Museum of Architecture in Pereyaslav Khmelnitsky. Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky

A one-day trip to ancient Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky gave many pleasant impressions and discoveries. This is one of the most ancient cities in Ukraine. Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky is already more than 1100 years old. Founded by Vladimir the Great, it was the capital of the powerful Pereyaslavl principality. Here Bogdan Khmelnitsky convened a Council in 1654 and decided to unite the territories of the Zaporozhian Army with the Muscovite kingdom. After World War II, Khmelnitsky was added to the name of the city of Pereyaslav.

Now this is a small town on the banks of the Dnieper, known in Ukraine as a city of museums. After all, there are more than 25 museums in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky. All museums are included in National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve “Pereyaslav”. Most of the museums are located on the territory of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper, which is also part of the reserve. This is a very educational and unique open-air museum. My son Anton and I visited it with pleasure. I will share with you my impressions and useful information about the museum for travelers.

How to get to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky

The city is located equidistant from the nearest regional centers. The distance from Kyiv is about 90 km.

The distance from Cherkassy is approximately 100 km.

We drove to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky from Boguslav through Kanev. We moved across the picturesque Dnieper.

You can get to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky:

• By public transport: regular buses run from Kyiv, Cherkassy to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky.
• By car. On a fairly good road by car from Kyiv or Cherkassy in 1 hour 30 minutes. you will be there.

Where to stay in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky:

You can book accommodation in the city using this link:

Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper.

This is the first open-air museum in Ukraine. Construction began back in 1964. It occupies an area of ​​about 25 hectares on Tatar Mountain. The museum recreates the life of different eras - from late Paleolithic (Stone Age) housing to houses of the late 19th century. The main theme of the museum is the life of the Middle Dnieper region, the region where Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky is located. In total, almost 300 unique objects are collected here: 122 architectural monuments, 20 courtyards with houses, workshops, about 30,000 valuable historical, everyday, and cultural exhibits. It was interesting to see how different segments of the population of those times lived.

The territory of the open-air museum is very picturesque. All houses and yards are well maintained. There are bright flower beds, vegetable gardens and orchards around. It was as if the owners had left their home for a minute. Everything is done with care and soul, according to folk traditions. The real decoration of the Pereyaslavl Museum of Architecture and Life are two artificial ponds and a wonderful arboretum.

We had previously visited the Open Air Museum in Pirogovo in Kyiv. A similar museum was also seen in Hungary, read about it in the article:. It was interesting to compare them.

Open Air Museum opening hours and entrance ticket prices.

We arrived at the museum in the morning, one of the first, so there was no queue. The museum is located a few kilometers from Pereyaslav, if you come from Cherkassy. Address: Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, st. Letopisnaya, 2. Open daily from 10-00 to 17-00. For current information, see the website of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve “Pereyaslav”.

At the entrance there are two stands with opening hours, prices and the layout of the museum. The cost of entry to the Open Air Museum for an adult is 30 UAH, for a child – 15 UAH. There are many other small museums on the museum grounds. The Bread Museum, the Space Museum and 11 other different museums. To get to these museums you need to buy a separate ticket, the cost is quite symbolic – 10 UAH for an adult and 5 UAH for a child’s ticket.

Open air museum. Time travel.

The open-air museum is very interesting and educational. It's like you're transported back in time and traveling through time. The inspection begins with buildings and sites of the late Stone Age, then we move on to houses from the times of Kievan Rus. The customs and traditions of the Ukrainian people can be found in the exhibition of villages of the Middle Dnieper region of the 16th – 19th centuries.

At the entrance to the museum there are monuments of Scythian tribes, VI-IV millennium BC. Stone pillars and sarcophagi were found at the burial sites of the dead.

But in this hut from the times of Kievan Rus (11th century) you can see how poor people lived in ancient times. The design of the doors on a wooden axis is original.

The stove had no chimney. They drowned it “black”. All the smoke came out inside the house, so it was necessary to ventilate the house quite often. As a result, residents suffered from cold in winter.

Once upon a time, in pre-Christian times, houses were literally tied to a tree. The trunk served as a support for the building and roof. This made the structure stronger and more resistant to various natural phenomena.

