Moscow Kremlin Museums in the early XIXth century

Pictorial portrait of Emperor Alexander I
Russia, first quarter of the XIXth century.
Unknown painter.
Canvas, oil painting
View of the old Armoury building in the Moscow Kremlin
Watercolour by P. Gerasimov.
Russia, 1852
Paper, watercolours, Indian ink
26 х 34,8 cm (in the album)
Received from the Leningrad Museum Fund in 1928.
Peter Stepanovich Valuev
Engraved portrait by De Rossi, 1811.
Facade of the Armoury Chamber (architect I. Egotov)
First third of the XIXth century.
I. Mironovsky, S. Firsov.
After the restoration.

The decree «On rules of the Management and Preservation of Antiques at the Armoury and Artisans' Chambers» was signed by Alexander I on 10th of March 1806. The project was initiated at the suggestion of Peter Valuev – the supervisor of the Kremlin Construction Expedition and the Kremlin Armoury and Artisans' Chambers. The decree has appeared to mark the beginning of the Kremlin museum's history, and to become the platform for the formation and development of the new Kremlin museum's structure and its activities.

The Kremlin royal depositories, storages and workshop were integrated into a museum, named the Armoury Chamber. The newly established museum was enriched with precious gifts — historical relics, ancient artifacts and artworks. In 1810 by order of the Emperor Alexander I the collection of the XVIIIth-century arms of the Russian emperors, known as the Saint-Petersburg Ryust-kamera, was transferred to the Armoury Chamber.

A new museum building for the Armoury collection was projected by the pupil of Matvei Kazakov — architect Ivan Egotov — and erected close to the Trinity gates in 1810. The construction works were interrupted with the outbreak of the war. From March, 1811, to June, 1812, the museum staff has been preparing the collection to be moved to the new building; and when the later inventory of the Armoury treasury has been carried out the Napoleon's troops entered the territory of Russia and hostilities broke out.