolsk, and by December, 1888 was ready. In the spring of 1889 all exhibits were transported to the new room, quickly put in order and placed in five departments: natural-historical, ethnographic, archaeological, industrial and general education.

On April 10, 1889 the Museum in the new building first opened to the public becoming an independent institution, which came under the authority of the Ministry of State property. The charter of the museum approved in 1890 defined the purpose of new establishment: "a good introduction to the public history of the Tobolsk province and the development of culture in all its forms and manifestations".

Developing further, the staff of the Tobolsk museum participated in large Russian and international scientific and economic exhibitions, studied ethnographic heritage and ethnic crafts of the Tobolsk province, held his annual expedition to North Siberia. From 1893 to 1918 on the basis of the specified establishment "The year-book of the Tobolsk provincial museum" was published. After arrival to Tobolsk on October 7, 1891 of Crown Prince Nikolay Alexandrovich the provincial museum was taken under the highest patronage by the successor of the Russian throne.

During the Soviet period the Tobolsk museum was rebuilt according to the type of the local history museum set by the Soviet regime. Initially, in 1921, on the basis of the Provincial museum the museum of the Tobolsk North was created. Documents about renaming didn't remain therefore date was set according to the registered documentation of the museum.

 In 1925 the museum moved to the building of the former Bishops' house, located on the territory of the Kremlin. At the same time, the collections from the Church archives and the "Museum of fine arts", founded by the Tobolsk artist P.P. Chukomin were given to the Museum.

Also the content of activity of the museum changed: besides collecting, storage and studying of objects, the museum became the center of political propaganda. Museum rallied the local intelligentsia. There were few regular employees, and dozens of devotees dealt with issues of study of local lore. Among volunteers-local historians in the district there were many exiles.

In 1961, based on the local history museum and the objects of the Tobolsk Kremlin  the State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve was created. It consists of: The Tobolsk Kremlin — an outstanding monument of stone architecture of the XVII-XVIII centuries, a significant amount of churches of the second half of the XVIII century unique in the architectural relation, the city shaft built in the XVII century, a monument to Yermak, graves of Decembrists.

In the 60s — 70s of the XX century Tobolsk was widely based on socio-cultural opportunities of the Museum. Arriving at Tobolsk the Directors of film studios and television studios actively used the Museum to create themed movies and TV shows, artists used it for theatrical productions and creation of new motifs in works of applied art. Scientists — historians, ethnographers, archeologists found the richest material for the researches devoted to Siberia here.

By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation in 1995, Tobolsk historical and architectural Museum – reserve was included in "the List of objects of historical and a cultural heritage Federal (Russian) value". High recognition in the country was gained also by the cultural and educational project "School in the Museum" created in the Tobolsk museum in 2001. In 2003 the Museum Board of Trustees, composed of prominent public and state figures, businessmen of the Tyumen region and Russia started the activity.

In 2007, the memorial building of the former Bishop's house, was closed for restoration. In this regard, the museum exposition, which had stood for more than eighty years in the building, ceased to exist. The new stage of development of the Museum-reserve in Tobolsk, caused by the radical  changes of the conceptual solution of the exposition display focused on the maximum use of own resources began.

Today as a part of the Tobolsk historical and architectural Museum- reserve — 62 memorial objects. About 400 thousand museum objects are stored in its funds. Collections of ethnography, archeology, paleontology, hand-written and old printing books, products of applied art (among which, an art bone carving), a photo collection, a collection of the subjects belonging to the last imperial family of Romanov are the most valuable.

The area of the Tobolsk Museum-reserve is 18 hectares. The structure of the museum includes: the Palace of the Governor, the Provincial Museum, the Provincial court of justice, Scientific library, Kornilov's House, and also architectural complex “Prison castle”. In the future it is planned to open new objects of the museum, and Museum of architectural-landscape complexes.

The value of the museum as socio-cultural center of the region is high. On platforms of the museum mass cultural, scientific and educational, festive events of both the All-Russian, and international level are held. For example, on 14 July 2007 on the territory of the Tobolsk Museum-reserve the concert of Dmitri Hvorostovsky with the program "With love to Russia" in the framework of music festival "the Summer in Tobolsk Kremlin" took place.

In December, 2007 on the belltower of the Tobolsk Kremlin one of the biggest bells of our region (weight of 25 tons) cast in Voronezh as a gift to the city was lifted.

In January 2009, the opening of the main object of display — the Governor's Palace took place. In this memorial building the exposition devoted to the history of management of Siberia from its foundation till 1917 was placed. Zones of replaceable exhibition projects, communicative platforms of different levels (a congress hall, halls of a round table, service halls), the professional equipment, beauty and comfort of the palace— all this characterizes new exhibition complex — the Governor's Palace.

