Historical and Literary Museum of the city of Pushkin

The Historical and Literary Museum of the city of Pushkin is located near the St.Catherine Cathedral in the center of the residential quarters of Tsarskoye Selo. Here you can see an exhibition dedicated to the history of the small town of Tsarskoye Selo. It began to form near the Catherine Palace, which became the summer royal residence at the end of the 18th century. 

The exposition of the historical and literary museum is located in a beautiful building, which in 1820 was built by the famous architect Vasily Stasov for the police department of Tsarskoye Selo. The building was originally two-storeyed, but in 1908 architect Danini Ambrosevich added a third floor and decorated the facade in a classical style. 

The museum was established in 1996, and at first it was called the Pushkin Museum of Local Lore. Later, an exhibition dedicated to the works of Anna Akhmatova and the poets of the Silver Age in Tsarskoye Selo appeared here. After that, the museum was named Historical and Literary.  

The main part of the exposition of the historical and literary Museum of the city of Pushkin is dedicated to the centenary from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. After Francesco Rastrelli completed the construction of the Catherine Palace, Empress Catherine made Tsarskoye Selo the summer capital of the Russian Empire. The royal family came here to live for the whole summer, and all the rich people of St. Petersburg followed them.  

Residential areas began to be actively built up to the north of the palace. They were built in the form of flat rectangles. The general plan of the city and the stages of construction are described in detail in the museum. Tsarskoye Selo flourished at the beginning of the 20th century, when from 1905 to 1917 it actually became the "small capital of the Russian Empire. After the 1905 revolution, the royal family left St. Petersburg and lived permanently in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.  

Later, other expositions were created in the Historical and Literary Museum of the city of Pushkin. A separate hall is dedicated to the movement of young scouts, which appeared in Tsarskoye Selo at the beginning of the 20th century. There are expositions "Tsarskoye Selo tavern", "Tsarskoye Selo garrison", "Walking through an ideal city", "Pushkin and Pavlovsk during the WWII".