16 best museums in Yekaterinburg – list, photo, description, prices 2021, map
Ekaterinburg, being the Ural capital of Russia, is the largest industrial center, but at the same time continues to attract many tourists, thanks to the Ural rock, Bazhov's tales, outstanding playwrights of our time, and the country's best conservatories. But the museums of Yekaterinburg will also be able to interest those who come to this city, as acquaintance with them will allow you to see it from sometimes unexpected angles.
Yeltsin Center
Initially, this center was organized as a non-profit socio-political organization, which was supposed to cultivate the idea of building a state of law, studying the institution of presidency within the country. Gradually, it was re-profiled, taking as a basis the numerous materials left by Boris Yeltsin. Their study and subsequent presentation of the funds of the center takes place in the format of understanding the political and social phenomena of the nineties. There is also a thematic library.
Hygiene Museum
The idea of creating such an institution did not arise spontaneously. Interest in this topic in the eyes of the public appeared after the international hygienic exhibition in Brussels, where, among other things, Russian exhibits were presented, which caused a lively response from the European public. The museum was officially opened in 1919, taking the Brussels exhibits as a basis, and also generously supplementing them thanks to the efforts of doctors and orderlies interested in popularizing this problem among the population. During the World Wars, the building was badly damaged, but it was restored and even received new premises.
Museum “Drum House“
A cozy log homestead is actually a unique site that has no analogues. The museum-theater, whose profile varies within more than two hundred drums from fifteen countries of the world, is original. Its main feature is interactivity. All local excursions are fully theatrical.
The museum-theater is designed in such a way that the guest, passing through its halls, not only learns something new about the cultural space of a certain country, but also independently tries to play – or rather “tap” – the rhythm in which the colors of a particular culture pulsate. For example, in the African Hall you will have to pick up maracas and African drums, the East Corner will please you with Chinese bells, amazing Tibetan singing bowls and even Indian kartals.
You can get a special pleasure when you find yourself in the Slavic Upper Room, where you can plunge into childhood and remember how rattles and Russian spoons sound. Another popular location is the Musical Planetarium, which is called “Cosmos”. Here we are not talking about spatial, but about temporal specifics: bell drums, theremin and other instruments, the sound of which expresses the pulsation of modernity, are guaranteed to interest. An evening here will definitely help you let go of negativity and leave stress behind the threshold.
Museum of the History of Circus Art
It is simply impossible not to notice the building – it is located on the territory of the main circus arena of the city. The Yekaterinburg State Circus is located a short walk from the Geological station, which makes it even more attractive in the eyes of tourists who come to the city without a guide. The fund is multifaceted. For the most part, it is represented by real circus props, without which all those enchanting numbers that were forever inscribed in the history of circus art would not have been possible.
All props are divided into funds in accordance with the type of performance in which they were used. The opportunity to touch the exhibits is especially pleasing to children. Many artists, theatergoers, writers and sculptors come here in search of inspiration. And they find it. It also stores materials on the history of the building itself, as well as the circus activities of Soviet artists who conquered Asia and Europe more than once.
The collection of posters is noteworthy, whose bright colors have not faded to this day. In addition to the exhibition halls themselves, the tour program also includes a tour of a number of circus premises that are working. You may be lucky enough to see a troupe rehearsal or feeding animals. A library with unique thematic materials of the last three centuries has been opened.
Museum of military equipment
This military-historical complex is one of the five largest in Russia, successfully competing with similar sites in Moscow, the Northern capital and Saratov. “The Battle Glory of the Urals” – this is the name of this complex. It is located in the city of Verkhnyaya Pyshma not far from Yekaterinburg itself. The opening of the site is connected with the initiative of several veterans who received material support from the Uralelectromed plant. It took a little more than ten years to compile the collections, but the efforts paid off – today there are about two hundred pieces of military equipment here.
Not dummies, but real fighting vehicles that brought glory to their country. A point of special pride is the collection of rare cars that patrons would gladly repurchase for private collections. Military regalia and awards from various periods make up another room. Of course, various types of edged and firearms were also not deprived of attention. Self-propelled guns, tanks, helicopters – all this is in the open air.