Over time, a tradition emerged that the house should be fenced in a circle. This was considered a talisman. To protect against all evil, a high palisade was built, and various signs were attached to the locked gates. This is what the estate of a resident of ancient Kyiv of the 10th century looked like.

Inside the courtyard of the Manor there is a log house and outbuildings.

Already in those days, a tradition arose to build housing from two parts: a vestibule and a hut. Tools, outerwear and shoes were stored in the entryway. The canopy was not allowed to cool the house during the winter frosts. The house already has a plank floor.

The 16th-19th centuries are represented by rural courtyards and houses with decoration and interiors typical of the Dnieper region. There are houses here for families of different incomes (rich, middle peasants and poor), families of different professions (the home of a potter, a healer, a cooper, a weaver, a priest, an oleiner).

Here is the potter's house, so white and elegant. Nearby there is a flower garden and a vegetable garden, which is carefully cultivated by museum workers.

From the arrangement of the room it is clear that the owner is a potter. After all, his products are everywhere. Some are ready for sale, others still need to be processed in the oven.

And this is the midwife's house. It is somewhat reminiscent of Baba Yaga’s house on chicken legs, as it was described in folk tales. Indeed, the midwife was one of the most important residents of the village. She was the only one who took birth from women, had the ability to treat the sick, witchcraft, and knew herbs and customs.

On the territory of the museum, many churches have been reproduced, which were brought here from different parts of the Dnieper region.

Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary- a unique monument of Cossack times. It was built on the territory of the Belotserkovsky eldership in the village. Ostrijki, in 1606. This is the very first cult attraction of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life. Scientists found it in a neglected state, because this unique Cossack temple was used in Soviet times as a granary. In 1967, the Intercession Church was dismantled, transported to a museum and restored.

Nearby is an ancient three-tier bell tower of the 18th century. In the 1970s, it was transported to the Pereyaslavl Open Air Museum from the village of Bushevo in the Rokitnyansky district, which is only 30 km from ours. Next to the church is a Cossack cemetery. Of course, no one is buried here. But the stone and wooden crosses are real. They were brought to the museum from 18th-century cemeteries that were destroyed during the construction of the Kaniv Reservoir, when ancient villages along the banks of the Dnieper were flooded.

And this is unique Church of St. George from the village of Andrushi. She was drawn by Taras Shevchenko.

Here is Taras Shevchenko’s drawing “Verbi in Andrushy”, where this particular church is visible behind the willows.

This is how a wealthy peasant industrialist lived in the 19th century. His yard had several sheds, an oil mill, a storeroom, and a cellar. All buildings were brought from different villages of the Dnieper region.

Interior of the estate of a wealthy peasant industrialist.

The house of a tanner - a peasant who processed leather. The house consists of three parts: a living hut, a canopy and a wooden storage room - “comora” with various household and professional utensils.

And this is what a tavern from the 19th century looked like. The tire was transported from the village. Rudyaki of Pereyaslavsky district (now Boryspil district). Usually it was built at the entrance to the village or near crowded places - near churches, bazaars, mills. Interestingly, shinki have been popular since the times of Kievan Rus. During the times of the Cossacks, their owners were foremen; from the 18th century. Monasteries, landowners and the state had the right to own a tavern, and from the 19th century. the state became the sole monopolist. Shinkari are people who rented a tavern from the owner. Usually this was a disrespected job, done by Jews or Ukrainian women.

If such a tavern existed in our time, then on its doors (except for the painted mug and two glasses) there would apparently be a sign “24 hours”. Vodka could be purchased even at night. For this purpose, a small narrow window was made at the door. In the part of the building to the left of the entrance, the tavern owner’s family lived, and to the right there was a “pantry”.

In a separate room - the “pantry”, over a mug of mead or a glass of vodka, the men shared rural news))

Supplies of alcoholic beverages were stored in the pantry. Here you can see a moonshine still from the early 20th century. It’s interesting that they didn’t serve vodka in the taverns. All types of alcohol were produced by their owners in distilleries. Moonshine making appeared in villages after the October Revolution, in 1917-1918.

This is what the bazaar used to look like, although now in some of our villages it looks the same. Just a little more modern.

