The Vologda Historical Museum is part of the Vologda Museum-Reserve. Visiting the exhibition "Nature and History of the Vologda Region" will allow you to be acquainted with the history of Vologda from its heyday in the 16th century to sunset in the 18th century.
The History and Nature exposition of the Vologda Museum-Reserve is located in the most ancient stone buildings of the Bishop`s Court. The archbishop`s private chambers used to be located in the Simonovsky building with the Nativity Church. The Garviyilovsky Building also housed the living quarters and cells of the monks. Nowadays, the Garviyilovsky and Simonovsky buildings house the exposition "Nature and History of the Vologda Region".
In 1911, an art gallery and a museum of Local Lore opened in the Vologda Kremlin. In Soviet times, the collections of all museums and galleries were united into a single Vologda Museum-Reserve.
The city of Vologda on the Vologda River was founded in the 12th century. The official date of foundation is 1147. With the development of trade, the importance of Vologda increased. In the Middle Ages, goods were transported by navigable rivers, and the location of the city on the river allowed Vologda to become an important transit center on the Severodvinsk trade route. Vologda reached its peak in the time of Ivan the Terrible, who in 1565 made it the capital of his Oprichnina state.
Tsar Peter I visited Vologda five times. He made the city a shipbuilding center. The house of the Dutch merchant Goatman, where Peter the Great stayed during his visits, has been preserved in Vologda. In 1872, the Vologda city authorities created there the Peter I House-Museum.
After the end of the Northern War, the importance of Vologda dropped sharply. The Baltic Sea has become safe for merchant ships, and this has completely changed the geography of Russia`s trade with Europe. Vologda turned out to be on the very outskirts of the economic and trade activities of the state.
All these events are displayed in the halls of the Vologda Kremlin Historical Museum. There is also an interesting exposition of the nature department, where visitors can see the wildlife of the Vologda region, as well as its nature.
