The public Kargopol Museum was established in 1919. Its founder and first director was the merchant Kapiton Grigoryevich Kolpakov. It was his collections of antiquities and art that formed the basis of the museum.
Today the Kargopol Museum is a large historical and cultural complex with a territory of 4.15 hectares. It owns 13 buildings in the town and three villages, including 11 architectural monuments.
The museum’s collections include handwritten and old printed books, icons and church sculpture, paintings and engravings on religious themes, portraits of emperors and merchants, as well as various monuments of folk art. Among them are the famous Kargopol embroidery, women’s traditional costume, kokoshniks decorated with pearls, goldwork head scarves, Kargopol clay toy, painted and carved distaffs, cabinets and much more.
