The idea of creating a museum of medieval life in Staraya Russa emerged in the 1970s, when archaeological excavations were conducted in the city and its surroundings. Scientists discovered remnants of medieval pavements, saltworks, residential houses, and outbuildings. However, the museum project was approved only in 2006, and construction began in 2014.

The reconstructed medieval estate is located in the historical part of the city. It includes a residential hut, a three-story storage tower for supplies, a barn, a bathhouse, a forge, and a saltworks. All buildings are situated in a small courtyard, their appearance, furnishings, and sizes recreated based on archaeological finds. The courtyard is paved with hewn boards and surrounded by a palisade. Inside the hut, one can see an ancient stove, a child's cradle, a wooden table with benches, shelves with clay dishes, and other items typical of a 12th-century urban home.

The saltworks is one of the main exhibits of the museum. No medieval drawings or descriptions of such structures have survived, so it was reconstructed from fragments found during excavations. The salt workshop, or brine house, was built using 12th-century technology. Inside the wooden building is a stone oven where salt is evaporated. Water for evaporation was taken from the Salt Studenets Lake and was supplied to the workshop through wooden pipes.

The brine house has no chimney; such rooms were heated "black". The fire in the oven was maintained around the clock, and the work was continuous. Salt was evaporated on an iron tray, a cerena, which sometimes burned out from constant heating. The utensils for salt production were expensive, so there was always a forge nearby where burnt cerena were repaired and other tools were made. In the open-air museum, the saltworks and forge are located next to each other, just like in a real ancient estate. During tours, visitors are shown the salt evaporation process in the brine house, and all the equipment there is functional.