Unusual and Interactive Kids Museums in Saint-Petersburg, Russia

31.08.2015 3683


Bolotnaya 13 Museum Center

This is a museum in a wooden mansion from the beginning of the 20th century. The venue features a family club for parents with children of 5 years and up, a history connoisseur club, and even its own acting studio where children study the tradition of home theater. There is also a multitude of classes provided at the museum for kids of various ages: on books that our grandmothers used to read, on how school used to be at different times in Russia, about the traditions and politics of neighboring countries, as well as on the lifestyle and tradition of the Russian countryside. All programs are held in the cozy interior of the mansion where you can also celebrate birthdays, proms, or just stop for “Tea with a Tradeswoman”.

 

Фотообзор: Детский музейный центр исторического воспитания (Болотная, 13)

 

Cat Museum in Vsevolozhsk

The Cat Museum is located at a veterinary clinic and is fully dedicated to housecats and their portrayal in literature, fantasy, poetry, and cinema (they have a film there about cats in the Hermitage). They also have live cats there that they let the visitors pet. 

The museum has a branch in Saint-Petersburg on Sadovaya Street, which is called The Cat Republic with a library and a café. It turns out that it’s basically a common interests club where any cat admirer can stop by or is interested in “cat issues”.

 

Фотоотчет: филиал Музея Кошки "Республика кошек"

 

Labyrinthum Intriguing Science Museum on Lev Tolstoy Street

The intention at this museum was to put together three floors of exhibits demonstrating all physical laws and phenomena. There you can touch lightning, sit down on a bed of nails, levitate like Munchhausen, and try out magnets, electricity, and light and sound waves.

You can walk through the museum separately (children under 16 must be accompanied by parents), order tours for family and class groups, and celebrate birthdays and other holidays. The museum holds a variety of interactive shows – mathematic, optical, chemical, and other magnet shows. The tours are hosted by student physicists whose brains you can and must pick.

 

Фотообзор: ЛабиринтУм, интерактивный музей занимательной науки

 

Fairy Tale House Theater Museum

The reason Fairy Tale House is called a theater museum because it hosts class programs and whole shows there. All of them involve fairy tales and are intended for children in the age range of about 1 to 12 years old. Amongst the tours around the fairy tale interior of the museum (with special-theme decorations) is an look-through journey with a kind magic woman and programs throughout various fairy tales – from The Three Little Pigs and the tales of Charles Perrault to the programs and stories of P. Bazhova, games based on the motifs of the Russian past, and a walk through the tales of Pushkin.

Operating in the museum is a project called Theatrical Nights where they don’t put on the children’s show in the morning as is usually done, but rather in the evening.

At the Fairy Tale House, you can celebrate a birthday or an elementary school or kindergarten graduation. You can also order to have a celebration set up right inside the school or at home as a “topping” for additional payment. Some of the proposed guests include Ivan Czarevich, The Little Fox, Vasilisa, Emelia, and Baba Yaga.

 

Сказкин Дом на Горьковской, интерактивный музей-театр: фотообзор

 

The Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain Building

Aside from everyday tours around exhibits, the Fountain Building also includes walking tours around the area, bus tours, and even one on a boat. The museum also has its own theater, the shows of which are included in programs for different ages.

However, they regular museum tours there are nothing to sneeze at either. For example, you can literally touch history in the program called The Treasure Chest from Sheremetev’s Attic” where kids can find old photographs, newspapers, manuscripts, letters, and other surviving items.

 

Музей Анны Ахматовой в Фонтанном доме, фото

 

The Atomic Energy Information Center on Zagorodny Prospect, Saint-Petersburg

This is a multimedia center resembling a modern-day laboratory. In their regular programs, they use 3D technology and computer graphics to show the visitors how to acquire energy, what the oil supply currently is on the Earth, what radiation is, and whether or not it is safe to work at an atomic plant. There is also a humorous link on the main page of its website by the way. Supposedly you can click on it to find out how the radiation is at Ros-Atom companies by the exact minute.
Other than the atomic energy programs, there are other educational programs as well. There are all free of charge.

 

Информационный центр по атомной энергии, фото

 

The Street Train Museum of Saint-Petersburg

The official name of the museum is “The Municipal Electric Transportation Museum”, but usually people refer to it by the name of its most interesting exhibits. It features a pre-revolutionary street car, the first electric street train, a street train called “The American Girl” that was used during the blockade of Leningrad, and street trains by the names of Stilyaga and Aquarium. They are all quite old and the train cars aren’t well preserved it what used to be a street train shed, but you can climb into most of the street trains and pretend like you’re a passenger. You can also celebrate a birthday in the museum or order a retro street train to a celebration with a train engineer and a cashier dressed in old-fashioned clothing. They train will arrive in totally working condition and you can take your guests and go for a ride on it.              
There is one “but”, however: you can only visit the museum if you schedule a tour. So make sure and call ahead of time and ask when the next group is being scheduled.

