Malye Korely is the Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, one of the very few places on earth where the folk art of the ancient North triumphs. The atmosphere in the museum is unforgettable. Almost one hundred and forty hectares of enduring admiration. Here, in each of the museum sectors - Dvinsky, Kargopolsky-Onega, Mezensky and Pinezhsky - architects and artists, ethnographers and restorers worked exceptionally fruitfully to revive and preserve our national heritage.
Start
The main work on the creation of the museum began in 1963, and it took ten years to wait for the opening. A major role was played by the initiative of Valentin Alekseevich Lapin, chief architect. The Arkhangelsk Specialized Production Scientific and Restoration Workshop, where he worked, brought this day closer with his whole team. Particularly interesting buildings were brought in from disassembled villages, ancient villages and villages and restored in the museum.
To explore such beauty in its entirety, tourists, artists, scientists had to travel through vast and often off-road spaces, and this is hardly possible. Now all the ancient monuments are gathered in a single ensemble, and for many centuries the historical and architectural life of the North can be seen during even a long, but one walk. The Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture "Small Korely" is amazingly beautiful. Adds charm to museum ensembles and unique picturesque nature.
Exposition
The museum got its name from the nearby settlement, where Koreles, the Finno-Finnish tribe, lived from the 12th to the 14th century. The fame came to the museum almost immediately - such a rare collection was collected on its territory.
Malye Korely, the Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, has unique monuments of wooden architecture dating back to the sixteenth century, which are of absolute ethnographic, architectural, historical and artistic value. All the local buildings are special and are often the pinnacle of carpentry art. And all the religious buildings of the museum complex - chapels, churches, belfries - the standard of wooden architecture.
Cultural heritage
Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture "Small Korely" - a member of the Association of European Museums, is included among the most valuable among the cultural objects of the peoples of the Russian Federation. And in 2012 he was awarded the "Property of the North" award in the "Enterprise of the non-production sphere" nomination.
At least 120 church and civil buildings united here in style ensembles identical to the settlements of four districts of the Arkhangelsk region, each of them has its own architectural features. The museum plans to add expositions of the Vazhsky and Pomeranian regions. Merchants and peasants' huts, wells, barns, windmills, hedges and much, much more have already been looked after. Malye Korely, the Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, will not stop there.
Reserve land
The earliest exhibits were brought from the village of Kuliga Drakovanova (bell tower of the sixteenth century), the village of Kushereka (Ascension Church) and the village of Vershina (St. George Church of the seventeenth century).
In addition to those brought to the museum, there are also native monuments: in the village of Llava, there is the Nikolsky Church in 1584, as well as an extremely rare eighteenth-century temple ensemble in the village of Nenoksa: Nikolskaya, Trinity Churches and the bell tower. The Museum of Wooden Architecture and Folk Art "Small Korely" carefully preserves these architectural monuments.
Living old
In the historical reserve zone there are museum complexes of the "Old Arkhangelsk" - "Marfin House" and "Kunitsyna Manor". Exhibition, educational, informational events are organized there, where Malye Korely, the Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, presents its activities. The manor house opened an exposition of the interior of urban houses of the early twentieth century, which presents typical classrooms typical of the middle class houses of Arkhangelsk.
The museum does not stop exhibiting all year round, for example, the rarest collections of fishing vessels of the northern peasantry are demonstrated, as well as land vehicles. The technology of tailoring carbasa (this is a sailing rowing ship that has been sailing the seas since the sixteenth century), as well as all the stages of the construction of chopped peasant buildings, are presented in an interesting way. With the opening of the tourist season - in the summer - there are additional temporary exhibitions and exhibitions.
For tourists
In addition to self-introduction to art, which the Archangel Museum of Wooden Architecture and Folk Art Malye Korely gathered together, visitors can receive a range of services individually or collectively. These are thematic, and overview, and even environmental excursions, as well as educational programs of the museum for schoolchildren. Weddings are held here with all the rites in Pomeranian traditions.
Funds of the Malye Korely Museum
The Museum of Wooden Architecture in the Russian North is very rich: there are almost twenty-six thousand objects in the funds, twenty-one thousand in the main fund, and the remaining exhibits of scientific and auxiliary significance. According to storage conditions, all items are distributed in several collections, of which ten turned out. This is painting, wood, glass, ceramics, fabrics, metal and so on. These exhibits are also divided by region of their creation. Only in the Metal collection are three and a half thousand items, and in the Fabrics collection there are even more - their number has exceeded four thousand. These collections of various utensils are the largest.
Children and youth
The pedagogical line maintained by the museum in its activities is a promising business, although it was launched not so long ago. Malye Korely, the Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, the history of the exhibits of which is quite comparable with the history of our state, organized educational, enlightening, scientific and methodological work, directing it to the formation of self-awareness of the ethnocultural plan in children and youth by incorporating cultural and historical heritage into the development process region. The sphere of educational services of the museum is expanding significantly, where pre-school institutions, schools, secondary vocational education, and higher education institutions are integrated.
Natural environment
Monuments created by northern architects are unique. But in addition, they perfectly fit into that natural landscape, the beauty of which since ancient times has delighted everyone: both guests and local residents. The vegetation on the territory of the museum-reserve also requires constant and relentless care. The beauty of the relief, vegetation, meadows, and water are constantly monitored by the museum staff.
This is the responsibility of the department for monitoring and recording the natural environment and natural landscapes. Therefore, despite the abundance of tourists in the season and all the great work with the younger generation, not only do not change for the worse, but also “Small Korely”, the Arkhangelsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, are constantly becoming more beautiful. Photos of different years clearly demonstrate this.
Mass events and exhibitions
It has already been said about the rich and extensive funds of the museum, they help to create a variety of exhibition displays. These are the features of the Pomors' living arrangements, rare architectural delights and tricks that the inhabitants of the harsh region did not shy away from in the old days, as well as various aspects of the traditional culture of our ancestors. But thematically all the expositions are connected by a single theme - this is the North.
For a year, the museum periodically holds all kinds of public events. For thirty years, museum staff painstakingly collected - crumbs to crumbs, fragment to fragment - old peasant rites. And today this work is even more widespread: time is running out, people who know the old days are becoming less and less. Ethnographic and folklore expeditions for museum staff have become almost everyday work. So the repertoire is gradually expanding, and a scientific basis for new projects is being created.