The first Russian museum, established by Emperor Peter I. Built on the banks of the Neva in the historical center of St. Petersburg Kunstkammer building was still in the beginning of the XVIII century, a symbol of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Museum basis by decree of Peter I. It opened its doors to guests in 1714. Established for the purpose of collecting and studying rarities were born naturally or through human
Museum is located in two buildings:. In the Kunstkammer and Attached to him in 1887 the Museum wing.
Kunstkammer building was built in the Petrine Baroque. This is the first museum building in Russia. The building is crowned with a tower armillary sphere symbolizing a model of the solar system.
Nowadays the collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Peter the Great (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences – one of the most extensive and entertaining in the world. The collection contains more than a million artifacts and reflect the diversity of cultures in the Old and New Worlds. At the same time the Museum has always been and continues to be one of the largest research centers for the study of human cultural heritage, continuing the tradition of the famous Russian ethnographers and anthropologists of XVIII-XX centuries.