Novorossiysk Historical Museum-Reserve

The museum was founded in Novorossiysk on July 7, 1916 on the initiative of the vice-governor of the Black Sea province Leonid Alexandrovich Senko-Popovsky as the Museum of Nature and History of the Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus. The grand opening of the exhibition took place on December 27, 1916. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the museum’s collection included about 7,000 exhibits, the scientific and historical library — 44,500 books. During the war, the collection was almost completely lost — only a small part of the archaeological and documentary collection, which had been evacuated to Tbilisi, remained intact.

The museum began its revival in January 1944. Today, the collection of the Museum-Reserve includes about 300,000 items.

The museum-reserve includes:
1. “History of the city of Novorossiysk” (58 Sovetov Street) — the main permanent exhibition;
2. Literary and memorial department “House-Museum of N. Ostrovsky” (21 Vasenko Street);
3. Complex of permanent exhibitions (59 Lenin Avenue):
“Old Novorossiysk”;
“Nature of the Novorossiysk region. Environmental Protection”;
“Historical Gold and Silver”;
“Relics of the Great Patriotic War” (open collection);
4. Exhibition hall (40 Sovetov Street);
5. Monument-ensemble “Malaya Zemlya” with the Gallery of Military Glory;
6. Memorial exhibition “Weapons and Military Equipment of the Great Patriotic War”.