Newton Science Park
This science amusement park will be of interest to children and adults, who will also be able to discover something new about the work of various body systems, as well as about anatomy and biology in general. There are about sixty exhibits that are interactive. What is Newton Bio? It's creative – both the creators of this place and its guests.
Here you can really “see” exactly how certain odors affect the human brain, literally “highlighting” various areas of neuron clusters. The study of the model of the pupil, its structure will allow you to look at the world through the “gap”, because, in fact, this is how a person perceives reality. The chemical composition of the human body – what could be more banal and boring?
No, it's fascinating and completely understandable if you take the trouble to take a closer look at the bizarre exhibit, which was assembled from soap, nails and matches. In the science park, you can also compete with the whole world without leaving your room. Thus, it is possible to compare such parameters of a person and other biological organisms as the loudness of a cry, the force of a blow, the length of a jump, etc.
House of the Agafurovs
The revolution of 1917 destroyed many things, including the richest merchants of the Urals – the Agafurov family, whose dynasty of hereditary merchants has been stretching since the middle of the nineteenth century. The founder of the dynasty traded goods that were relevant at that time – tobacco and fruits. The business approach quickly made him a name and gave him the right to receive the title of merchant of the second guild. Gradually the business expanded. The shelves now crowded not only exotic fruits, but also gold, silver, perfumes, watches, stationery, elite hunting goods, and the counters themselves were scattered across Tyumen, Moscow and even Warsaw.
It is not surprising that such a wealthy family preferred to live no less richly. Two mansions survived from them in Yekaterinburg, which did not even require reconstruction. Wooden carvings, powerful stone foundations, oriental motifs, an abundance of Muslim symbols, hidden treasures (a gold ingot was found in one of the hiding places) – while everything was being built from stone, the Agafurovs chose wood. And, as it turned out, they did not fail with this.
Museum of the History of Medicine
A squat building made of dark red brick is a rather simple, but, nevertheless, an interesting place in the Ural capital. It opened at the end of the twentieth century. In some way, the opening of this complex was inevitable – historically, it so happened that in this part of the Urals, the zemstvo doctor was usually the main person in the city. Today, materials covering the history of medicine in this region are stored here.
The exposition dedicated to the pharmaceutical business is extremely interesting, not only from a purely scientific, but also from a folk standpoint: the history of local herbalism and the names of the most famous healers of the Urals. There is also a hall with authentic medical equipment. Some devices cause bewilderment, others – laughter, others – horror. After all, medicine has long been a game with death. Most of the employees are medical professionals by profession and have previously practiced. No wonder they speak so confidently about the specifics of their work and are always open to questions.
Label Museum
The beginning of the second millennium was marked by the discovery of this unique project. The very first exhibition clearly demonstrated the history of the label in the twentieth century. The organizers wanted not only to demonstrate samples of visual advertising from various periods, but also to highlight the features of the graphic culture of the Soviet Union, and then Russia, as well as to popularize national traditions in the field of advertising.
Perhaps only here you can see with your own eyes such a volume of various labels, packaging, leaflets, booklets, ads created in the Urals. You can visually track the trends in the development of graphic strategies in the design of goods of the widest profile: from perfumery to food products. Some western samples of labels from the same period are also stored here.
Museum of the Holy Royal Family
The atmosphere of this place is rather oppressive. In many ways, the effect is created by the location itself – the courtyard of the Church on the Blood, where the family of Nicholas II was shot during the revolutionary years, later canonized. Many unique relics and personal belongings of those killed are stored here. The path that these artifacts have traveled was sometimes really long. So, some of them were delivered from Australia, where some white officers fled at one time.
Others were discovered in the Ipatiev house back in the twentieth century. Part of the fund is only now. For example, recently Tamara Ventura, the daughter of one of the former officers, transferred some of the things of the royal family into the hands of the diocese. The monarch's napkin, the crown prince’s blanket, numerous letters from the emperor’s sister, perfume bottles that have not evaporated even after so many years, diaries and the icon of the Iberian Mother of God, which was delivered to the Urals from Jerusalem itself.