Summer of 2009. The art museum which was placed in the memorial building of the provincial museum changed the concept of display. As a result there was opened a new exposition "From the history of the Provincial Museum", representing the main historical sections: naturalistic, ethnographic, archaeological, paleontological, the Department of nature.

On April 8, 2011 in birthday of the museum after a three-year break in specially restored building of the main building of the Prison castle, the Scientific library of the Tobolsk museum-reserve was solemnly opened. In the same place expositions "Provincial library", "A.S. Sukhanov's Office"  were settled down.

On July 9, 2011 within the musical festival "Summer in the Tobolsk Kremlin" the Moscow theater "New Opera" presented the fantasy according to Glinka's opera and A.S. Pushkin's poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila".

In the day of celebration of the 425 anniversary of Tobolsk, on June 21, 2012, at the historical building "Tobolsk prison castle" a solemn opening of the memorial plaque to the first governor of the Siberian province  Matvey Petrovich Gagarin took place, and on October 30, 2012 on the territory of the prison castle the memorial stone in memory of the victims of Stalin’s repressions was established.

Along with this, the Tobolsk Museum is a scientific and educational institution that coordinates the activities of the tourist bureaus of the city and region concerning excursion services. The Museum staff designed the survey and thematic tours around  all the museum objects and historical monuments of the city and its surroundings. The museum regularly hosts scientific seminars and conferences devoted to the history, architecture, museology and other subjects. In 2011 the first issue of the museum magazine "Relikvarium" was published, and in 2012, especially for little readers the YuNIUM magazine was published.

Today, the Tobolsk Museum-Reserve - Museum of special purpose, having a special representative function of the city, region and country.

Founded in 1587 by group of Cossacks of Daniel Chulkov near the Chuvash Cape on a high coastal plateau, at the confluence of the Tobol and the Irtysh river. These places were inhabited before the arrival of Russian local peoples and then by the Tatars. Here on October 23, 1582 there was a decisive fight between the Yermak's group and  the Khan Kuchum’s army. In the XVII—XVIII centuries Tobolsk had a reputation of one of the largest cities of the Russian state, it was the main military, administrative, political and spiritual center of Siberia, since 1782 — the center of the Tobolsk governorship, from 1796 to 1917 — the Tobolsk province. However in the XIX century the rich and populous city, owing to movement of trade ways, gradually lost economic value.

In ancient times the peculiar topography naturally predetermined the appearance of two parts of Tobolsk — lower and upper. In the upper town, on the Cape of the Trinity, there was a fortress and Sophia Bishop's court, soon merged into the single Kremlin -the first in Siberia. Since the late seventeenth through the late nineteenth century the Kremlin was built and rebuilt in stone, constantly renewing. Simultaneously in the upper and lower suburbs were built churches and civic buildings. The main building of the lower city became the Znamensky monastery. In both parts of the city there was a main longitudinal street, a few radial, anyway  directed to the Kremlin, and several transverse. The classical re-planning of Tobolsk begun after the destructive fire of 1788 considerably modified a network of streets, but thus kept systems of architectural dominants and historically developed interrelations with the Kremlin.

The most important for Tobolsk in the town-planning and art relation is the cathedral complex with ancient Sofia Assumption Cathedral. Located in the heart of the city, the natural monumental pedestal — high Trinity Cape ensemble with a variety of completions temples, surrounded by walls and towers, dominates the whole building, giving a very unusual fantastic shapes of the surrounding landscape.established relationships with the Kremlin.

