Kaluga Regional Museum was inaugurated April 20, 1897 It was located in the building of the chambers of the 17th century merchants Korobov. The museum exposition consisted of five showcases with household items, coins and archaeological finds. The museum was opened to the public only two days a week.

Head of the museum were Chetyrkin, Martynovich Lashevsky-AI, Treyter PA Assonov VI They were acquired by the letter A. Pushkin, who were later transferred to the Moscow Museum AS Pushkin. The museum has since 1900 kept the pen of Gogol. As of 1904, the museum has had about 1,000 items in 1915 - 1200 items.

Since 1918 the museum was transferred to the jurisdiction "of the Kaluga Society of Antiquities and protection of works of art", and then - the County Board of Education. In 1922. the museum moved to a new building - the former estate of Zolotarev. In 1924, in the Museum of Local History Museum included. AA Ryzhichkina and artistic. Together, they accounted for a combined museum, which is composed of three sections: historical, natural history and art handed over to Glavnauka.

The museum collection is enriched by the transfer to the museum of the monastery and church property, objects of mansions and estates. In 1939, the museum collections, there were about 10 thousand items. During the war, the museum continued to operate. Exhibits from the museum of local lore were not evacuated, leaving the Nazis looted about 10% of the exhibits.

In 1945, the museum exhibits, there were 7712, of which 2413 were exhibited. During the war and post-war period the museum has collected a rich collection of materials about the war.

Collection Fund was formed for over a hundred years, and now includes more than 100 thousand units of the main fund, which is distributed in collections: "Archaeology", "photos and negatives," "Painting, Graphics and Sculpture", "Rare Books and Documents' "Precious Metals", "Metal", "Glass and porcelain", "tree", "cloth", "Sci-natural", "arms and weapons," "Entomology", "Numismatics", "Filumeniya", "Other".

Zolotarev town estate, merchant of the first guild, which houses the museum, is a jewel of Kaluga in the early 19th century. For a long time the main house of the estate called the palace and was the richest in the city. It is the red line the streets and decorated with high reliefs on the works of the ancient Greek epic. Manor give solemn entrance arches with columns, wrought iron lamps, lacy pattern gate. The yard closed cloister with a double colonnade standing on white-stone terrace. Romantic cozy manor court amplifies contrasts waywardness weather: sunny morning he shines beauty, and in rainy weather becomes grim.

The interior of the main house have a high artistic value. Their architectural treatment closely connected with the interiors of the Moscow School of mansions MF Kazakov late 18th - early 19th centuries. Finishing works in building Zolotarev led SP Campioni.

From the front porch of the economic floor to the second floor staircase rises. From the reception room suite of rooms begins the southern side of the building. Log in staterooms decorated with slender columns of lilac artificial marble. The interiors of the ceremonial rooms combine the architectural, sculptural and pictorial art. Painted panels in the style of Hubert Robert decorate the ballroom. Stucco reliefs in the niches above the doorways and windows give the room a special solemnity.

The walls are covered with a large living room with blue damask in gold frames. Prospective slightly concave painted coffered ceiling light creates the illusion of a dome. Each of the state rooms assumed specific action: balls, dinners, receptions, making music, reading books. In 1816 the house was visited by the Grand Duke Nicholas I, Alexander I, who in 1817 - Mikhail Pavlovich.

The collection fund of the museum currently consists of more than 100 thousand exhibits. There are portraits of the Kaluga merchants and nobles of the 18th century engraving. Particularly valuable are the objects from the oriental porcelain. In the museum you can see various examples of weapons 16 - the first half of the 20th century. The collection of fabrics are unique peasant costumes with traditional Kaluga "color intertwined."

On the first floor of the museum is a department of nature. Department of History occupies 11 halls of the second floor.