An exhibition of ancient carved architraves opened at the Rosa Khutor resort

Unusual exhibits allow everyone to get acquainted with the culture and life of the Russian regions. The exposition presents 24 architraves from the period of the late 18th - mid-20th centuries.

- Ethnopark "My Russia" was created in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Here, on the territory of more than three hectares, there are 11 thematic buildings illustrating the history, life and culture of different peoples of Russia. There are log cabins of the Russian Zaonezhie, and the Kazan Kremlin, and the Buryat datsan, and the Ural plant of the Demidovs. The new exposition of carved architraves is another step that allows creating a kind of connection between the past and the future. Architraves in Rus' were not just a decoration of the house, but a kind of concentrate of meanings, times and eras. Thanks to them, you can better understand how they lived, what our ancestors believed in, - said the senior guide of the ethnographic complex "My Russia" Evgenia Belkina.

The exhibits for the exhibition were collected from collectors across the country for two years, and it took another year to restore them. The craftsmen carefully cleaned the architraves from the old paint, restored the lost details, polished and, according to the data of scientists and historians, selected paints.

- During the year, we worked with collectors, and with museums in the regions where the architraves came from, and with representatives of local communities, collecting information bit by bit. The fact is that for our ancestors, platbands were considered a kind of security symbol of the house. Thanks to them, it was possible to understand the whole way of life, especially since the exhibition presents several architraves from places that have already been lost, - said Evgenia Belkina.

The bright green trim came from the Yaroslavl region, the village of Mologa, which is called the "Russian Atlantis". It was flooded in 1935, falling under the expansion program of the Rybinsk reservoir. Its owner lived on the river, so the sun is depicted on the architraves in the form of red flowers, around which a wave winds. Such ornaments are very often found on houses located along the Volga River. A bright blue platband from the Ivanovo region is decorated with snow-white daisies. The owners of this house not only lived on the edge of a field with flowers, but collected them to make medicines.

- One of the platbands served only two years 1941-1942. This is the clypeus of the radio operator. He was on a house in the village of Bykovo, Ramensky district, Moscow region, in which, during the Great Patriotic War, saboteurs-bombers were trained. In the upper part of the casing, you can see the symbols of the Morse code "Dash-dot-dash". It was a kind of secret message for the military, - explained the senior guide of the ethnographic complex "My Russia" of the resort "Rosa Khutor" Evgenia Belkina.

One of the latest exhibits of the unusual exhibition is a casing from the city of Danilov. It is all decorated with a ligature of rings, and not by chance. Thus, its creator welcomed the 1980 Olympics. The ethnographic complex "My Russia" notes that the exposition will be replenished further. Eight more old architraves are already undergoing restoration. The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 to 21:00.