A cultural and educational photo exhibition “Beauty of antiquity - the foundation of the present and the bridge to the future” (devoted to the 120th anniversary of the journey of Nicholas Roerich through the ancient Russian cities) has opened in the exhibition hall of the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture. The exhibition was organized by the St Petersburg branch of the International Center of the Roerichs with the support of the Consulate General of India in St Petersburg.

Oleg Fedorov, Eduard Tomsha and Ekaterina Vozniak

Opening the exhibition, Ekaterina Vozniak, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, urged students to visit ancient Russian cities. According to the dean, any cultured Russian person, and especially a young architect, should visit there.

Chairman of the St Petersburg branch of the International Center of the Roerichs Eduard Tomsha announced plans to show the exposition in different cities of our country.

Milena Zolotareva, Oleg Fedorov and Andrey Timkovsky

Andrey Timkovsky, Chairman of the Board of the St Petersburg Union of Scientists, spoke about the problems of preserving cultural values.

Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Architecture for Research, Associate Professor at the Department of History and Theory of Architecture Milena Zolotareva noted the great contribution of Nicholas Roerich to the protection of cultural heritage.

According to the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Architecture for Career Guidance Counceling, Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural Design Oleg Fedorov, the exposition will inspire students of various fields - restorers, architects, designers of the architectural environment, urban planners. Familiarization practices are conducted for students of our university in the historical cities of Russia: the exposition will help them understand what they should pay attention to, what should be the approach to knowing the history and architecture of our country.

Nicholai Konstantinovich Roerich (1874–1947) is a world famous Russian artist, thinker, scientist, prominent international public figure. The exhibition tells about the journey of Nicholas and Helena Roerich to the ancient Russian cities in order to study the roots of Russian culture in 1903–1904. They visited over 40 cities.

During the expedition, Nicholas and Helena Roerich collected ancient legends, studied the methods of composition and combination of colors in ancient icon painting. The result of the journey was lectures, publications in various journals, postcard replication of views of the cities visited with the transfer of proceeds to the Red Cross, etc. Nicholas Roerich created more than 90 architectural sketches showing the diversity and richness of ancient Russian architecture. In his articles, he was one of the first to raise the question of the enormous artistic value of ancient Russian icon painting and architecture. These thoughts, years later, were embodied in the agreement "On the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historical Monuments", which became known as the Roerich Pact.