And when a rooster was depicted on the gate, or a figurine of it was displayed, it meant that there would be vespers in this house. “Youth and teenagers” relaxed there, got to know each other, and had fun. Usually a separate hut was rented for this purpose, most often the house of a widow.

It was also interesting to see what the defensive buildings looked like. This Cossack pledge XVII century. Such a fortress was built on the borders of state or Cossack territories. It was surrounded by a palisade with loopholes and high towers, a ditch and sharp stakes. Inside there was a stable and housing for the Cossacks. With the help of special signs, fire and smoke, which were lit on the Watchtower of the pledge, the warriors notified neighboring fortresses about the approach of the enemy.

Watchtower of the Cossack pledge.

The museum “Pereyaslav Post Station” is located in the house of a wealthy Pereyaslav tradesman of the 19th century. The postal station belonged to the state. Its main functions are sending correspondence, money, parcels and transporting passengers. The Pereyaslav station was an important point on the way to Kyiv. Here the travelers rested and changed horses.

And again some of the most ancient exhibits. An ancient early Polovtsian sanctuary, which is more than 800 years old.

And finally, on the territory of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper region, a variety of equipment from the early 20th century is presented. These include tractors, cars, and airplanes.

The museum is very interesting, I showed a small part of what we saw. We recommend visiting it. To do this, you should specially come to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky. Moreover, it is located not far from Kyiv and Cherkassy. We liked this museum better than Pirogovo in Kyiv. It is somehow more soulful, more historical eras are represented here. It feels like you have traveled back in time.

On the way home, we could not miss the city of Kanev, namely such a landmark as Chernechuya Gora (Tarasova Gora). Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko was buried here in 1861. From here you have simply stunning views of the Dnieper. But first you need to climb the mountain along these steps.

The majestic Dnieper from Tarasova Mountain.

“It seems that there is nothing better than God, as the Dnieper is our glorious land”(T. Shevchenko).

“Between the mountains is the old Dnieper,
Otherwise there is a baby in the milk,
Show off, admire
All over Ukraine". (T. G. Shevchenko).

Grave of Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko.

The building of the Taras Shevchenko Museum. We visited it several years ago during a family trip to Kanev and were disappointed. After the reconstruction it was made too modern. There are many screens, monitors, and reproductions everywhere. They became the basis, but should have simply complemented the museum. But very few original paintings by Shevchenko and personal belongings are presented in the updated exhibition. In my opinion, the museum has lost the soul and era of Shevchenko.

This is what the museum looks like inside.

There is a very cozy park around. It's nice to enjoy a walk in the shade of the trees.

“Tarasova Svitlitsa” is the first museum dedicated to the life and work of Taras Shevchenko. Ivan Yadlovsky, the caretaker of Taras Shevchenko’s grave, lived here. He personally knew Shevchenko and after his death looked after Kobzar’s grave for almost 50 years.

Our excursion day has come to an end. In such a short time, we learned a lot about Ukrainian traditions and customs, about the history of our native country, about people and their way of life. There are many great places to travel in Ukraine! Travel with pleasure!

Bright impressions for you!

Thanks for the interesting trip to Boguslav Humanitarian College. I.S. Nechui-Levitsky.

The Museum of Folk Life and Architecture in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky is part of the Pereyaslav Nature Reserve; This museum contains images from the everyday and cultural life of Ukrainians, from the Paleolithic era to the beginning of the 20th century.

Description of the place

In total, the open-air museum in Pereyaslav contains about 180 objects of folk architecture: these include houses with all the interior details, tools, household utensils, art objects and much more. All museum buildings are surrounded by greenery: there are many different plants, two ponds and an arboretum. You can enter the preserved houses and inspect the environment, which most accurately conveys the ancient atmosphere; the houses presented here date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition to houses, there are also churches, windmills, taverns, dwellings and sanctuaries from the 9th century. and even a funerary sarcophagus and sculptures of deities created before our era.

Things to do

The Museum of Life in Pereyalava occupies a large area, so you can walk here for a long time, sightseeing. You can also relax in nature or in a local tavern. The museum has 13 separate museums dedicated to specific topics: the Museum of Ukrainian Rituals and Customs, where you can learn more about the traditions of celebrating Easter or Christmas; the towel museum, which houses about 4,000 towels; beekeeping museum where you can buy honey; as well as a museum of medicinal plants, a space museum, a bread museum, a museum of decorative and applied arts and others.

