Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine

Some photos from a recent travel I’d like to share.

If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Kiev, Ukraine you absolutely must visit Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine – a hidden jewel among the areas many attractions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrohiv (Ukrainian version offers much more comprehensive description of the museum)

The museum’s 1.5 sq.km. area contains some 270 authentic pieces of folk architecture from churches to beehives from mostly 18 and 19 centuries. Found in various parts of Ukraine they were disassembled, catalogued, brought on site and reassembled. Top that with 40000 items of household and traditional culture and you’ve got yourself enough to do for a day or until you drop. Also on display a ceremonial oak with wild boar sculls embedded in it from the pagan times over 1000 years ago (authentic, made from real wood!).

The museum is divided into sections, each representing a specific Ukrainian region nicely blended into the landscape. Plenty of space for a walk or picnic, food, folk music, horseback rides, fresh air, serene views. 20 min by bus from the nearest metro station.

The oldest church, Pyatnytska (Holy Friday), built in 1742.

Church interior.

A barn from Carpathians region. Note the size of the planks. Badly weathered, but oak from what I could tell.

Home, sweet home!

Interiors. All solid wood! Traditional “rushnyk” around icons, “scrynia” (chest).

Nakashima chairs! (kidding)

… and obligatory shot of woodworking tools.

A saw!!! (Maker unknown. Hand saw nuts, check your reference manuals and start drooling!)

Security system – door bolt!

Windmills, there is half a dozen of them in the area.

Horse/mule driven mill.

More churches.

Well, this was just scratching the surface. There are more photo galleries on the web, just google it.
Thank you for looking.