Ceramic tiles, engravings and heraldry for beginners. What’s inside Lefortovo Museum?

Lefortovo Museum, a branch of the Museum of Moscow opened on the first floor of a residential house at Kryukovskaya Street in 1999. For over 20 years, it has been telling the tale of one of the oldest areas in Moscow, its architecture and related historical figures.

Here, in addition to looking at the permanent collection with ancient items from various ages, you can also participate in quests or guided tours, or even draft your own coat of arms.

Lefortovo for Le Fort

The district’s name commemorates François Le Fort, a close associate of Peter the Great. A Geneva native, witty and resourceful, he went to serve in the Russian army and met the Emperor in 1690. As a Major General and commander of the 1st Select Moscow regiment, he was a part of the Azov raids and creation of the new Russian military.

It was his idea to build the first barracks in the modern Lefortovo area. That’s how the history of Novaya Soldatskaya or Lefortovskaya, as some others called it, Sloboda (neighborhood) started. Initially, it was a place occupied by streltsy (riflemen) and foreign legionnaires under Le Fort’s command. That page in the local history is represented by replica military uniforms of that day, displayed at the permanent exposition.

Thanks to the close proximity to Lefortovsky and another two regiments (Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky), that was where they decided to build the first government-funded healthcare institution in Russia: a military hospital. The Museum has a copy of Peter I’s decree on the matter (signed on May 25 (June 5 New Style), 1706) and engravings showing the very first wooden two-storey hospital building with a church in the middle. A surgery school, the first in the country, and an anatomy theater were located close by. Peter I himself, by the way, used to visit the latter. The chief physician was Nicolaas Bidloo, the Emperor’s personal doctor. He managed the hospital for nearly 30 years, while living close by. The engraving shows his mansion and the apothecary garden he set up. The hospital’s still in operation today. It’s now called the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital.

After the Russian capital had been moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg (1712-1714), Lefortovo started to lose its significance. Gradually, craftsmen came to live there. The Museum collection has some items made by artisans of Lefortovo in that time: a wrought candelabra and a chest with a secret compartment.

Following the Emperors

The renowned Lefortovo Palace was built on Peter I’s order for his close associate in 1699. After Le Fort’s death, the Emperor used the mansion to run official events. One of them was the wedding of Filat Shansky, Peter I’s favorite jester. For clarity: a court jester’s title back in those days involved keeping abreast of all the court affairs and gossip, on top of making everyone laugh. Shansky was brilliant at that, so Peter I had an idea to make a special kind of party for his wedding.

Before that, Russia practiced separate male and female celebration in separate rooms, weddings included. Shansky’s wedding feast lasted three days; for the first two, man and women celebrated separately. For the third day, Peter I allowed them to join together in a single hall and don European clothes to boot. Noble guests ordered costumes, periwigs and dresses from abroad specially for that occasion. In 1702, a Russian-Dutch engraver Adriaan Schoonebeek created several engraving pieces dedicated to the party. A copy of one of them, depicting one of the first days of the wedding, with men celebrating in long traditional attires, can be seen at the permanent exposition.

They also have original ceramic tiles from Lefortovo Palace. They represent the evolution of Russian ceramic tiles: traditionally, plain textured tiles used to be made with no paint coating. Foreign craftsmen taught locals how to paint tiles.

Iconic Lefortovo buildings include Summer and Winter Annenhof. Those were residences of Empress Anna. Bartolomeo Rastrelli designed the splendid Baroque buildings. Later, Empress Elisabeth liked to frequent them. A copy of a 1744 engraving shows Her Majesty’s arrival to Annenhof in 1742.

Still later, in 1773, another Empress, Catherine II, ordered to build Catherine Palace in the Russian Classicism style to replace the Summer Annenhof. Some things from the old palace, however, survived: the wooden building had stone colonnades, runoffs and balustrades. Their fragments, discovered by archeologists, are now reverently preserved in the Museum.

Local industry

Lefortovo was the area least affected by the fire of 1812 that destroyed most of the wooden structures in Moscow. The proof of that is the 1813 site plan, a copy of which is displayed in the Museum. The buildings destroyed by fire are outlined in ink.

In the 1830s, the area started industrializing. By the late 1860s, there was the Moscow-Kursk railway, then the track shops servicing it and employing around 1,000 people. In 1929, they became the base for Voitovich Moscow Railway Car Repair Factory.

Before the Revolution, Emperor Nicolas II’s personal train used to travel there often. It was quite extravagantly decorated, as demonstrated by the specially designed carved door. Now, that door, along with a barometer and a car attendant’s lantern is on display at the Lefortovo Museum permanent exposition.

Industrialization in the area went at a breakneck pace. In 1883, merchant first guild Yuli Guzhon founded the Moscow Metalworks Company. Seven years later, the factory got its first open hearth furnace for processing cast iron and other ferrous metals into steel. It produced metal structures for bridges and buildings. Some of its tools are included in the permanent exposition. In 1922, the company was transformed into the Serp i Molot Moscow Metallurgical Plant.

Museum for kids

François Le Fort was an offspring of the Geneva Le Fort line with their own coat of arms that can be seen in the Museum. Le Fort’s ancestors were trading in Indian goods, that’s why their coat of arms included an elephant and a palm tree. Later, after they’d joined the ranks of nobility, they added a knight’s helm to it.

In addition to displaying Le Forts’ coat of arms, the Museum introduces its visitors to the main tenets of heraldry. During special Heraldry for Beginners courses, the Museum staff explain how coats of arms came to be and what is their purpose, demonstrating all that on the Moscow district coats of arms. They reveal why the Lefortovo coat of arms incorporates a military uniform while one for Zyablikovo has a little bird on it.

Visitors are invited to decipher various coats of arms and design one for themselves. It may be based on the last name, the place of residence or other life details your imagination can conjure. You can also use some common heraldic elements they tell you about at the session. Apply online at the Museum website: lefortovo@mosmuseum.ru or call +7 495 360-77-86 to participate. Mostly, applications come from school classes.

On top of that, the Lefortovo Museum offers children birthday parties with an opportunities to learn something new via a quest. The party host tells kids about various countries’ birthday traditions. For example, in the Middle Ages Netherlands, they used to bake cookies with pink or blue icing, depending on the newborn’s sex. Curiously, the Russians traditionally celebrated name days, not birthday. The birthday celebration custom was borrowed from Europe.

The Museum runs general tours for children every weekend. They tell about the area history and Peter I’s reforms. The participants all get travel cards with a few questions. They should be able to answer them by studying the items on displays.

The events are not exclusively for kids: grown-ups who want to learn something new join them often enough.