Kunstkamera

Brief information

The Kunstkamera grew out of the purchase of the enormous Gottorp Globe: an astronomical exhibit became the occasion for the museum that Peter I conceived as a “cabinet of curiosities” and scientific rarities. That is why this place is best read not only as a collection of unusual objects, but as a deliberately arranged home for knowledge: the museum, library, Academy of Sciences, anatomical theater, observatory, and globe were connected within a single building.

The building on Vasilyevsky Island was constructed as the “Chambers of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Library, and Kunstkamera.” The eastern wing housed the museum collections, the central section the Anatomical Theater, the tower the globe and observatory, and the western section the institutions of the Academy of Sciences. This layout explains why the architecture of the Kunstkamera looks like more than just a museum shell: from the outset it shows an early attempt to bring observation, storage, and research together in one place.

What to notice right away

The main external sign is the central tiered tower with an armillary sphere. It matters not as a decoration in itself: the tower housed the Gottorp Globe, the observatory, the precise-time service, and the notional line of the Petersburg meridian. Thus the upper part of the building is directly connected with measuring the sky and time, not only with a ceremonial silhouette.

It is worth comparing the symmetrical wings with the tower in the center: this composition linked the building’s different functions along a single axis. The appearance also shows Petrine Baroque: the stepped tower, framed window surrounds, small-paned glazing, and two-color paint scheme. But the modern view is incomplete compared with the early one: after the fire, the shaped pediments, statues in niches, balustrades, ceremonial porch, pink wall color, and gilded details disappeared. The armillary sphere at the top recalls that part of the tower was restored only after its loss.