Church-Archaeological Cabinet, Religious museum in Sergiyev Posad, Russia

The Church-Archaeological Cabinet is a museum in Sergiyev Posad spread across twelve exhibition halls within the former Tsar Palace at the Trinity Sergius Lavra complex. The rooms display religious artwork, ancient objects used in worship, and sacred pieces from different time periods.

The museum opened in 1871, when the rector Alexander Gorsky set aside a library room for coins, icons, paintings and books from the Holy Synod's library; the Synod formally approved it on 12 September 1880. In 1892 it moved into the former Tsar's Chambers. After 1917 it closed, and a decree of 5 December 1918 transferred the collection to the Soviet museum authority in February 1919. It was revived after the theological schools returned to the Trinity Lavra in 1948.

The museum keeps the only surviving image of St Nicholas painted by the tsar's iconographer Simon Ushakov, and its icons span the 14th to the 20th century. A room of Russian and Western European painting sets Catholic and Orthodox traditions side by side, with works by Luis de Morales, Mikhail Nesterov, Viktor Vasnetsov and Vasily Polenov. Vasily Surikov's painting The Healing of the Man Born Blind is here; he parted with it reluctantly when he left Moscow.

The museum occupies the upper enfilade of the former Tsar Palace, the imperial travel palace known as the Tsar's Chambers, inside the Trinity Sergius Lavra. It has been open to the general public since 1957 and receives up to 30,000 visitors a year. Entry is through the Lavra grounds, so plan the visit around the monastery's opening hours.

Among the icons of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, the museum keeps the only surviving image of the saint painted by Simon Ushakov, the tsar's iconographer. The collection also holds Vasily Surikov's painting The Healing of the Man Born Blind, which the artist refused to part with even when he abandoned his belongings and left Moscow.