The anecdotes about American moneybags buying up the castles of Europe and transporting them across the ocean are not so meaningless. The Cloisters building, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is composed of the stones of five European medieval monasteries: a Catalan monastery and four French ones. In the thirties, their buildings were literally taken apart brick by brick, shipped to New York, and carefully assembled in Fort Tryon Park. The grand project was financed by billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

The very idea of a museum dedicated to the European Middle Ages came from the American sculptor and passionate collector George Gray Barnard. He opened his collection to the public in 1914, and in 1925 it was bought by Rockefeller for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was clear, however, that a separate building was needed for such a collection. For its construction Rockefeller bought 26 hectares of land in northern Manhattan, around a huge scenic cliff.

The building was designed by architect Charles Collens. He skillfully incorporated large fragments of medieval European monasteries – columns, doorways, authentic window frames – imported from across the ocean. On a cliff on the shore of the Hudson River rose an imposing structure of a completely medieval appearance, which is actually less than a century old (it was built in 1933). So that modern structures on the other side of the river wouldn’t spoil the view from the windows of the “castle”, Rockefeller also bought the land lying on it for the museum.

The Cloisters collection includes about five thousand works of European medieval art since the XII century. A special pride of the museum is a gift from Rockefeller: seven Flemish tapestries depicting the hunt for a unicorn. The mythical animal is trying to escape humans and dogs against the backdrop of an amazingly beautiful landscape. The museum also displays medieval tombs topped with portraits of knights, manuscripts, sculptures, stained glass, enamels, ivory and metalwork.

The cloisters that gave the museum its name – the covered galleries that framed the monastery’s inner courtyards – have also been recreated in the museum. Here small gardens were laid out, planted with the very plants that grew in European monasteries (information on this is found in medieval treatises and poems). From the west balcony (a high open terrace) there is a magnificent view of the Hudson River and the unspoiled opposite shore – it seems that there is no huge city around, and that time stopped several centuries ago.

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History of the museum

The museum’s striking architecture was designed by the famous architect Richard Meyer. The financial cost of the construction was about 1.2 million dollars, but nevertheless visitors to the Getty Museum visit all the exhibitions and walk around the wonderful garden completely free of charge.

The museum center was opened thanks to oil tycoon Paul Getty, who in the late 1950s was declared the richest man in the world, and retained this title until his death. Therefore, it is not surprising that Paul Getty left a very solid amount of his multi-billion-dollar fortune for the needs of the museum and the construction of the new building. The Getty Museum is the most famous and wealthy purchaser at auctions and in private collections of works of art by old school masters and ancient sculptors. Museum staff members are the most coveted visitors at prestigious auctions in London and New York.

Architect Richard Meyer was not chosen by chance to design the building for the museum. He is well known for his work on office and public buildings, as well as designs for a number of museum buildings. He has worked on the Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona and the headquarters of famous companies such as Siemens and Canon. In 1984 Richard Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest award in the field of architecture. Richard Mayer works in the style of American modernism and is a leading representative of the New York avant-garde. One of the “highlights” of his projects that made the master famous all over the world were absolutely white buildings.

About the museum

The Getty Museum, located on top of a hill, is a magnificent architectural ensemble. The walls of the Getty Museum Center are faced with golden-colored Italian stone that was brought from the town of Bagni di Tagoli, near Rome. This stone was once used by the Romans to build the Colosseum.

Many of the walls in the museum complex are made of glass to provide maximum natural sunlight. But since the halls of the museum exhibit very valuable works of art, the light intensity is regulated with the help of light filters or blinds, protecting against excessive sunlight.

Even the number of doors is an indication of the grandeur of the museum center – after all, 3,200 is not a small number! There are tunnels that connect the Getty Building, which are also used as viewing platforms, because they offer spectacular views. The marvelous panorama of the Pacific Ocean and the mountain range, the beautiful panorama of Los Angeles and the snowy peaks of the Big Bear ski resort are all visible to the marvelous sightseers. If visitors come to the Getty Museum in their own car, they leave it in the parking lot near the bottom of the hill. At the very top, a computer-controlled cable car takes visitors to the museum. The road up the hill climbs a very steep slope along flowering myrtle bushes and thickets of California peppers.

