Old English Court Museum, Moscow, Russia
The chambers of the Old English Court on Varvarka are one of the oldest buildings in the capital. This unique monument of civil architecture was erected in the beginning of the XVI century. The history of the house is inextricably linked with the birth and development of Anglo-Russian relations, the heyday of which falls during the reign of Tsar Ivan IV and Queen Elizabeth I. In 1555, a commercial “Moscow Company” was created in London, which in 1556 received a gift from Ivan the Terrible in Moscow on the street Varvarke at the church of St. Maxim. Thus, to date, the chambers of the Old English Court are the oldest official representation of a foreign power, preserved in Moscow.
In 1994, with the participation of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, a museum was opened in the walls of the ancient chambers, which for 20 years earned the love of numerous visitors. In 2013-2014 years. Large-scale restoration work was undertaken in the chambers of the Old English Court.
The museum, which was reopened in January 2016, brought to the attention of the public an updated exposition devoted to the life of an English merchant house on the Barbarque in the 16th-17th centuries. and the emergence of relations between Britain and Muscovy. In the reconstructed interiors, guests are greeted with copies of old books, documents and the reconstruction of household items that accompanied the Englishmen of Shakespeare’s time in travels through Russia and dangerous sea expeditions that brought the two powers closer to the Age of Great Geographical Discoveries.
Epic Russia Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
Own or work here?
