The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology& Ethnography, or Kunstkammer, (German for "chamber of curiosities) is the oldest museum in Russia. The museum was opened to the public in 1714, though the building, designed by Georg Iogann Mattarnovi in the petrine (St Petersburg) baroque style, was not completed until 1727. According to its web site, the museum houses "natural and human curiosities and rarities", artifacts and unusual displays of science and culture. While they have had rather gruesome collections of human and animal deformities in their history, (and still do to be sure) the emphasis now days seems to be more on the archaeological. Among it's more interesting exhibits are the Globe of Gottorf and the largest collection of watercolors by the Peruvian artist Pancho Fierro outside of his native Peru.
Unfortunately time constraints kept us from actually visiting the collections in the museum. A must see on my next visit to St Petersburg. I'm definitely planning a to have next visit.
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