Central Naval Museum, Naval museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Central Naval Museum is a maritime museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, housed in a spacious modern building along the Neva River embankment. The collection displays hundreds of ship models in full or reduced scale, historical cannons and anchors, and rooms with nautical charts and shipbuilding drawings.
Tsar Peter I founded the collection in 1709 originally within the Admiralty building to document the technical achievements of the young Russian fleet. The museum moved several times throughout its history and has occupied its current site along the Neva embankment since 2013.
The name of the institution reflects the central role the Russian navy has played in the country since the days of Peter the Great. Visitors today see rooms filled with everyday tools such as telescopes and compasses that once traveled across the Baltic and Pacific oceans.
The building opens Wednesday through Monday and remains closed on Tuesdays, with all areas equipped with ramps and elevators. A visit typically lasts two to three hours, with lockers and a small cafe available in the entrance hall.
One of the oldest exhibits is a preserved rowboat from the early 18th century that the tsar himself is said to have used. The exhibition also displays a tiny replica of the ship that took part in the first Russian Antarctic expedition.
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