National Museum

The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan is the largest scientific research institution in the republic; it is of the national importance. The museum was opened in 1895 and its first name was the Kazan City Scientific and Industrial Museum. Now it occupies the beautiful building of the former Gostiny Dvor, which is a monument of architecture and history of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan.

Most of the exposition consists of the private collection of A.Likhachev, a well-known archaeologist, historian, collector of the Republic. You also find here the exhibits from the scientific and industrial exhibition of the year 1890. The museum possesses more than 780 thousand items. The museum is situated in the building of the former Kazan Gostiny Dvor, which is a monument of architecture and history of federal significance. It was first constructed in the XIX century, afterwards it was rebuilt several times, and the modern interesting architectural look was formed after the reconstruction in the 1990s.

Now the funds of the museum possess more than 805 400 items that are connected with the history of the Republic and have the great value for studying the history of the peoples of the Volga and the Urals regions.

The funds of the museum are:

• The Archeological Fund – 246,000 items
• The fund of material sources (including a collection of porcelain and faience) – 12,200 items
• Ethnographic Fund – 15,000 items
• Fund of precious metals – 4,000 items
• Weapons Fund – more than 900 items
• Numismatics fund – 110 000 items
• Fund of Written Sources – 130,000 items
• The Archive of Figures of the Tatar Culture – 30 000 items
• Fund of Rare Books – 22,000 items
• The Fine Arts Fund – 74,000 items
• PhotoFund – 40 000 items
• Fund of negatives – 42 000 items
• Natural History Fund – more than 7,000 items

The most precious collections of the museum are the following:
• Bulgar collection of AF Likhachev – 3100 items
• A collection of excavations of the Ananya tombs – 800 items
• The stellas of the Novo-Mordovian tombs – 3 items
• Egyptian collection – 250 items
• Antique collection – 420 items
• Collection of gold coins – 401 items
• Collection of ancient volumes of the XVII century – more than 20 items
• Collection of hand-written books of the XV-XX centuries – 88 items
• Eastern numismatic collection – about 90 000 items
• Collection of memorial things of Tatar writers and poets – 20 items
• Collection of arts and crafts of Tatar people – 3500 items
• Memorial collection of G. Derzhavin – 8 items
• Colibri Collection – 36 items
• Collection of American passerines – 41 items
• A collection of monuments of historical taxidermy – more than 150 items

Address: Kremlyovskaya Street, House 2