Museums and art galleries.
information about culture places in Tatarstan

There are two museums of republican significance, as well as 90 museums of local importance. In the past several years new museums appeared throughout the Republic. As all culture places, most part of them are located in Kazan - capital of Tatarstan.

Well-known museums of Tatarstan:

• National museum of Republic Tatarstan
• The literary-memorial museum of А.M. Gorky
• Museum of G.Tukay in Kazan
• Salikh Saydashev's Museum
• The Museum of Е.Boratynskyi
• Museum-apartment of Sh. Kamal
• The Museum-apartment of M. Jalil
• Memorial Museum of K. Vasiliev
• Archeological museum of Kazan University
• Geologic-mineralogical museum of Kazan State University
• B. Urmanche's Museum
• N. Zhiganov's museum - apartment
• The State Amalgamated Museum of the RT
• The ethnographic museum of Kazan University
• The Museum of the History of Communications of the RT
• Museum of Sports Glory of Tatarstan
• The Museum of National Culture at the National Cultural Center in Kazan
• The Zoological Museum of Kazan University
• Academicians Arbuzov's House-Museum

National museum of Republic Tatarstan
The museum was opened for visitors on 5 April 1895.
The private collection of Andrey Likhachev (1832-1890), who was a famous archaeologist, historian, collector in Kazan region, and the exhibits of Research & Industrial Exhibition of 1890 is assumed as a basis of exposition.
The Museum building is former Gostinniy Dvor (Trade Centre) building that is an architectural and historical monument of Russian Federation and Republic of Tatarstan. A look of the building had been forming during the 18th century and was accomplished in the end of that century.

From 1800 to 1815 the building had been erecting according to the project of F.Emelyanov Architect.
In 1895 the northwestern part of it was reconstructed (I.Kolmakov Architect).
In 1995 (100 anniversary of the museum) was restored according to the its look in 1895 (S.Kozlova Architect).
From 1981 National museum is headed by the Museum Union, that unites more than 80 museums of the Republic of Tatarstan.
In 1987 the main museum building was damaged by the fire and even nowadays it is closed for the visitors.
Only the Exhibition halls of a floor area of about 10753 square feet (1000 sq m) are open for visitors.
In October 2000 a partial reconstruction of the main building started.
The project of museum reconstruction provides a creation of an exposition at a floor area exceeding 64615 square feet (6 000 square metres).

Museum of G.Tukay in Kazan
Museum profile: Literary.
Gabdulla Tukay (1886-1913) - the Great Tatar National poet.
The museum was founded in 1984. It was opened in 1986. In 1984 the museum was affiliated to State United (National) museum of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The museum occupies two-storeyed building of former Shamil house, monument of architecture of the edge of the19th - 20th centuries. The total floor area of the museum is ~ 2359 sq. feet (719 sq meters).
The museum consists of:
exposition halls;
lecture and exhibition halls.
The State Museum of Fine Arts of Tatarstan Republic is one of the largest art museums located in the Volga river region. The Museum collection comprises nowadays over 20 thousand of exhibits including paintings, works of graphic arts, sculptures and pieces of decorative and applied arts. The Museum holds the works of the 14-19th century West-European and Eastern countries art, the 15-17th century Old Russian icon painting, the 18-20th century Russian art, Tatar folk creation, and the 19-20th century fine arts of Tatarstan.

The museum of National Culture at the National Cultural Center in Kazan
The museum of national culture was founded on the basis of Kazan branch of V.I. Lenin Central museum in 1992. The museum is also a part of NCC 'Kazan' and is located in three exposition halls of the total area of 2600 sq. m. Today, the museum is one of the most intensively developing museum associations.

Kazan University contains several splendid museums.
Zoological museum in the main building of the University. It was set up in 1938. The Ethnographic museum started as a room of antiques that appeared soon after the founding of the University. This museum has rich ethnographic collections from all over the world, including those brought to Kazan by Professor S.Simonov from his round-the-world travels with Russian explorers Bellinsgausen and Lazarev, and those contributed by the well-known scholar of the Far East, V.Arsenyev. The Geological museum was set up in 1805. It has over 100,000 samples of ores, minerals and gem stones, including emeralds, topazes, rubies, garnets, sapphires and amethysts. Many museums in Kazan started as the University collections.