Election History Museum
A rather original museum of electoral and political culture was opened quite recently – in 2008. It is difficult to immediately imagine what exactly can be seen in such a museum – it has a rather unusual profile, but more than fifty thousand storage units are dedicated to the history of elections in the following countries: Canada, Russia, USA, Great Britain, etc. Among the materials: leaflets, program documents, various documentation, campaign videos, posters, election souvenirs. Particularly much effort has gone into creating a hall that has represented the US electoral system since 1844.
Cinema Museum
This complex was opened on the basis of the Sverdlovsk film studio, where the first film was shot already in the last war years – “Queen of Czardas” or “Silva”. The film was based on an operetta by Imre Kalman. Later, the film studio was significantly expanded – the Novosibirsk studio and the local newsreel studio were added to it. So gradually her organization was burdened with a wide profile, numerous awards and eminent luminaries. Here are the numerous costumes that appeared on the screens. Guests will be introduced to the tricks of their creation and even helped to try them on.
A special point of the program is work with make-up, which even in those days made it possible to shoot amazingly natural scenes with minions of Satan, mythical creatures and guests from the future. The practical part of the tour includes scoring the film and creating animation with your own hands. Who is ready to give up the opportunity to forever remain in the history of the cinema of the Urals?
Museum “Nevyansk Icon”
This is the first private project in all of Russia, which is an unusually rich collection of Old Believer icon painting, most of which belongs to the eighteenth century. It is named after the largest icon, which today occupies the entire second floor. Many artifacts were unsuitable for display, as they needed almost complete restoration. Even now, no more than half of the collected samples are in the halls – all the rest are still in the hands of the masters, who return them to their historical features.
Many works of eminent Ural icon painters are stored here: Metelev, Brusilovsky, Sazhaev. Crosses, samples of wooden sculpture, salaries and books will be of interest not only to people of deep faith, but also to those who are keenly interested in the art forms traditional for old Russia. After all, their religious component has always been one of the most powerful pillars of culture.
Museum of Vladimir Vysotsky
This complex impresses with its authenticity. The creators did not waste money on trifles such as letters, although they are presented more than fully, but they tried to recreate entire pages from the life of this outstanding person. The silver-lilac Mercedes is already legendary, the reconstruction of the unremarkable Soviet kitchen of the seventies, where Vysotsky spent time, painfully habitable and supposedly warm, the room of the Bolshoi Ural Hotel, on the contrary, smells of universality.
Painted walls, a Finnish refrigerator from an apartment on Malaya Gruzinskaya, a checkerboard-tiled floor, a samovar, a rotary telephone, a Chinese thermos, traditions on the windowsill, a novel-newspaper – from such light strokes an image cast in wax emerges – an amazing fake is frighteningly spiritualized and doomed. Another exhibit is a payphone, it is worth picking up the phone and the song “07” will sound.
Museum “Wonderland”
Located in the Literary Quarter of the Ural capital. It is located in the house where Mamin-Sibiryak's family lived in the past century. The house did not belong to them – they just rented a room here. This house is considered to be perhaps the rarest example of Russian wooden architecture in the style of classicism. It repeats the appearance of buildings that were erected in the eighteenth century – with carved platbands and sheathed with boards. The museum courtyard is lined with large slabs. They were brought from the ancient streets of Yekaterinburg, when perestroika began there.
The exhibits consist of a massive collection of dolls side by side with the illustrated children's books they match. Excursion material is organized in such a way that literary works come to life in tiny man-made figures. Thematic exhibitions of puppets and marionettes from all over the world are often held here.
Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg
It occupies three ancient buildings, which are located in the historical part of the city. The main building is really worthy of its status: at different times there was an apartment building, a noble estate, a hotel. Initially, it became the location of the house-museum of Sverdlov, whose name sounds very loud in the Urals, but then at the end of the twentieth century it was reorganized. The expositions highlight such components of the city's history as its founding as a “mountain kingdom”, Tatishchev and Gennin – the founding fathers, legends of the city, local traditions, the Peasant War of the eighteenth century, the emblems of the city and its lost monuments.