How to get there

The museum is located on Letopisnaya Street, 2 in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, Kiev region. You can get to it by hitchhiking, minibus or bus. There are no signs to the museum, so you need to ask locals for directions.

Bottom line.

The Museum of Folk Life and Architecture in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky is the brother of the Kyiv or, at the same time, in no way inferior to them - it is also interesting to consider various things that once belonged to people who lived on Ukrainian soil. Therefore, an incredible atmosphere in the museum is guaranteed.

This city has the largest number of museums among small towns in Ukraine. There are 27 of them here, almost a museum for a thousand people! We have selected the best of the best for you. And the best open-air museum in Ukraine is located right here! One of the three oldest princely capitals of Rus', the city with which the first mention of the word “Ukraine” and the famous Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 are associated. The most museum city in the country is waiting for you.

A military diorama, a beekeeping museum, a towel museum, and next to it is a space exploration museum! Just 112 km from Kyiv - and you find yourself in the heart of princely and Cossack Ukraine. Sholom Aleichem, G. Skovoroda, Holy Prince Gleb, T. Shevchenko and almost all the hetmans - only this list is enough to understand the significance of Pereyaslav in Ukrainian culture and history. Pereyaslav preserves in its museums treasures that match the capital; the collections collected here are in total one of the most complete and representative collections of Ukrainian art. 11 church buildings, 16 mills, a collection of ancient stone sculptures and funeral sarcophagi of the Copper and Bronze Age (69 items), materials from settlements of the Trypillian culture, Scythian time, Chernyakhov culture, icons of the 18th-20th centuries. (1400 items), collections of early printed publications, collection of the Cossack period.

The Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper is a beautiful park with groves, lakes and meadows, into which ancient churches, mills, museums, rural houses with vegetable gardens and flower beds harmoniously fit. Here we managed to preserve the true spirit of the Ukrainian village. And most of the houses, churches and mills were collected and transported from villages flooded during the creation of the cascade of Dnieper reservoirs. A day spent here will fly by unnoticed and will leave a positive charge for a single week.

The price includes:

• travel by comfortable transport, air conditioning, microphone
• services of a licensed tour guide according to the program,
• accompanied by a guide along the entire route.

Additional charges:

• personal expenses
• entrance tickets to the Museum of Folk Architecture and Open-Air Life (15.00 UAH/adult, 10.00 UAH/children).
• entrance tickets to the “Museum of the Ukrainian Towel”, “Space”, “Rituals”, “People’s Land Transport” - 3.00/person each.

Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Cossack Church	Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Cossack crosses	Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Huts

Nikolai SHKIRA, head of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper Region - a branch of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Pereyaslav":

“EVERY HOUSE IN THE MUSEUM HAS ITS HISTORY,OWN DESTINY AND, OF COURSE, YOUR RELATIVES"

When you have to enter Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky from the direction of Kyiv, then on the side of the road just before the suburb - where the sign of the locality is usually installed, you will also be greeted by the following message: “City-Reserve”. Here is the date of its first chronicle mention: 907. This means that you are entering one of the three oldest cities and one of the three most ancient princely capitals of Ancient Rus'.

It is not surprising that today Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky is also one of the richest museum cities in Ukraine. There are as many as 24 of them here, in the not so large regional center. And, of course, when you have already reached Pereyaslav, you will certainly want to visit the best of this museum oasis. Moreover, it is also the first open-air museum in Ukraine. Its full name: Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper.

On display at the open-air museum

Perhaps it is better to enter it not from the main entrance, but from the side of the city itself: from the central square, walk along the chronicle street to the bank of the Trubezh River, then across the bridge to a vast meadow, and then along the path along the shore of the pond, through the wooden masonry in the reeds, among the bushes and willows and another hundred meters along the dirt road - and you are already in front of the back gate. And in order not to get lost out of habit, it is better to wait until the sun rises a little over Pereyaslav - then an endless line of local people will follow the same path to the “Tatar Mountain”, where the museum is located. They will come alone and with families, with visiting guests and with children in strollers...