 

Музей трамвая в СПб, музей общественного транспорта Санкт-Петербурга, фото

 

Submarine Museum

Saint-Petersburg has two submarines open to visitors: 

Narodovolets is a big, old boat that you can touch with your hands and the tours there are led by real submarine veterans.

C-189 Boat Museum, on the other hand, is a little bit younger. It sank in the 90s, but they were able to pull it out to shore and turn it into a museum. 

Other than the two boats, there is a whole museum about the submerged forces and their development over time in the Submarine Museum.

 

Grandmaket Russia Museum

Grandmarket Russia is a colorful, detailed recreation of the country, not only portraying to a tee its geography, but its spirit as well: referenced there is a multitude of various genre stages, characters, and personalities. The tiny residents celebrate weddings, hang out, fix cars, go fishing, watch a movie, relax at a café, mine for coal, and grow crops. You might recognize yourself in one of the tiny people or perhaps one of your neighbors in your country house. Trains and cars move along the little country and some people are in motion as well. The museum also houses a café. 

 

Гранд-Макет "Россия", фото

 

Pulkovo observatory

To get inside the observatory museum, you must schedule an appointment ahead of time, including evening tours as well when you can come and look at the stars. All tours are classic, not informal, since the observatory is a division of the Russian Science Academy.

 

Пулковская обсерватория (Главная астрономическая обсерватория РАН), фото

 

Water Universe Museum

The museum is located in an old hydraulic tower where there are three expositions. On one of them they tell you about the history of water supply (from barrels and wash basins to modern-day water pipes), in another they tell you about underground water, and finally in the last they discuss water as a life resource and even a cultural phenomenon.

Devised at the museum is a multitude of interactive programs for children of different ages where you can go for a walk with the owner of the tower, get a taste of the Aqua spirit, and celebrate a special occasion or a birthday.   

 

Фотообзор: Вселенная воды, музейно-мультимедийный комплекс

 

The Hygiene Museum of Saint-Petersburg on Italian Street

This is a museum about healthy. There they tell kids about the rules of nutrition and a good lifestyle, the importance of daily exercise, and why you should stay away from bad habits. Kids learn what reflexes are, how the heart works, and who Pavlov’s dog is (and Pavlov himself). The mood and contents of the tours vary depending of the kids’ age and kids that are only six years old get are told about health in a different way.

 

Trickster Comedy Museum

This is the funniest and most pleasantly senseless museum in Saint-Petersburg. It features Jewish humor, Soviet childhood humor, trainings, lectures, games, and pedestrian tours around the city. The museum is small, but it has an active spirit and they have do games for the whole family as well.

 

Butterfly Museum of Saint-Petersburg

You can check out life tropical butterflies along with their pupas in six different museums in Saint-Petersburg. They’re all pretty small, but they have their redeeming features.

 

Butterfly World in Moscovsky Prospect in Saint-Petersburg

 

Wonder Butterfly Greenhouse in Masshtab Mall on Pulkovsky Highway

In the Wonder Butterfly Greenhouse, they also host celebrations for kids and you can even celebrate a birthday amongst the butterflies. Some of the butterflies they will let you touch as well as long as you’re careful.

 

Mindo Living Tropical Butterfly Garden on Chkalovskaya in Saint-Petersburg

In this butterfly garden, they allow you to buy some of the butterflies and take them home with you in a special box.

 

Mindo Butterfly Garden on Pravda Street

This here is a new branch of Mindo Garden where you’ll not only find butterflies, but also turtles, a pong, and a thoroughly decorated venue. There’s also an incubator where you can watch a butterfly appear from a pupa. 

 

Музей бабочек "Миндо" на ул. Правды в СПб, фото

 

Tauride Garden Greenhouse – a garden of living butterflies

Butterflies flutter about this greenhouse amongst rare tropical plants, which allows you to watch them in their natural habitat.

 

Tropical Heaven Butterfly Museum on Muchnoy Alley

This museum has face paint services where you can celebrate a birthday.

 

Lefty Museum in Saint-Petersburg – Russian Lefty Microminiature Museum on Nevsky Prospect

This is a museum of oddities where you can see a famous savvy flea along with a multitude of other microminiatures like a chess table for example from a needle’s eye and Gena the Crocodile with a Cheburashka on a poppy seed. In order to actually be able to see the exhibits, the visitors are given a magnifying glass.

 

Krasin Icebreaker

This active arctic icebreaker has been on many popular expeditions, in 2012 celebrated its 95th birthday, and is now finally enjoying a well-deserved retirement. For preschoolers and schoolchildren, they do interactive games there about sailor boys and defeating the North, but you can also find out a lot about the icebreakers research on the north pole aside from the games along with its history, which was previously the most perfect icebreaker in the world for an  entire 30 years after its construction. For visits, they only let organized groups on the boat who call ahead of time and schedule. 

 

Ледокол "Красин", фото

 

You can check out all of the Saint-Petersburg museums in our directory.

 

Photos: kidsreview.ru

 


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