Considerable interest is represented by the stone baroque architecture of  the Posadskiy churches of the XVIII century and reached its peak in the city in   1740 — 1770s. During this period churches were built: Hristorozhdestvenskaya, Andreevskaya, Mikhailoarkhangelskaya, Bogoroditserozhdestvenskaya (Ilyinskaya), Krestovozdvizhenskaya (Pokrovsk), Sretenskaya (Pyatnitskaya), Zakharyevskaya (Voskresenskaya), Peter and Paul, Bogoyavlenskaya was reconstructed. In general space-planning composition Tobolsk churches resemble each other and are of the type Refectory "ship", widespread in Russian religious architecture of the middle and second half of the XVIII century., Especially in the northern regions. Many churches in the lower tenements have relatively high basement - first floor, where there is usually placed a warm winter areas. Under certain similarities with the temples of other regions the Tobolsk differ in a number of features which distinguish them from among similar constructions and allow to speak about existence in the middle of the XVIII century of accurately expressed local school of "the Siberian baroque". These features are manifested in a kind of symbiosis of old Russian and Baroque forms, in a markedly plastic development completions, using the figure of roofs, contrasting tiers of octagons, bearing the imprint of Ukrainian architecture, as well as in juiciness and charm of the decor. The Tyumen churches also treat a circle of monuments of the Tobolsk school, and its influence extended to all Western Siberia. the architecture of stone residential buildings of Siberia originates from Tobolsk . To the middle of the XVIII century the stone  constructions were almost unknown, except for rare metropolitan houses here. The leading type of stone construction was a cult architecture. For housing the tree was traditionally used. Only in the second half of the century, after the frequent fires, in Tobolsk the stone houses of wealthy citizens appeared: merchants Khudyakov, Volodimirova, Kornilova, Severina, Shokhin, Malkov, S., and Trenina, Kuklina, "eminent citizen kremleva", "wife of quartermaster Severyukov" and others. Not all constructions reached up to now. The part of  them was destroyed by the fire in 1788, and some ofthem were later purchased and renovated by the Treasury into public institutions (post office, chemistry…). However the remained buildings nevertheless give an idea of the common characteristic features of this type of stone construction.

Widespread type of the Tobolsk mansions of the end of XVIII — the beginning of the XIX century — the two-storeyed stone house under a high roof dissolved by the not dismembered rectangular block. "Rough" drawings of the Commission on the structure did not regulate the internal structure, so the principles of architectural composition of the early buildings were influenced by the techniques of townsmen houses of the late seventeenth century. In the external architectural decorations early Tobolsk artists followed the Baroque forms, focusing on local religious architecture where the Baroque style dominated. With carrying out postfire reconstruction and implementation of the master plan of Tobolsk in stone construction  classicism was approved for a long time. In some residential buildings its existence is marked by a mild interpretation, the use of facade stucco decoration ( Kremlev’s and Shokhin’s houses), others are marked by a greater strictness  of architectural details. From series of the standard projects of that time recommended for city building, the preference was given to mansions without orders — a special kind of buildings without columns, porticoes and volume forms on facades — with a rhythm of windows (as a rule, in seven and nine axes) and without allocation of the center. Among the public buildings of the classical period's the most significant complexes have become the Prison castle and the hospital.

The stylist directions in architecture of the second half of the XIX century were presented in  Tobolsk quite frostily. From the number of residential buildings only Kornilov's mansion is allocated with the magnificent baroque and Renaissance shape. However in some public constructions, along with examples of "brick style" and eclectic classicism, you can see the appeal to the forms of Western European medieval architecture — Romanesque and Gothic styles (the Polish Church, water tower, pumping station, state wine warehouse and others). Respectable educational buildings of the early XX century (female high school, midwifery school) represent in the town rationalistic modern. With all the significance of stone buildings the character of the historic environment largely determines the mass of wooden buildings of late XIX — early XX century. Frequently these are the houses in which elements of provincial classics are combined with traditional composition and the planning decision, houses mansions or profitable houses with its characteristic forms of decoration of facades, based mainly on the use of propyl thread and variations of several local motifs. Their concise volume construction and accented decorative eaves part attaches originality and memorable silhouette, characterize local school of architecture very well.

Throughout the history Tobolsk was the largest cultural and educational center of Siberia: here chronicles were written, the Siberia's first Slavic-and-Russian school opened, in 1705 the theater was founded, the printing house worked, the first Siberian magazine "Irtysh Turning into Ipokrena" was issued. In many ways cultural value of Tobolsk was defined by activity of exiled: in the XVII century — the Slavic publicist Yu. Krizhanich, the archpriest Habakkuk, in the XVIII—XIX centuries — A.N. Radishchev, P. A. Sumarokov, V. V. Passek; in 30 — the 50th of the XIX century — Decembrists A.P. Baryatinsky, brothers P.S. and N. S. Bobrishchev-Pushkin, F.B. Wolf, S.G. Krasnokutsky, V. K. Küchelbecker, A.M. Muravyev, P. N. Svistunov, I.A. Annenkov, N. A. Chizhov, S. M. Semenov, F.M. Bashmakov, M. A. Fonvizin and V. I. Shteyngeyl.

In Tobolsk the composer A.A. Alyabyev, the scientist D. I. Mendeleyev, the architect A. F. Kokorinov, the artist V. G. Perov were born, the Siberian cartographer, the architect and the historian S. U. Remezov, the poet and the teacher P.P. Yershov, the historian of Siberia P. A. Slovtsov, etc. lived and worked here. From August 1917 till April 1918 in this city were under arrest last Russian Emperor Nicholay II and his family. The connection with historical events and personalities are reflected in the memorial significance of many civil and religious monuments.