Amber Museum
Amber Museum
The only Amber Museum in Russia was opened in 1979. It is in the centre of Kaliningrad, on the Verkhnee (Upper) Lake shore, in a fortress tower of the 19th century. The towel was erected in 1853 and was part of the city’s defensive works. It was named after the Prussian General Friedrich Karl Dohna, a member of the war of liberation against Napoleon. The Amber Museum is that of one mineral. The permanent exhibition is located on three floors of a total area of 1000 sq. metres. As far as its content is concerned, it has two sections, the scientific as well as cultural and historical. The scientific section presents various samples by their weight, colourful gamma and degree of transparency. The permanent exhibition has the largest sun stone in Russia, it weighs 4 kg 280 g. A significant portion of the collection has the inclusions of animal and plant body remains that found themselves in the liquid and viscous resin several tens of millions years ago. They are highly valuable to update our flora and fauna knowledge as well as the climatic procedures on the earth 40 - 45 million years ago. Today, the collection of the Kaliningrad Amber Museum is the main Russian national reserve of the Baltics amber inclusives. In the cultural and historic section, jewellery and household items belonging to the epoch of neolith (IV - II centuries BC) up to the present day are presented. The lost items of the XVI century are represented by scientific reconstructions performed by Kaliningrad artisans and professionals of the restoration workshop at the State Museum and Heritage Site Tsarskoe Selo. The real value is represented by the unique works of the European artisans of the XVII century donated to the museum of the Armoury of the Moscow Kremlin in 1978. They are supplemented by the modern copies of the ancient amber items, the reconstructed fragments of the well-known Amber Room lost during the Second World War, and the original articles of the XIX – early XX centuries by Russian and European craftsmen. The museum today is one of the brightest cultural places in the city. The collection has approximately 16,000 units. The museum is visited by more than 200,000 people, with over 1,200 excursions; it holds more than 30 art exhibitions and projects.
The information obtained from the official site of the Amber Museum - www.ambermuseum.ru.