The museum is a significant part of the entire local nature reserve; strictly speaking, in protocol terms, it is a branch of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve “Pereyaslav”. With the head of this branch museum Nikolai SHKIRA and his wife Lyudmila SHKIRA, a senior researcher at the museum, we are sitting in one of the... exhibits - in a decrepit, under straw, Ukrainian hut, transported from a village that has long been absent from the map of Ukraine. Both vying with each other to talk about “their” museum: “We are proud of it...”. About the history of its foundation, because: “Without knowing the history of the creation of the museum itself, one cannot really understand what it has absorbed...”

So first things first.

Lyudmila:— Pereyaslav is very lucky because he has Mikhail Ivanovich Sikorsky, now the honorary general director of the Pereyaslav nature reserve, Hero of Ukraine. He will be 88 years old in the fall. And in 1951, after graduating from the history department of Kyiv University, he came to our city to create a historical museum and settled in the museum itself - in a room built in 1820 by Taras Shevchenko’s friend Andrey Kozachkovsky.

Actually, this museum already existed: 32 exhibits were stored there - the remains of what was left after the pre-war fire. And the historical museum itself, by the way, was created for the 1000th anniversary of Pereyaslav. Now the young historian was faced with the task of reviving the full life of the institution in time for the celebration in 1954 of the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. We remember from history: it was here, in Pereyaslav, that Bogdan Khmelnitsky signed the March agreements... And after the old-new historical museum was opened, Mikhail Ivanovich began to have museums faster than children. It so happened in his life that he was never married, lived in a museum for 17 years and, in fact, museums became his children.

Therefore, in Pereyaslav there is now a museum, say, of Grigory Skovoroda. There is a large collection of manuscripts - about 10 thousand... We have a museum-diorama “The Battle of the Dnieper...”, the artistic canvas was created by Moscow artists from the famous Grekov studio. We also have a memorial museum for Vladimir Zabolotny, an architect and author of many famous projects, for example, the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv. Also - the museum of Trypillian culture and Cossack glory, our fellow countryman - the classic of Jewish literature Sholom Aleichem... And, of course, the pride of Pereyaslav - the Museum of the Testament of Taras Shevchenko. Because it was here, here, that Shevchenko wrote 10 of his best works. And now Kobzar “settled” in precisely the house of his friend, which I already mentioned and in which Sikorsky lived for some time...

Nikolay:- In general, Pereyaslav houses a huge collection of exhibits - about 168 thousand of the main fund. Our Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper region stands out among all others in that everything here is presented in the original. More than 300 objects are exhibited on an almost 25-hectare area, 122 of them are monuments of folk architecture of the 17th - early 20th centuries, 20 courtyards with houses and outbuildings, more than 30 thousand works of folk art, tools, life and culture of Ukrainians.

Correspondent: — Where and how were these exhibits brought?

Nikolay:— The open-air museum is the brainchild of Sikorsky, the first of its kind in Ukraine. Mikhail Ivanovich brought to life the original idea of ​​his friend Efrem Fedotovich Ishchenko, a local irrigation and drainage specialist. It was in 1963, when both friends became imbued with the misfortune that was hanging over the surrounding Dnieper villages at that time.

Correspondent: - What's the problem? Was the museum born out of trouble?

Each house has its own history, its own destiny

Nikolay:- Certainly. The fact is that at that time 9 villages and 19 farmsteads of the Pereyaslav region were supposed to be flooded with the waters of the Kanev Reservoir. They knew about the flooding for a long time. Those were still pre-war government plans. And after the war they began to move from words to deeds: it was necessary to build the Kiev, Kanevskoye, Kakhovskoye reservoirs... And it was the Cossack villages that preserved the entire Cossack culture, the folk traditions of Ukraine - all of them were flooded. To preserve the memory of these villages, their ancient traditions and rituals, Sikorskmiy decides to create a museum.

In other words, the bulk of the museum’s exhibits were brought from villages located in the reservoir construction zone.

Lyudmila:— I researched the archives. I was simply amazed at the wisdom and intelligence of Mikhail Ivanovich... This land where we are now is the fifth site that Sikorsky agreed to at one time, carefully and meticulously choosing a place for the future museum. Before him, the city council offered land plots somewhere outside the city or near the Dnieper...

Correspondent: — What did you like about this particular area?

