The Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve is an association of museum institutions in the city, including museumified monuments of industrial heritage, history, and culture. Its history begins in 1841 when P. N. Demidov founded the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities.

Today, the "Mountainous Ural" museum-reserve operates as a multidisciplinary scientific and educational institution, covering historical, natural science, artistic, literary, and technical fields.

The museum-reserve includes ten museums that vividly demonstrate the development of "mountainous civilization." The museum's collections comprise over 468 thousand storage units, the majority of which are items related to the Demidov dynasty, the founders of the Tagil factories. Among them is the only Museum of the History of the Development of Black Metallurgy in Russia, established in 1989 based on an enterprise from the 18th to 20th centuries. This museum-factory is a center of the Demidov industrial heritage and combines elements of production from Europe and Asia. A project is being developed based on it, the "Eco-Industrial Technopark 'Old Demidov Factory,'" which includes the renovation and adaptation of the museum-factory territory. The goal of the technopark is to preserve the unique mountainous landscape of the "iron" civilization of the Demidovs.

The exhibition of the Historical and Local History Museum details the history of the Tagil region from ancient times to 1917, including rarities of the Demidov family, archaeological finds, works by serf artists, and advertising products from the 19th century factories.

The Nature and Environmental Protection Museum introduces visitors to the wealth of the Ural land, minerals, flora, and fauna. Special attention is drawn to the paleontological hall, which features mammoth skeletons.

In the Historical and Technical Museum "House of the Cherepanovs," one can learn about the traditions of Tagil inventors, their biographies, and inventions, including the unique astronomical clock by E. G. Kuznetsov from 1775.

The ethnographic complex, the Museum of Everyday Life and Crafts, and the Museum of the History of Tray Production preserve the traditions of the mountainous population and the art of Ural lacquer painting on metal. The literary museums, the Memorial Literary Museum of A. P. Bondin and the Literary Memorial Museum of D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak, are dedicated to the literary life of Tagil and the work of the "singer of the Urals."

The "Demidov Dacha" estate museum, opened on September 23, 2013, is the youngest museum in the system. It is located in the only example of a private country estate from the first half of the 19th century in Nizhny Tagil.