Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes first received volunteers this summer

A lot of activists answered this request for help. Various people did it: very young pupils of the Restoration College and more experienced rescuers of wooden churches from the group of the project “Verenitsa”, academic ladies with historical education and aviation engineers, students of the History Department of Moscow State University, artists, accountants and even a music critic.

The volunteers lived in a trailer on the shore of Ilyinsky Lake near the wooden Church of St. Prophet Elijah. Their activities were different: they mowed grass and brought in hay on the museum grounds, unloaded printed goods and worked with the card-file in the book stack.

According to the volunteers, transfer of the whole exhibition about the history of the Ferapontov Monastery from the Refectory to the Treasury Chamber (because of the restoration), assorting and cleaning of the delivered articles of peasant everyday life for the museum complex at Tsypino became the most striking and interesting episodes in their work.

Employees of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes organized tours and cultural programs for the volunteers. One of the highlights was participation in the religious procession on the commemoration day of St. Ferapont.

The most unremarkable, but really necessary activity was cleaning of the ancient stone perimeter pavement around the churches. Its state directly influences the humidity level inside of the building with the frescoes of Dionisy.

The first season of the work with volunteers has showed new solution capabilities of some museum problems by means of involvement of both everybody who is ready to help and professional specialists, such as photographers, designers, sound men, restorers. Here you can read several opinions of the volunteers who have joined in the new museum project.

N. Nikolashina, Moscow: “We liked everything very much, it is an unforgettable period. We express our gratitude to the museum employees for their confidence and respect for the volunteers. We managed to see the unique wall painting and even to take inside look at the museum activity! N.A. Chistyakova’s tour of the exhibition “Monastery Estate. World of Peasant Articles” housed on the ground floor of the Refectory and A.G. Gudkova’s tour of Dionisy’s frescoes in the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral were especially interesting. The general impression of the museum is very good: all exhibits are at their places, they have explanatory texts. You can see that the articles have been collected and displayed with the greatest regard and love”.

O. Gavrilova, Moscow: “We are three ladies of “elegant” age from the capital. We are used to volunteer, but we have already got out of a habit of living in “Spartan conditions” mentioned in the advertisement. Therefore we worried a little bit… But it turned out that we worried in vain: the accommodation was right-on! A trailer for three persons with beds and mattresses, a tea kettle and an electric stove! Besides, we could enjoy a wonderful view on Borodaevskoye Lake with pure water right from the trailer! Splendid! You don’t want to come out of the lake, just swim and swim and it is not enough! And there is only nature untouched by civilization around our house. Along with our trailer, there is only a small log cabin of the museum guard and the Church of St. Prophet Elijah surrounded with meadows of fireweed, forests and other lakes… You can easily get to Ferapontovo walking along a picturesque road during 15 minutes. The activities in the museum were quite feasible; we can even say they were light! And in a good, benevolent team. It didn’t take us long to carry out this work. After it, we had tours of the Ferapontov and the Kirillo-Belozersky Monasteries. We were especially inspired with the tour in the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral with Dionisy’s frescoes. We understood that we had come not in vain! It was well worth it – to come from Moscow even for one day, for one hour… We fell in love with Ferapontovo!”