Matryoshka Museum is located in the historic center of Moscow, Leontief lane. The museum is a branch of the Foundation handicrafts. It was opened in 2001 in the mansion, where more than a hundred years ago there was a workshop, which manufactured the first toy named Matrona, or Matryoshka.

In the museum you can learn the history of the emergence of a souvenir, which has become popular around the world. The first instance of the nesting dolls in the late 19th century machined master, hereditary turner - Vasily Zvezdochkin. It happened in a workshop at the store "Children's Education", which was owned by a well-known philanthropist and patron of handicrafts A.Mamontovu. Toy painted famous artist Sergei Malyutin, member of the circle "World of Art". The first matryoshka was a girl in folk costume with a black cock in his hand.

Russian nesting doll was presented at the World trade fair in Paris in 1900. Matryoshka was awarded a bronze medal for the best embodiment of the idea of ​​family unity and the preservation of family values.

The Moscow museum contains a variety of exhibits. This doll, made by masters of folk art and crafts. This matryoshka-dolls by contemporary authors-experimenters.

The museum exposition is located in two halls. In the first room you can see the dolls classical form, but painted a picture based on Kazimir Malevich's "Athletes." In the same hall are exhibited dolls, donated to the museum by the studio Lebedev. Each of donated dolls illustrates one of the number of units of information. Terabyte to bit. The exhibition presents the "family" dolls. The largest of them, there are 50 dolls, and the smallest is the size of a few millimeters.

In the second hall, the copy of the very first dolls - dolls. Nesting Dolls are painted by fairytale characters, are portraits of the royal family and depict famous actresses of the 20th century. Here you can see the Japanese prototype Russian souvenir - a symphony orchestra consisting of dolls - musicians.

The museum organizes interesting excursions and master classes in painting dolls. Also souvenir department, where you can buy your favorite patterns.