Unusual Museums in Russia: From Funeral Culture to Eternal Frost

Far from the usual tourist trails, Russia hides museums that defy expectations. Alongside traditional art and history exhibitions, you’ll find quirky treasure troves devoted to life and death, fashion and rituals, language and craft. These places offer an unexpected look at the world—sometimes with humor, sometimes with warmth, always with curiosity.

Museum of World Funeral Culture

Address: Vokhod settlement, Voentorgovskaya St., 4/16 (Novosibirsk)

On the grounds of the Novosibirsk crematorium sits a museum devoted to death and everything surrounding it.

The exhibition leads visitors through a variety of cultural views on death—from Christian traditions to sacred imagery from other nations. The first hall focuses on 19th–20th-century ritual culture: Victorian mourning gowns, veils, funeral jewelry, hair art, and other burial-related artifacts.

The second hall presents depictions of death from around the world: how Russian emperors were buried, what postmortem portraits looked like in Europe, and how mourning rituals developed among Muslims, Catholics, and Jews. Ethnographic documents, funeral scenes, macabre “Dance of Death” displays, and everyday memorial items all appear side by side. There’s also a room dedicated to funeral transport—hearses, carriages, and automobiles.

The museum hosts themed exhibitions, lectures, and participates in Museum Night events.

Hours: Daily except Monday, 11:00–19:00
Admission: Full ticket 1,800 ₽ (about $20)
Tour schedule: musei-smerti.ru

Tula Samovar Museum

Address: Tula, Mendeleevskaya St., 8

Located in the historic center of Tula, near the Kremlin, this museum showcases the city’s iconic symbol—the samovar—and the traditions of Russian tea culture.

The collection includes miniature samovars once owned by the children of Nicholas II and a giant 70-liter model. You’ll also find rare wartime examples and modern hand-operated samovars from the Shstamp factory. There’s even a samovar pavilion you can step inside.

Besides tours, the museum offers short workshops for groups up to 25 people, samovar-lighting workshops, quests, lectures, and theatrical tea ceremonies.

Admission: 400 ₽ (about $4.50).
More details: museum-tula.ru

The Mouse Museum

Address: Myshkin, Nikolskaya Sq., 1/18

Opened in 1990 in the Yaroslavl region, the Mouse Museum occupies a cozy wooden house filled with mouse-themed artifacts collected from Russia and abroad—Japan, India, the United States, France, China, Germany, Canada, and more. The collection includes animated characters, literary mice, designer pieces, and gifts from notable figures such as academician Dmitry Likhachyov, singer Bulat Okudzhava, and writer Tatyana Ustinova.

Hours:
October–April: closed Mondays
May–September: open daily

Sergiyevskaya Cookshop

Address: Sergiev Posad, Karl Marx St., 7, building 16

In Sergiev Posad, you’ll find a gastronomic portal to the past—a museum that recreates an old-fashioned kukh-misterskaya, a type of Russian casual eatery that operated from the 18th to the early 20th century. These establishments served merchants, craftsmen, students, and clerks who needed a quick, hearty meal and a place to celebrate weddings, christenings, or anniversaries.

Guides explain how urban food culture developed alongside industrialization and migration from rural areas. Visitors can examine antique kitchen tools—from butter churns and cast-iron ovens to hand-cranked ice cream makers and mechanical coffee grinders.

A theatrical tour with tasting brings the space to life: guests cook 19th-century hard-candy recipes and enjoy them with tea from a samovar while listening to guides in historical costumes.

The museum café prepares soups, cutlets, porridges, compotes, and desserts based on classic culinary books by Elena Molokhovets and Pelageya Alexandrova-Ignatyeva.

Hours: Daily, tours start every hour from 10:00 to 18:00; on weekends and holidays until 19:00.
Admission: Adults 1,000 ₽ (about $11.50). Children under 2 enter free.

The Goat Museum

Address: Tver, Mendeleevskaya St., 8

The Goat Museum began in 2008 with its founder’s fascination for regional history. Since the 14th century, residents of Tver have been nicknamed “goats”—not as an insult, but as a nod to a lively, flashy, mischievous, and boldly masculine character in Russian folklore.

Horned symbolism is deeply woven into Tver’s identity: the old Tver railway station columns were decorated with carved horns, and goats appeared on border markers and coins minted in Tver in the 15th century.

