The collection of regalia - ancient rarities of the higher power in Russia

Russian preserved in Moscow Kremlin Museums, numbers 39 items of the XII-first quarter of XVIII centuries.

The small collection can be named the most valuable one for it is unique and has no analogy in other museums of our country. Since olden times, the crowns, skeptres, barmas, orbs, thrones and other symbols of the monarch’s power presented in the collection have been preserved in the Moscow Kremlin, first the Great Princes’ and later the Tsars’ residence. The origin and historical life of the items link to the development and growth of the Russian statehood and to the most important political events in the Russian history. Settings for reigning, receptions of ambassadors, royal processions and other ceremonial events of state value were strict regulated and festive actions. State regalia were of particular significance to glorify the monarch while such ceremonies.

The oldest item in the collection is “The Cap of Monomakh”. Its name is connected with the Russian legend of XV century saying that it had been brought to Russia in ancient times as a gift to the Russian rulers from Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakhos. Since the late XV till the late XVII century, “The Cap of Monomakh”, a symbol of power, was used in the ceremony of setting the ruler of the Russian State for reigning. In the first quarter of the XVIII century, after Peter the Great’s reforms, the ceremonial setting for reigning was replaced by coronation, the main attribute of which became imperial crown. In the museum collections there are the crowns of Empresses Catherine I and Anna Ioannovna.