Opened in 1714 by Peter the Great, the Kunstkamera was meant to bring scientific advances and other parts of the Enlightenment to Russia, and to stamp out the era's rampant superstition at the same time. 

The building, which unfortunately is badly is need of repairs today, has been a symbol of the Russian Academy of Sciences ever since. This was the first public museum in Russia, and is now the oldest museum building in the world. The collection, which has remained virtually the same since it opened, with a few new additions, has over a million items, among the most famous of which are in the collection of medical curiosities, including fetuses, preserved body parts, a set of conjoined twins, and animals with deformities.