Finally, arriving at the top of the hill, visitors head up the long staircase to the Getty Museum. In the spacious lobby in the center is a reception desk where information is available in various languages. These days, as in many European museums, the Getty Museum offers an audio course that successfully replaces the tour guide. Such a device in the form of headphones is very convenient because it allows visitors to set the pace of their own walk through the museum halls.

The Getty Museum complex includes an environmental institute and an education center with various lecture halls and classrooms, often attended by students who have received Getty grants for academic excellence. It is also home to the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Arts.

Many of the visitors like to come to the Getty Museum with their children for Sunday strolls through the delightful garden. An umbrella can be rented near the entrance to any museum pavilion for protection from the scorching California rays. The garden’s landscaping was designed by artist Robert Irving. There are many ponds, fountains and waterfalls in the terraced garden.

On a separate terrace of the garden you can see a real mini garden of cacti, and in general because of the abundance of flowering plants and trees in the garden sometimes gives the impression that this is the south of Italy.

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In addition, the halls of the National Museum of American History display many items once owned by prominent American figures, including George Washington himself. This museum has a stunning collection of Renaissance and European Baroque artists.

The halls of the National Museum of American History display numerous objects once owned by prominent American figures.

It is worth noting that the museum serves as a venue for musical performances and festivals, lectures and symposia, as well as other events that anyone can participate in.

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The exhibition of the gallery, located in two buildings connected by an underground passage, spans the period from the Middle Ages to the present. These are paintings, sculptures and prints by famous American and European masters, as well as drawings donated to the museum by the U.S. government showing the history of American folk art and crafts.

The idea for the museum was born in the thirties of the last century. The foundation of its collection was laid by one of the richest men in the United States at that time Andrew William Mellon – a banker, manufacturer, and Secretary of the Treasury under three presidents. Mellon was a striking figure. Endowed with a rare flair for technological innovations (he supported Edward Acheson, the inventor of superhard abrasives), Mellon was also capable of unconventional moves in the economy. To raise state revenues, he demanded lower taxes – business would get a boost and, as a result, tax revenues would rise.

Mellon began collecting during World War I, and by the end of the twenties he decided that he would give the collection to the people. In the early thirties he learned that the Bolsheviks had begun to sell masterpieces of Western European masters from the Hermitage collection. Through intermediaries, Mellon bought 21 paintings from the Hermitage, including Van Eyck’s Annunciation and Raphael’s Madonna Alba. For this last painting he paid 1 million 166,400 dollars – then the highest price ever paid for a work of art. The deal stood out against the background of the criminal sale of many Hermitage pieces for literally pennies.

At first, Mellon wanted to give his collection to the Smithsonian Institution. But then the human factor intervened: President Roosevelt hated Mellon, against whom a lawsuit for tax evasion was initiated. The financier did not abandon his plans to give the collection to the people, but decided to give it to the new National Gallery of Art, for the construction of which he donated another 10 million dollars.

Mellon did not live to see his victory: the court acquitted him after his death in 1937, the gallery opened on the National Mall four years later. Roosevelt presided over the ceremony.

The museum occupies two buildings, a neoclassical western building and a modern eastern building built in 1978. Architect John Russell Pope topped the west building with a domed rotunda modeled after the Roman Pantheon.

The west building concentrates masterpieces by European masters, from the Middle Ages to the late 19th century. This main collection includes many paintings by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Titian, Rubens, El Greco, Monet and Van Gogh. The gem of the collection is the only work by Leonardo da Vinci outside Europe, the magnificent Ginevra de Benchi. Works by American artists from the early 20th century are also on display in the west building. The eastern building is devoted to contemporary art: Picasso, Matisse, Pollock and Warhol are widely represented there. Admission to the museum is free.

Across 7th street from the west building is the Sculpture Garden, opened in 1999. Here, outdoor sculptures from the museum’s contemporary collection are on display. In the center of the garden is a circular pond where a public skating rink is set up in the winter.