The collection includes figurines, souvenirs, postcards, badges, coins, coats of arms featuring goats, taxidermy, and goat-themed art made from wood, metal, ceramics, glass, fabric, and birch bark. One of the oldest items is a 4th-century Roman goat figurine.

Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10:00–18:00; Sunday 12:00–19:00.
Admission: Tickets and tours must be purchased on-site.
Free for anyone with the surname Kozlov (“Goat”).
For visitors named Volkov (“Wolf”): double price.
For visitors named Baranov (“Ram”): 50% discount.

Resort Fashion Museum

Address: Zelenogradsk, Kurortny Ave., 5

Inside the former Yantar cinema near Kaliningrad, fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev opened a museum dedicated to resort fashion from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

The collection features straw hats, swimsuits, parasols, handbags, sunglasses, and men’s summer suits. Each room shows how ideas about vacationing changed: at first, tanning was forbidden; later, a suntan became a symbol of high status. Displays trace eras from slow seaside promenades to the bold Soviet-era bikini.

The museum hosts lectures, classes, fashion shows, and concerts—especially lively during Museum Night and creative weekends.

Admission:
Adults: 450 ₽ (about $5)
Children & discounted visitors: 350 ₽ (about $4)
Audio guide (narrated by Vasiliev): 200 ₽ (about $2.25)

Hours: Daily except Monday, 10:00–19:00.

Piano Museum

Address: Rybinsk, Volzhskaya Embankment, 67–75

Rybinsk is home to Russia’s first Piano Museum. Its founder, musician and restorer Alexey Stavitsky, returned to his hometown with a collection of rare keyboard instruments—each personally restored to near-new condition.

The first hall displays 19th-century German, French, and English pianos, grands, and harpsichords. The second features Russian and Soviet instruments, including a nearly 200-year-old grand piano from Moscow’s Eberg factory. The collection includes 120 instruments, with about twenty on display at any time.

The museum hosts chamber concerts, master classes, and plans to launch a festival featuring pianists from Russia and Europe.

Hours: Tuesday–Friday 12:00–16:00; weekends 11:00–17:00.

Buzeon Paper Museum

Address: Polotnyany Zavod, Trudovaya St., 2A (Kaluga region)

The Buzeon Paper Museum—the first in Russia—opened inside an 18th-century paper mill where the country’s paper-making history began.

The exhibition traces the evolution of paper from early hand-molding techniques to modern manufacturing. Visitors can see a model of a 17th-century water-powered hammer mill, a 1953 laboratory machine, a 1961 platen press, and more than a hundred types of paper, including handmade Japanese, Arabic, French, and Russian sheets from the 18th–19th centuries. A special section highlights paper art: panels, origami, cutouts, and decorations. Guests can even make their own sheet of paper as a souvenir.

Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00. Monday and Tuesday are days off.
Admission: Adults: 400 ₽ (about $4.50); discounted ticket: 300 ₽ (about $3.40); children under 7: free.

Kingdom of Eternal Frost

Address: Yakutsk, Vilyuisky Trakt, 7th km, 1

At the foot of Mount Chochur-Muran, on the banks of the Lena River, lies a giant underground glacier where the temperature never rises above −10 °C (14 °F). During Soviet times, it served as a food storage tunnel; in 2005, it was transformed into an ice-sculpture complex. Exhibitions explore the region’s paleontology, mythology, and local culture.

Visitors are greeted by the throne room of Chyskhaan—the Lord of the Cold, depicted as a mighty bull. Nearby is the residence of Russia’s Father Frost. You can drop a letter to him into an ice mailbox.

The hall for blessing rituals and purification ceremonies is adorned with ice swans—symbols of marital fidelity. Newlyweds come here to ask for everlasting love. Another hall features a sculpture of the Master of the North, as well as an ice bar serving ice cream.

Admission: Adults: 600 ₽ (about $7); children 6–18 years old: 400 ₽ (about $4.50).

Travel Tips

• Check ticket-office hours. Even if a museum stays open until 18:00, many close ticket sales 45–60 minutes earlier. Verify on the museum’s website or by phone.
• Bring cash. Some remote towns don’t have card terminals.
• Try interactive experiences. Workshops, quests, and theatrical tours may sound like children’s activities, but they often become some of the most memorable moments—especially with a great guide or friends.
• Ask questions. Many unusual museums rely on personal initiative: collections are assembled manually, and stories are passed down orally. Sometimes a couple of questions will uncover a unique tale that never makes it into the official tour.