he Serpukhov History and Art Museum (SHAM), opened in 1920, is one of the major collections of Moscow Region. The collection quite comprehensively reflects the development of the 15th - 20th century Russian art and the 16th - 19th century West European fine art and local history.
The basic part of SHAM was the art collection of merchant woman A.V. Marayeva.
Marayeva was an old-believer, so she collected works of traditional Russian art and at the end of the 19th century she bought the collection of Yu. V. Merlin comprising works of Russian and West European art of the 16th - 18th c.
Besides, the Museum acquired art and history collections from the Serpukhov noblemen estates - Semenov - Otrada (of Earls Orlov-Davydov), Ostafyevo (of Princes Vyazemsky), Telyatyevo (of Earls Sollogub), Rai-Semenovskoye (of Nashchekin), etc. - and the collections of the Vysotsky and Vladychny Monasteries. In the 1920s - 1930s the Museum got the exhibits from the central museum stocks (Mosgubmusei and Moscow Proletarian Museums).
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Gala dining-room. Works of Semiradsky, K.E. Makovsky
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In 1956 the Museum was determined as an art and history museum.
The present exhibition of the SHAM is housed in the former A.V. Marayeva's mansion built in 1896 to the design of R.I. Klein. The Trinity Cathedral (17th - 19th c.) and the Church of Intercession are the Museum branches.
Now the collection of SHAM comprises about 37 000 items. The Museum organizes regular temporary exhibitions from its collection, concerts and other events.
