The exhibit Mount Athos: Images of a Holy Land has opened at the new exhibition hall of the State Historical Museum. Without any exaggeration, there has never been such an exhibit in this venerable museum.
The exhibit is centered upon 240 photographs – from views of the natural surroundings and monastery ensemble to sacred rites and portraits of hermits – from the archive of the Simonapetra Monastery, which together with Russian Geographical Society and the Narodnoye Predpriyatie Foundation organized the exhibition. The photos depict the life in all 20 of the monastic residences on Mount Athos over the course of one hundred plus years (1848 – 1963).
A substantial number of the photographs were taken by monks of the Russian Orthodox Agiou Panteleimonos Monastery, which has perhaps the best photography laboratory on Mount Athos. Particularly prominent in the exhibit is a photo album compiled in 1881 in honor of the visit to the Holy Mount by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, then president of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Moscow museum also has on display the miracle list for the Panagia Portaitissa or (Theotokos Iverskaya) that was presented to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich as a gift from Mount Athos monks in 1648, a rare collection of medieval maps and engravings of the 17th and 18th century depicting monasteries and image of the Mother of God.
Another highlight of the exhibit if a topographical, three-dimensional map of Mount Athos: a unique 12-meter installation that repeats the contours of the Holy Mount and is made from soil gathered by monks on Mount Athos. Holy land from Mount Athos was a classic Christian relic in the 9th century. Following the exhibit the land will be given to Russian monasteries.
The Historical Museum is a strictly humanitarian institution, and it is unlikely that anyone can recall when the last time it hosted (even if it ever housed) such a thing as a herbarium, which seems appropriate only for natural history museums. But nonetheless the Holy Mount provided a large herbarium from Athos – home to more than two hundred species of plants, many of which can only be found there. The herbarium was installed using a special method from Mount Athos – the plants were placed in vacuum-packed containers and displayed in specially lit alcoves. The selection was rather large – from a rather decent-looking thistle to the charming hairy crocus.
The academic director of the project Alexei Lidov notes that the Mount Athos herbarium goodwill gesture to past and future pilgrims from Russia: “Prior to the Revolution on holidays up to 14,000 of our compatriots would visit Mount Athos. And, according to the monks, they were the only ones to take interest in the dried flora of the Holy Mount. Who knows why? Perhaps they recalled the herbariums which they collected during their gymnasium studies?”
The musical ‘highlighting’ of the exhibit is an original score by the Serbian composer Arsenije Jovanovi
