On 20 May 2023, the Moscow Kremlin Museums will join the All-Russian Campaign “The Night of the Museums”. A special evening program will be held in the museum’s Lecture Hall on the Manezhnaya street, 7.

At 16:00, the lecture “The Treasury of King Christian IV of Denmark. The 530th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations Establishment” will tell the audience about the embassies, sent to the royal courts of Denmark and Russia, the diplomatic gifts and dynastic marriages that were to strengthen ties between Denmark and Russia.

Yulia Uvarova, historian, author of scientific and popular-science articles, will give the lecture. She studies the culture and traditions of royal courts of Russia and Western Europe.

At 17:00, the lecture “The Island, Cave and Castle of Saint-Michel. The History of Monte Gargano Sanctuary, Saint-Michel Abbey and the Sant’Angelo Castle” will take place. The guests will learn about medieval monasteries, temples and abbeys. They will find out, how the Hadrian’s Mausoleum turned into a fortress and how the Abbey of Saint-Michel was erected.

Elizaveta Alexandrovna Titova will give the lecture. She is the author of children books, educational programs for wide audience and lecture series, dedicated to the Renaissance architecture in Italy, as well as the art and culture of France.  

The last lecture “From Russian Druzhina to Byzantine Cavalry” will start at 18:00. The participants will learn about the history of the development of Russian and West-European armament in the 11th-13th centuries  –  the epoch, when the crusades began, knight’s culture flourished and the Mongols invaded the Old Rus and the Middle East.

Author of the lecture is Sergei Pavlovich Brun, historian-medievalist, Head of Guide-Methodical Department of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, curator of the exhibition “The Heavenly Host. The Image and Veneration”. 

At 19:00 the film screening “The Byzantine Heritage of Russian Tsarina” will finish the Night of the Museums. The film tells about the art objects from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the history of which relates to the outstanding personalities. Among them is Sophia Paleolog – Byzantine Tsarevna, who became a wife of Grand Prince Ivan III. The viewers will learn about her life and the collection of state regalia that started forming at that time.