Chechersk. Town Hall.

The Chechersk Historical and Ethnographic Museum began its activities in July 1990, housed in a small room at the district executive committee. In 2005, by the decision of the Department of Culture on March 25, the museum was moved to the building of the restored Town Hall, which is a valuable architectural monument of the second half of the XVIII century.

Today, the museum includes several exhibition halls, each of which provides unique information about the past and present of the region. Among them are archaeology, iconography, ethnography, the Chechersk region as part of the Russian Empire, the economic development of the region, the memorial hall of the Counts of Chernyshev, the modern history of the Chechersk region, the echo of Chernobyl.

The main fund of the museum has 20,394 storage units, including a variety of objects of cultural and historical significance. The most significant collections are numismatics, ethnography, paintings and old printed books.

Among the rare and valuable exhibits are a XIII century serpentine, old printed editions of the XVIII century, antiques of the XIX century and a silver spoon of the second half of the XVIII century.

As of 2002, the main collection of the museum included more than 16,500 exhibits. Among them are fragments of mammoth bones, stucco pots from the Neolithic era, silicon tools, women's jewelry and a 12th-century body icon from the archaeological sites of Berdyzh, Nisimkovichi and Chechersk settlement. Materials on the Chechersk Castle, the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, the activities of the underground and the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War are also presented. The museum also exhibits items dedicated to fellow countrymen - Heroes of the Soviet Union N. S. Boikov, N. K. Kruglikov, A. I. and P. I. Lizyukov, T. P. Novikov, as well as participants in the war in Afghanistan 1979-1989.

The museum provides a wide exposition of tools and household items of peasants of the XIX — early XX century, collections of folk costumes, towels and ancient icons of local craftsmen and icon painters, including works by Gavrila and Vladimir Gerakov.

This museum not only preserves historical artifacts, but also actively promotes cultural education and enlightenment, drawing attention to the rich heritage of Chechersk.

After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Empress Catherine II distributed new lands to her favorites and officials. Chechersk was handed over to Zakhariy Chernyshov, who at that time was the first governor-general on our lands. And at the initiative of Chernyshev, a large construction project was launched in Chechersk. Among them, a stone town hall and several temples were built. The Town Hall was built in the classical style with elements of pseudo-Gothic and is a stone two-storey square centric building. Most likely, the architect of the town hall is Vasily Bazhenov, with whom Chernyshev was well acquainted. There are five wooden quad towers on the building. Four towers are crowned with spires at the corners, and the fifth, taller and narrower at the top, is located in the middle on a massive quadrangular drum. These five towers are very similar to the five-domed Russian temples, which, according to the researchers, "brings the town hall building into a series of sacred buildings." Monumental stone staircases lead up to the two entrances on the sides of the main facade. The town hall now houses the regional historical and ethnographic museum. Among the museum's exhibits are fragments of mammoth bones, Neolithic ceramics, a collection of folk costumes and towels, tools and household items from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Castle Hill has been preserved behind the Town Hall, which is also worth a visit if possible. The Town Hall in Chechersk is an architectural monument of national importance.