Well, tell me, what a museum trip can be without a visit to a treasure trove of art?

The sculptural masterpieces are displayed in the garden, which has a fountain in the center that is used as a skating rink in the winter.

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Indians are an integral part of American history: the legendary Pilgrims, who landed in 1620 from the ship Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, would not have survived their first harsh winter if not for the help of the local tribes. These were peoples with a complex social structure. The Iroquois, who lived in the northern part of the future state of New York, formed something like the League of Nations, a political association of five major tribes. The Indians were skilled hunters and farmers.

The arrival of Europeans led to a sharp decline in the number of indigenous peoples. The main reason was diseases unknown to the continent – chickenpox, measles, malaria: Indians had no immunity against them. The colonies, first located on the East Coast, were eager to develop new lands – this led to armed conflicts between whites and Indians. During the colonies’ war of independence, Indian communities sided with either the colonists or the British, but more often sought neutrality. In the early nineteenth century, Indian tribes under the leadership of the great warrior Tecumseh tried to resist white expansion, but were defeated. After the Civil War, the Indians were recognized as full citizens of the United States. World War II promoted their inclusion: One-third of able-bodied Native American men served in the armed forces and were respected for their courage.

About 800 thousand exhibits of the museum tell a story of it all: weapons, magnificent clothes, household items and art of the Indians. At the heart of the collection here is the collection of antiquarian George Gustav Hay, who for more than half a century traveled through both Americas, collecting everything related to the native inhabitants of the New World.

The museum occupies two floors of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs building. It was built in 1907 by architect Cass Gilbert in the Beaux-Arts style. In front of the facade overlooking Bowling Green, there are sculptural groups symbolizing the four continents of America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. The location of the museum itself is highly symbolic. This is where Fort Amsterdam was located in 1626, under the protection of which Dutch colonists made a bargain, buying the island of Manhattan from the Indian chiefs for 60 guilders.

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Its history goes back to 1823, when Brooklyn Library was founded (later the great American poet Walt Whitman became one of its librarians). In the middle of the century the library merged with the Brooklyn Lyceum to form the Brooklyn Institute – exhibitions of paintings and sculptures were held there. In 1890 the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the forerunner of the museum, began its project. The grand plan envisioned the construction of a building for the world’s largest museum. At that time such a plan could hardly surprise anyone: the end of the XIX century was the time of economic boom, it seemed – everything was possible.

In 1897 the museum building, designed by architects Charles Mackim, William Mead and Stanford White, opened its doors. In reality it turned out to be four times smaller than it was originally planned: the project was cut back when Brooklyn lost its status as an independent city and became a borough of New York. Still, the boz-ar building is gorgeous. The talented American sculptor Daniel Chester French supervised the decoration of the facade and sculpted the monumental sculptures “Brooklyn” and “Manhattan”, standing at the entrance (at first they decorated the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge).

At the time when this ambitious project was conceived, the future museum had only seventeen paintings. In the first decades of the 20th century, the collection grew rapidly with the generous support of collectors and patrons across the country. This process had its costs: for example, in 1932 the well-known philanthropist Colonel Michael Fridsam bequeathed his vast collection (926 works) to the museum, but a quarter of them turned out to be forgeries.

Nevertheless, today the Brooklyn Museum boasts a first-class collection of Egyptian and Middle Eastern art, European and American art, African culture, and works of Pacific island cultures. Local gems include the Lady Bird (a magnificent terracotta from Egypt’s pre-dynastic period) and an Egyptian faience figurine of a behemoth from the Middle Kingdom, Portrait of the U.S. president John Adams by the artist (and telegraph inventor) Samuel Morse, canvases by Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas and Alfred Sisley.

The museum is located on one corner of Prospect Park, near the Brooklyn Public Library and the local Botanical Gardens. Near the building’s east entrance is the Sculpture Garden, a unique collection of architectural ornaments and statues of old New York. There’s also a small replica of the Statue of Liberty.

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