Mstislavl Historical and Archaeological Museum

The museum was founded in June 1998. It was opened for visitors in May 1995. It is the only archaeological museum in the Mogilyov Region because a considerable part of the museum exhibits were gained during the archaeological excavations by L.V. Alekseyev, M.A. Tkachyov, O.A. Trusov. The permanent exposition contains three halls: "Spiritual Sources of Mstislavl", "MStislavl History from Ancient Times to the Late 18th Century", "Provincial Town Mstislavl", which reflect the main stages of the historical development of the region. There are more than 20,000 items (2012), 12,000 from which comprises the main fund. The most interesting collection is "Archaelogy", which exhibits the scriber (the 12th-13th centuries), the cross-encolpion and glass bracelets (the 12th-13th centuries), wedge-shaped ground stone axes of the bronze age, boxtree combs (the 13th century), a glass seal with the image of the coat of arms of Prince Tikhonovetsky (the 17th century), the coin of the crusaders' chief (1477-1489), bone covers with geometrical and vegetable decorative patterns (the 14th-15th century), tiles with vegetable, heraldic, geometric and plot ornaments (the 17th centuries), the Dutch gold ducat (1652), silver coins of the Russian Empire (1848) and others. The main forms of cultural and educational activities are excursions, interactive museum lessons, exhibitions and research conferences. Since 2007, the museum takes part in the medieval cultural holiday "Knight Festival. Mstislavl".