Yaroslavl Art Museum

Russian art from the 12th century to the 20th, in a governor's mansion on the Volga

Address Volzhskaya Naberezhnaya 23, Yaroslavl

The Yaroslavl Art Museum occupies a group of neoclassical buildings on the Volga embankment, including the former Governor's House built in 1820. The collection spans Russian art from the 12th century through the early 20th — starting with an outstanding collection of medieval icons from local churches, and continuing through portrait painting of the Imperial era to early Russian modernism.

The building and its location are part of the appeal: the embankment outside the museum gives one of the best views in the city, looking out across the Volga with the church towers of the historic centre behind you. The museum is closed on Mondays.

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A story
The museum's medieval icon collection is among the finest in Russia outside Moscow and St Petersburg. The icons were collected from churches across Yaroslavl Oblast in the Soviet period — a systematic salvage operation that, whatever its politics, preserved works that might otherwise have been lost to neglect or destruction.