Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MMUSSEUUM
TOY MUSEUM
(
Музей игрушки
; nab reki Karpovki 32; 11am-6pm Tue-Sun; Petrogradskaya)
Since
1997, this privately run museum has been collecting toys from all over Russia and
presenting them in three sections - folk toys, factory toys and artisanal toys.
Examples of the latter include toys made in Sergiev Posad, home of the ubiquitous
matryoshka
(nesting doll), a creation often assumed to be far older than it is, being
created for the first time only in the 19th century. The Toy Museum is charming and
often has very interesting temporary exhibitions too.
YELIZAROV MUSEUM
(
Музей
-
квартира Елизаровых
; ul Lenina 52, flat 24; adult/student R200/100;
11am-4pm Mon-Tue & Thu-Sat; Chkalovskaya)
This unique building (known locally as
the 'boat house' due to its uncanny similarities externally to a large cruise liner) was
built in 1913 at the height of St Petersburg's lust for Style Moderne. It would other-
wise be unremarkable were it not for the fact that Lenin's wife's family lived here and
the great revolutionary himself laid low here before the revolution while organising
the workers.
MMUSSEUUM
The flat's delightful turn-of-the-20th-century fittings have been preserved intact,
and by the look of things, Lenin had a very bourgeois time of it. See the bathroom,
where Vladimir Ilyich had a daily splash and the telephone that today still bears Len-
in's home phone number. Tap in 24 at the front door and then go up the stairs to the
3rd floor when you're buzzed in.
MMUSSEUUM
PETERSBURG AVANT-GARDE MUSEUM
(
Музея петербургского авангарда
; ul Professora Popova 10; adult/student R70/50;
11am-6pm Mon & Thu-Sun, 11am-5pm Tue; Petrogradskaya)
Also known as the House of
Matyushin, this small museum occupies a charming grey-painted wooden cottage dat-
ing from the mid-19th century that was once the home of avant-garde artist Mikhail
Matyushin (1861-1934). Displays relating to Matyushin's work and that of his coterie
can be found inside.
