What is a museum of death? Is this a place where people come for vivid impressions or in order to learn something new? Or visitors to such an unusual exhibition - people who dream of touching something transcendent? It is not customary to talk openly about death. However, there is still a place where they will tell a lot about it with enthusiasm. This is a museum of death in St. Petersburg.
Why exactly Peter?
Many find that the opening of such a rather gloomy exhibition in this city is symbolic. Indeed, St. Petersburg is rarely sunny and welcoming; this city is usually gloomy and sad. Such a mood was often noted in their writings by philosophers, writers and painters painted the word with paints.
In 2013, a death museum was opened in this city. A little later, in 2014, a similar gloomy exhibition appeared in Moscow on Novy Arbat. Interestingly, the founder and curator of both museums was Alexander Donskoy - the former mayor of Arkhangelsk. No less remarkable is the fact that this serious and handsome-looking man bequeathed to bury himself in a coffin in the form of a fish. Why so? The costs of the profession make themselves felt, because Alexander Donskoy expressed this desire already after they opened the death museums.
Such an extraordinary wish of the founder of the two exhibitions gives reason to believe that these seemingly gloomy exhibitions are not really so serious. Is it so?
Museum of the Death Mission
Until 2013, Alexander Donskoy had other scandalous projects behind him. So, he opened a museum of erotica and a museum of power. The latter was safely closed at the insistence of the authorities of St. Petersburg. His new project was criticized, which even many citizens considered too scandalous.
Alexander Donskoy himself commented on this attitude as follows: this project was not created in order to become a kind of dark cult in the future or to promote suicide among young residents of St. Petersburg. The Museum of Death is actually a place where everyone can come, fearing that there is beyond. And he will leave here already without his former mystical fears.
Agree, the mission is quite serious. And although many exhibits of this museum may seem strange or even cause a smile, in fact, in the funerary cultures of other countries, a serious and reverent attitude remains towards them. So what is the exposition of this museum?
Exposition Description
The Death Museum is located in the basement of the house on Nevsky Prospect and occupies four rooms. They maintain an appropriate theme atmosphere. No, it would be wrong to call it an atmosphere of horror or fear, but you can rightly call it ominous.
In the first room, guests are greeted with skeletons dressed in mourning robes. These are the local bride and groom - symbols of the fact that no one has canceled the oath of eternal fidelity. In the same room, funeral masks brought from different parts of the world are also represented. A sad angel is looking indifferently from his shelf at the viewer. He seemed to know what awaits us all there, beyond the last line.
The next two rooms are smaller. They collected colorful skulls, among which you can even find inlaid with semiprecious stones. There are a variety of tombstones, and even unusual and strange coffins from African Ghana. The exhibits exhibited in these halls give a visual representation of how funeral rites are held in different parts of the world.
The last hall tells about the ritual traditions of the East. This is where the spirit of death from Hong Kong lives. Immediately in his glass tomb lies a skeleton dressed in a samurai costume.
There are special exhibits in the museum that enjoy the increased attention of the public.
The most photogenic exhibits
In this museum you can see an unusual picture. A power-law couple, husband and wife, can suddenly, for no reason at all, get into the coffin in order to be photographed in it. Yes, yes, a special coffin is installed here for these purposes, and, by the way, some visitors just in order to capture themselves for a long memory in such an unusual atmosphere, and come to the museum of death. Photo is really not prohibited to take. Only dim lighting sometimes does not contribute completely to this occupation.
From this gloomy museum you can bring photos even with Death itself. She meets guests in the corridor between the halls and also very often gets on the photo.
Impressions of People Visiting the Museum of Death
What are the people talking about who have just visited the exposition of this museum? What emotions do they leave the exhibition with? Impressions are very different.
Some visitors are of the opinion that something was still not enough for them at the exhibition. Most likely, this can be explained by the fact that a certain percentage of guests still have high expectations.
Most visitors leave the museum under the impression. It is always interesting to touch something transcendental, and the very atmosphere of the exhibition attracts with its mystical orientation. And many come here to the museum of death (St. Petersburg, not Moscow) in order to feel this atmosphere of mysterious and sad peace.