The Solovetsky Maritime Museum is a public museum project. It was opened in 2007, and its co-founders are the Solovetsky Monastery and the Arkhangelsk Regional Public Organization «The Northern Sea Navigation Association.»
The museum is located on Bolshoy Solovetsky Island, at Seldyansky Cape. It is housed in a restored boathouse (the Ambar) used for storing rowing boats, which is a monument to the monastery’s maritime economy dating back to 1841.
The museum introduces visitors to lesser-known aspects of Russian maritime history. Its main exhibition, «Sea Practice of the Inhabitants of the Russian North and the Solovetsky Monastery,» showcases folk shipbuilding and navigation techniques that were crucial to the exploration of much of the Russian North and the Arctic between the 15th and 17th centuries. These technologies enabled Russian ships to dominate the waters east of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean.
The exhibition also highlights the important role played by the Solovetsky Monastery in the spiritual and economic development of the region over several centuries. The monastery possessed one of the largest fleets on the White Sea and maintained a well-developed maritime economy.
The exhibition further features items collected along the shores of the White Sea during expeditions conducted by the Northern Sea Navigation Association. Other exhibits were provided by the White Sea Detachment of the Arctic Maritime Expedition, the Likhachev Russian Research Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage (Moscow), as well as by the Ecclesiastical and Archaeological Department of the Solovetsky Monastery. Additional items have been donated by collectors and local historians from Arkhangelsk.
The museum is run by a large team of enthusiasts representing various regions of Russia, including researchers, carpenters, curators, tour guides, shipbuilders, artists, and photographers. The museum hosts lectures and masterclasses on traditional crafts, as well as concert programmes.
The founders of the Solovetsky Maritime Museum envisioned it as a living museum; therefore, in addition to the exhibition spaces, it includes a functioning shipyard where seagoing vessels are built.
As a museum with a working shipyard, it is open from mid-June to mid-September.
Following a visit in 2015, the UNESCO International Council on Monuments and Sites noted in its official report that the museum is «an excellent example of an intellectually rich and diverse exhibition» and «deserves to be considered a benchmark for the proper use of existing buildings in the area for modern purposes.»
