AZERBAIJAN MUSEUMS
The creation of the first museums in Azerbaijan dates back to the 1920s. So, in 1920, the first museum "Motherland" was created in Baku, and later, in 1938, the first memorial museum was founded in Sheki. Since the 30s of the last century, the first house-museums of various literature, art, history, music, theater, and famous cultural figures began to appear in Azerbaijan. The first exhibits of these museums were valuable works of art confiscated from Z.Tagiev, M.Nagiyev, M.Mukhtarov, and other famous millionaires and nobles.
The National History Museum of Azerbaijan is one of them. Even the building of the former mansion of the Baku millionaire Z.Tagiyev, which is considered a "museum within a museum", is distinguished by its unusual exhibits, and is considered a magnificent historical and architectural monument of Azerbaijan.
Unusual natural buildings, caves and rocks, castles, ancient palaces, and monuments are considered open-air museum complexes. There are many such museums in Azerbaijan — the world-famous rocks of Gobustan, the palace of the Shirvanshahs, the palace of the Sheki Khan without nails, the tomb of Momina Khatun, and the city of Shusha.
Unfortunately, in the 90s of the last century, the material and cultural monuments of the Azerbaijani people were destroyed by the Armenian invaders. During the occupation, more than 760 cultural monuments, 22 museums with more than 40,000 exhibits, 4 art galleries were completely destroyed, natural resources were stolen, forests and plains were burned over a large area. There were 8 museums in Shusha, which were rightfully considered a city-museum, each of which was considered a material and spiritual value of Azerbaijan. Among the plundered and destroyed monuments — State Historical Museum of Karabakh, House-Museum of Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Memorial Museum of Bulbul, Memorial Museum of Music and Artist Mir Mokhsun Navvab, Shusha branch of Azerbaijan Museum of Carpet and Applied Arts, Memorial Museum of virtuoso tar player Gurban Pirimov in Aghdam and many others. After the great victory of our victorious Army, reconstruction work is underway on our liberated lands, former monuments and other historical buildings are being restored.
Today, there are 222 museums in Azerbaijan, 13 of which are applied arts, 7 literary, 16 historical, 71 local history, 60 Heydar Aliyev centers, 6 military history museums, a center of German culture in memory of the German settlement in Goygol, and 48 are museum houses.
Some large museum complexes are located in Baku. These are the H. Aliyev Center, the National Historical Museum, the National Museum of Literature, the Azerbaijan Carpet and Applied Arts Museum, the State Theater Museum, the State Museum of Musical Culture, and the Azerbaijan Independence Museum.
In Baku, there are also such museums as the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Miniature Books, Maiden Tower, which is considered the hallmark of Baku, Castle Historical and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve, House-Museum of Nobel Brothers, Museum of Stone Book, Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, Museum of Malacology, War Booty Park and others.