Two buildings of the Museum are open for public and host the unique expositions and exhibits from ancient times to Victorian era and up to modern funeral traditions of XX-XXI centuries – embalming and autopsy, post-mortem photography, funeral processions, horse-drawn hearses, farewell ceremonies, old cemeteries, world history of cremation, mourning dresses and fashion appear in realistic interiors and authentic set up. The newly opened hall of the Museum presents exposition of funeral customs of Egypt and Africa, India and Islam world, pagan and Christian cemeteries.

Special section displays funeral artifacts of the Soviet years, the funerals of Lenin with a copy of the Lenin’s body in Mausoleum sarcophagus, replica of Stalin’s coffin, replicas of coffins and funeral attributes of the Pope John Paul II, Russian Patriarch Alexis II, President Eltsine, crazy coffins from Ghana and more.

The Museum boasts unique collection of over 10 000 engravings and prints with funeral motifs from all parts of the world, fantastic collection of sympathy and memorial postcards, the largest collection of funeral cars scale models and horse-carriages, as well as real funeral cars of various times, over 200 mourning dresses of several centuries and much more.

Sections of the Museum’s Exposition

• History of world funeral traditions and mourning culture from ancient to modern times
• Victorian mourning traditions and history
• Mythology and superstition, desacralization of death
• Funerals in Russia and abroad. Attributes of funeral services
• Death and morning in arts
• Mourning and funeral music
• Numismatics, philately
• Horse-drawn carriages and hearses; collection of scale models hearses from all over the world
• World mourning fashion (mourning dresses, jewellry, accessories)
• History of Embalming and mortuary cosmetics
• Santa Muerte, Mexican Cult of  Death
• History of cremation
• Death masks of famous people
• Orthodox, Catholic, Islam, Buddhist, Jewish funeral traditions
• History of World war II in installations and artifacts
• Postcards of the World war I period
• Dance of Death art
• Post-mortem photography

Detailed information and photos of various collections of the Museum are available at this page https://musei-smerti.ru/kollekzii-i-exponaty/.  To view the site in your language, please click the appropriate flag symbol in the header of the web-site.

The World Funeral Culture Museum is a member of the International Association of Funeral Museums.

World Funeral Culture Museum welcomes donations of exhibits related to the history of mourning, funeral and memorial traditions of all nations and all times.

We welcome other museums in world to host Funeral Museum’s temporary expositions or export their own unique exhibitions and events in our Museum. Collections of World Funeral Culture Museum travelled the world and have been presented with great success in many cities and countries.

We invite FUNERAL MUSEUMS, FUNERAL ASSOCIATIONS AND COMPANIES to cooperate with MUSEUM OF WORLD FUNERAL CULTURE in organizing  guest exhibitions of the Death Museum in museums and galleries of your city.