ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION AND MUSEUMIFICATION IN THE 20TH - EARLY 21TH CENTURY

During a massive artillery attack on the Kremlin in November 1917, the Patriarch’s Palace suffered damage; the apsides of the Twelve Apostles’ Church and the southern wall of the Refectory were destroyed. The Palace was among the first Kremlin’s buildings to be restored after 1917, so the architectural study and restoration work began.

After the decree on separation of church and state was signed in January 1918, and the decree on the abolishment of the royal court clergy was issued in March, all the employees and vestry keepers of the Synod were evicted from the Palace. All church buildings and the property of the Moscow Kremlin was nationalized the same year. In 1922, the Patriarch’s Palace, as well as the cathedrals in the Kremlin, were taken under the authority of the State Department of museums-cathedrals, which was reorganized into the ‘Kremlin Monuments’ office in 1924. In 1926, the museums-cathedrals in the Kremlin were open to visitors. All those years, the three floors of the Patriarch’s estate were under restoration; it lasted till the mid-1930s and was suspended until 1949.

The Kremlin territory was open to visitors on 20 July 1955. Guided tourist groups went sightseeing the Kremlin, visited the Armoury Chamber, the Assumption, Archangel, Annunciation cathedrals, and came up to the Tsar Bell and Tsar Cannon. But the Patriarch’s Palace was still closed, as it housed administrative departments of the Kremlin, the storage of museum pieces and conservation workshops. In fall 1955, the museum’s staff began clearing out the building from the items kept there; and the house was supplied with water heating and electricity. The first museum exposition showing the Old Muscovy artefacts was open on the first floor only in 1961. But in 1963 the museum was closed due to fixing communication lines inside the building and installing the alarm system.

In 1967, the exhibition was reopened as the Museum of Applied Art and Life Style of the 17th-century Russia. Its collection, consisting of over 800 exhibits, was still expanding. For instance, Russian metalwork was presented by pieces of silversmith from the Kremlin, as well as Moscow on the whole, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Solvychegodsk and other cities. For the first time ever, the Patriarch’s personal belongings, collections of Russian clothes and table-top clocks were presented in the exposition. The Museum of Applied Art and Life Style was closed again in1979 for a long while, under a new restoration project. The third permanent exhibition opened on the first floor of the Patriarch’s Palace in May 1987. It was based on the main collections of the Kremlin Museums, including the items of religious and secular applied art that had never been on display before. However, the second floor remained closed. At first, it was used as general storage, then it contained objects from the closed Museum of Gifts to the Soviet Union, and later a collection of unique fabrics has been kept up there.

While selecting items for the new exposition, museum curators paid attention to the name of its former owner, the existence of a hallmark or a workman's mark, important for dating the works, and, of course, its artistic value. On display are religious and secular items that belonged to Tsars, Patriarchs and famous figures; works by skilful silversmith; icons signed by famous icon-painters; handwritten and printed books. The exhibition which renders the true spirit of history is a complex display of the 17th-century architecture, interior design, as well as utensils used by Patriarchs, Tsars and the Russian nobility.

In the 2010s, the exposition was slightly modified. During repair work in 2013, several areas bearing the 17th-century painting were uncovered on the walls of the ceremonial anteroom and Administrative (Prikazniye) Chambers.

Original artefacts and the design of the display let visitors get a mental picture of the ancient capital and its impressive Kremlin that always attracted crowds of Muscovites to its squares. While immersing in contemplation of fascinating and enigmatic art pieces, miraculously preserved in the vortex of time, one can conjure up spectacular court ceremonies of the 17th century, as well as feel the spirit of the age, the most significant time in the history of Russia, which inherited traditions of previous ages and yet opened a new page in Russian culture.