The Rybinsk City Museum is located in the most luxurious building in Rybinsk – the New Grain Exchange, built in 1912. Its full name is the State Historical, Architectural and Art City Museum of Rybinsk. Here you can see an exhibition dedicated to the history of Rybinsk. The museum also has a collection of paintings by many famous Russian artists.
Rybinsk owes its wealth to the New Grain Exchange. Thanks to the Mariinsky Water System, it became possible to supply large quantities of grain by water from the Lower Volga regions to St. Petersburg, and from its port to European countries. The city of Rybinsk became a key hub in this system, since grain could be transported along the Volga on large-sized barges to Rybinsk. After Rybinsk on the Volga and Sheksna, the fairways of the rivers became shallow, which required transshipment of grain onto small flat-bottomed barges.
In 1811, Rybinsk merchants built a Grain exchange on the embankment, where grain transactions were carried out. Merchants from the Volga region sold large quantities of grain to Rybinsk merchants and they carried it further in small batches. By the end of the 19th century, multimillions transactions were being made on the Rybinsk Grain Exchange, as Russia became the largest grain exporter in the world. In 1912, its share in world grain exports reached 22%.
The new building of the Grain Exchange had to be built at the beginning of the 20th century, since the old Grain Exchange could not accommodate all the merchants who carried out transactions. A huge foundation was laid for the New Rybinsk Grain Exchange, which raised the exchange building 20 meters higher, to the level of Red Square.
The building of the New Grain Exchange was built according to the project of the Moscow architect Alexander Ivanov in the Russian terem style. The main building of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair was built in the same style. After 1917, the exchange building was transferred to the Rybinsk City Museum.
In the historical exposition of the Rybinsk City Museum there are expositions: the nature of the Rybinsk Region, the ancient history of the Rybinsk Region, geology and minerals, folk crafts and peasant life, the history of the Mariinsky water system. The museum has exhibits from the flood zone of the Rybinsk reservoir. A large exposition in the original interiors is dedicated to the work of the Grain Exchange.
The art part of the Rybinsk City Museum is devoted to painting. It is located in the large operating room of the exchange. Russian artists such as Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Ge and others can be seen here. There is a collection of icons here, as well as paintings of the 20th century.
