Altai - the birthplace of the "Queen of Vases"

Visitors to the Hermitage have been frozen for almost 200 years at the sight of a huge vase of Revneva jasper. Her name – Queen of Vases – appeared a long time ago and no one is surprised. The height of more than two and a half meters, the diameter of more than five meters - as otherwise it could be called.

In honor of the 170th anniversary of the stone masterpiece in 2013 in the Altai Territory expedition "On the route of the Queen vases" In October 2014, based on the collected materials, a book-photo album “Queen of Vases” was published.

The queen of vases could not be created in any other region of Russia. And this is not Altai parochial patriotism, but objective reality. Nowhere, except Altai, there are such huge monoliths. There were no large stone-carving plants or mining engineers in the 18th century. Who is the author of such a unique and magnificent creation? What is the story of the Queen of Vases, her unusual path? Answers to these questions in the book published by the Altai Territory Department for the Development of Tourist-Recreational and Sanatorium-Resort Complexes, and the Tourist Center of the Altai Territory (Altaiturcenter).

The Altai region began as a mining region. Places associated with this period are included in the main tourist routes. Thus, the collection of stones and minerals of mining engineers became the basis of the oldest museum in Siberia. Altai State Local History Museum. A mountain pharmacy that once provided medicines to residents of Barnaul, today - museum It is one of the most important tourist sites in the city.

The Queen's Cradle of Vases is Unique Revneve. It was here that a stone block was broken off and taken to the Kolyvan stone-cutting plant. Without special lifting mechanisms and platforms, about one and a half thousand people transported the lump. 42 master stonemakers turned the stone into a beautiful vase. When it was made, it was even more incredible to transport this highly artistic work weighing 19 tons from Siberia to St. Petersburg. Undoubtedly, it was the strong, hardy, strong Siberian character that made it possible to implement such a large-scale project.

Many people know what efforts it took to create and transport the vase, but what was its fate, for example, during the Great Patriotic War? During the Leningrad blockade, it was protected from fragments of shells, covered with sandbags. The shells and bombs did not affect her, but the roof above the vase was damaged. Water was poured into the vase, and the Hermitage workers scooped it out with buckets. After the war, great restoration work was carried out with the help of specialists of the Kolyvan stone-cutting plant.

Even in the XIX century about the vase wrote the following words: "Although some bowls and vases brought from the Siberian cutting factories to St. Petersburg, the elegance of stones and the beauty of their forms can be equal to this new bowl and even surpass it, but none of them so proves neither the richness of the Siberian nature, nor the bold enterprise of Russian masters." Each new generation opens its own page in the history of the Kolyvan vase. The expedition “On the route of the Queen of Vases” and the photo album is a tribute to the past and a bridge to the future, where the history of the Altai Territory is saved with the help of books, tourist routes and excursions, cognitive tourism develops.

Reference

The organizers of the project “On the route of the Queen of Vases” management of the Altai Territory for the development of tourist and recreational and sanatorium-resort complexes, the Tourist Center of the Altai Territory (Altaiturcenter). “Queen of Vases” is one of the books of the series “My Altai Territory”. At the beginning of 2014, the first book of the series “Blooming of Maral”, is being prepared for the publication “Winter Tale of Swan Lake”.

Read full information about tourism in Altai It's on the visitortai website. rust

Photo by Roman Zaikovsky