Two-headed babies and other exhibits of Peter the Great’s Kunstkamera

The building consists of two 3-storey pavilions and a multi-tier tower. The museum collections occupied the eastern wing of the building, while the middle section housed an anatomical theater and the tower an observatory. Various institutions of the Academy of Sciences, where Mikhail Lomonosov worked, were located in the western wing.

Interestingly, in the early years of its existence Kunstkamera also featured living "exhibits": people with deformities or of unusual height or appearance. After death their skeletons were not buried, but displayed in glass cases.

Ruysch's alcoholized babies were joined by the collection of another Dutchman, Albert Seba. On hearing about Kunstkamera, the collector got the idea of selling his assortment of quadrupeds, birds, fish, snakes, lizards and shells to the Russian tsar.

Some of the most fascinating of the millions of exhibits are to be found in the collection of Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch, who spent 50 years collecting "wet" (preserved in ethanol) specimens of infants, including many prepared heads, and human body parts.

Today the museum counts more than 1.2 million items. Its ethnographic, anthropological and archaeological collections are among the finest and largest anywhere in the world.

Besides the anatomical anomalies and curiosities the museum housed a huge collection of antiques revealing the history and life of many different ethnic groups and peoples. Therefore, its official title is the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Peter built up the collection over several years. Five years after the founding of the museum, members of the public were at last permitted to see the rarest exhibits. It was decided not to charge an entrance fee. On the contrary, Peter believed that people thirsty for knowledge should be "educated and given a treat, not stripped of their cash."

The museum is known primarily for its collection of "freaks" - anatomical curiosities and anomalies, many of which were acquired by Peter himself on his travels around Europe.

Shortly after founding St. Petersburg, Peter I set about developing it. 1714 saw the opening of the city's first museum, known as Kunstkamera or the Cabinet of Rarities. It was also the first natural science museum in Russia.