The Creator of Death Masks: Inside the Merkurow House Museum
The house I am about to tell you about is unique in the entire world. From the northern facade, you can admire the metal gate, while from the western side you can see a wooden open balcony that is characteristic of Alexandropol architectural style. The house was built in 1869 by the grandfather of renowned sculptor Sergey Merkurow and later became a house museum.
Merkurow House Museum
For a moment, you may feel frightened, then amazed by the works. You are not in a horror movie, but in the house museum of the talented sculptor Sergey Merkurow.
European education and talent made Merkurow one of the most sought after sculptors of the Soviet era, but recognition did not come immediately. He was distinguished by creating death masks. Over the course of his career, Merkurow created about 300 masks. Most of the commissions came after he made a mold of the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Lenin.
What you need to know?
Entrance fee: 1,000 AMD
Visiting hours: 11:00–17:00
Closed on: Mondays
The museum building is located next to the Dzitoghtsyan House, which now hosts the Gyumri Museum of Folk Architecture and Urban Life
The museum preserves the death masks of Leo Tolstoy, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Vladimir Lenin, and Vladimir Mayakovsky
In addition to death masks, the sculptor also created casts of hands
His first hand casts were made of Leo Tolstoy’s hands, created during the process of making Tolstoy’s death mask
Merkurow is the author of death masks of nearly all prominent figures of his era, including:
Valery Bryusov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Maxim Gorky
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Georgi Plekhanov
Mikhail Frunze
Clara Zetkin, and many others
A key figure in Merkurow’s career was Anatoly Lunacharsky, People’s Commissar of Education, who became the sculptor’s main patron in the early years of Soviet power
The sculptor’s house survived numerous hardships, including a devastating earthquake that struck the city
In 1950, as the sole heir to his ancestral home, the sculptor donated the house to the city