Fitzwilliam Museum

The Fitzwilliam Museum is a museum of art and history at the University of Cambridge, in Cambridge, UK. This is primarily the University Museum. Therefore, all the exhibits placed in the museum are somehow connected with students of the University of Cambridge. The museum has several branches, the most important of which are Archaeological and Artistic. Here are collected exhibits of student archaeological expeditions, as well as paintings by artists who later acquired a name and fame.

The museum was founded by Richard VII Viscount Fitzwilliam, who in 1816 bequeathed to the University of Cambridge his art collection and library. He also gave £100,000 to build a museum to house his collection, which students could admire. The museum is housed in a beautiful architectural building that was built in 1848 by architect Charles Cockerell.

The exposition of the museum is divided by the years of creation of the work and by country of origin. Inside the museum there is a magnificent balcony, which can be climbed by a spiral staircase. There is also an exhibition of paintings on the balcony. The museum presents the works of Rubens, Renoir, Picasso, Claude Monet and many other outstanding artists, magnificent sculptures, a collection of art objects of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities. Also in the museum there is an unusual exposition of cold weapons of the Middle Ages and modern times: blades, sabers in human growth.

For more than 200 years, the museum has been enriched by gifts and donations from University alumni, private collectors and the National Endowment for the Arts.