St. Petersburg is one of the best places for tourists to pick as their travel destination. During travel to Russia, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Sochi, and Kazan might be the top picks for tourists. Still, if it’s your first travel to Russia, we recommend you visit the beautiful city of St. Petersburg. One of the reasons would be the number of attractive places that you can visit during your Russia tour in St. Petersburg, including historical sites, majestic palaces, beautiful and authentic cathedrals, picturesque gardens and parks, cultural centers, and many more attractive places that you must try during your Russia tour. St. Petersburg also gives you the opportunity to experience some new and sometimes unusual things; for example, you can visit the St. Petersburg Museum of Dolls on your tour to Russia, which is not as famous as other major attractions in St. Petersburg. Still, it’s one of the places that you must visit if you have enough time during your tour to St. Petersburg.
In 1991, some of the graduates and teachers of the art and graphic faculty of the A. I. Herzen Pedagogical institute had decided to establish a puppet production, which was both entirely new and unusual for that time. Their work in that production, especially the dolls of Russian beauties, quickly gained recognition in Russia and even gained reputation abroad. When the owner of the doll production had seen the success of the work, they had decided to expand the enterprise; instead of painted plaster, the dolls were made out of porcelains and from historical figures of Russian history, including imperial figures, military persons, poets, historical figures, and ethnographic figures. The new collection of dolls called “amusing crafts” and they were officially identified as products of folk art crafts of Russia. Not a while later, the owners of the doll production had decided to open a library about the history of dolls in Russia and the world. They also gathered a collection of dolls from Russia and around the world. After a short amount of time, in 1998, Galina Nikolaevna had opened her private collection of dolls, library, and costumes under the name of the St. Petersburg Doll Museum. The St. Petersburg Museum of Dolls, with about 1000 exhibits, was opened in May 1999 inside a two-story building on Vasilievsky Island near banks of the Smolenka River. It was one of the first private museums in Russia, followed by several new examples, such as the Garage Museum in Moscow and the Erarta Museum in St. Petersburg in the following years. The new museum also had a library and a craft. The museum’s building is the oldest spiritual place in St. Petersburg, the Church of Our Lady of Smolensk. By 2014, on the 15th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Museum of Dolls, there were around 40 thousand exhibits in the collection of the museum, which made it one of the exciting places in St. Petersburg tour as well as for people who have chosen to visit St. Petersburg on their tour to Russia.
Currently, the St. Petersburg Museum of Dolls is the only museum dedicated to dolls and crafts in St. Petersburg, and it’s one of the most completed one in that matter. The museum had twelve halls, all dedicated to a different section of dolls and crafts from all ages and nations including, traditional dolls to the modern and latest designs of toys and dolls. It’s not only for amusement, but it also teaches the visitors who have decided to check out this museum on their travel to Russia, loads of things about traditional ceremonies, costumes, festivals, and everything people need to know about people and traditions of Eastern Slavs. Besides that, visitors can also see dolls that represent characters of fairytales, literature, and even actors. The museum has about 15 halls, permanent and temporary, in which visitors can see various types of dolls, including Russian dolls, theatre dolls, fairytales characters, traditional dolls, Petersburg history, and many more aspects of Russian and world history. Among the significant 5000 collections of dolls in the museum, tourists will see contemporary dolls as well as antiques and traditional dolls; the dolls that have been used in theatre and acting performances; souvenir dolls, such as Matryoshka, and many other forms of dolls. There are also theatre decorations, costumes, and set designs in the museum. Besides the dolls, there is also a library that people can learn about the history of dolls in the world and Russia. There are also several workshops held in the museum, which teach people to design dolls, create simple puppets, and many more techniques in crafting. This museum is one of the places that if you have enough time on your tour to Russia, you should visit, especially because it locates on Vasilievsky Island, which houses many more major attractions of St. Petersburg on the Russia tour.
If you have plans to visit Russia any time soon, we at the Star Travel Group would suggest that you visit our weblog, because as one of the top Russia tour operators, we have gathered lots of valuable information about travel to Russia. You can learn about the top Russia attractive places that you should visit, especially during a trip to St. Petersburg since it has loads of major and less-famous attractions. We have also introduced our top pick of shopping centers in St. Petersburg as well as Moscow because it may come to you as a shock, but Russia is one of the top countries in Europe for shopping enthusiasts. If you want to know about traditional Russian cuisine and which ones are the best to try during your travel to Russia, we have covered that matter as well. Besides those, you can learn about our tips and pieces of advice on our weblog, since visiting Russia for the first time can be a challenge, especially if you don’t travel the world often.
