Georg Johann Mattarnovy, a Prussian architect, designed the present building. The foundation stone was laid in 1719 and it was completed in 1727, when the museum moved in. A separate building became necessary after the acquisitions of 1716 and 1717 from Albertus Seba and Frederik Ruysch. The museum dates its founding to 1714, and the article marks the claim that it was Russia's first public museum as needing a citation.
The article calls it a turreted Petrine Baroque building and a surviving example of that style. An armillary sphere crowns the spire, which it calls particularly notable. The building stands on Universitetskaya Embankment, facing the Winter Palace. It gives no dimensions.
It houses nearly 2,000,000 items. The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography was established in 1879, and the name Peter the Great Museum dates from 1903. Pushkin House occupied rooms in the building from 1905 to 1927.
Comments