Nikolay:- There are several reasons for this. Firstly, since ancient times this area has been popularly called “Tatar Mountain”. This is the southern border of the city. It was from here that in ancient times Pereyaslav was attacked by the Tatars. It was through the Tatar Mountain that the ancient road ran to Vyunishch, Kozintsy, Komarovka - many of those old villages that are now hidden by the waters of the Dnieper.

Lyudmila:— And here there is a successful combination of forest-steppe and steppe zones, picturesque relief... At first, only 5 hectares were “cut”. People with great enthusiasm began to plant a park and create a museum exhibition...

Nikolay:“But even without this land yet, Mikhail Ivanovich began to bring exhibits and stack them near St. Michael’s Church, in the center of Pereyaslav. By the way, it was thanks to this that the ancient temple was preserved. And it was built by a friend of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Fedor Loboda.

Lyudmila:“When they began to build a museum on this mountain, grandfather Efrem Ishchenko, although he knew all the works of Taras Shevchenko by heart, every time he took out Kobzar’s “free” book - and that’s how, according to his works, an open-air museum was built.

Correspondent: - That is, how - “based on works”?

Lyudmila:— The trees that were planted were those that are often mentioned in Shevchenko’s works. The houses and interior decoration were also reproduced according to Taras's descriptions...

Nikolay:— By the way, we are hatching the idea of ​​creating a name list of people and organizations in Pereyaslav who, over the course of many years, created this museum with a big heart. So that everyone can see, so that they know... Among the enthusiasts there was a great agronomist, Yakov Gordeevich Beznosov. He planted the local park - many bushes, roses, trees... A wise, tolerant person. He liked to repeat: “You can deceive me, but you cannot deceive a tree, so water the tree.” Workers still often recall this saying of his.

Lyudmila:- And Fyodor Fedorovich Darda! With his golden hands, more than one architectural landmark was created or reconstructed.

Nikolay:- Yes, he’s already a very old grandfather, he’s like a father to us. We still go to him for advice. Let’s say they started blocking the windmills, and we asked: Fedor Fedorovich, which tree is better? He says: aspen, it does not allow moisture to pass through and is stored for a long time. Now we’re racking our brains: where can we get this aspen to properly cover 15 windmills and 2 water mills? Because fixing them somehow is not good...

Lyudmila:“And Sikorsky and Ishchenko planned so that a folk craftsman would sit at each house and demonstrate his craft...

Correspondent: - Here we are in the house of whose master we are sitting now?

Lyudmila:— Chinbarya are craftsmen engaged in tanning skins—tanners. And we also have a hut for a potter, a carpenter, an oleiner, a weaver, a cooper... Or, say, a ctenophore hut - there are craftsmen who made combs from cattle horns, and each of the residents of our region had locally produced combs... There are houses for both widows and priests. There are houses of the poor and those of the middle-income peasant. And two more farmsteads of wealthy families - a peasant industrialist and a peasant landowner. In total, there are 23 estates, transported from nearby villages and reassembled here.

Correspondent: — I wonder if their former owners visit these homes?

Nikolay:— Each house in the museum has its own history, its own destiny. And, of course, your relatives. In addition, the exhibition contains many exhibits from flooded villages. Therefore, this idea was not found out of nowhere - to establish a Meeting Day for residents of villages flooded by the waters of the Dnieper. We are holding it for the second year in a row.

Lyudmila:— On the territory of the museum there is the Church of St. George. It was built in 1768 in the village of Andrushi. By the way, Taras Shevchenko visited this village in 1845 and painted the landscapes “Willows in Andrushi” and “Andrushi” there. Subsequently, Taras Grigorievich recalled: “Now it seems to me that there will not be a better paradise in the next world, like those Andrushas.” Ironically, it was in the same year, 1845, that the village was hit by a large flood. This was also evidenced by the memorial plaque: “During the reign of Emperor Nicholas and during the administration of the state peasants by the minister Count Kiselev and during the administration of this part of the Poltava province by Colonel Arandarenko, the village of Andrushi was founded on May 30 days after its destruction by the flood of the Dnieper River in 1845.”

Therefore, even in our days, when Andrushi went under the waters of the Kanev Reservoir, its residents themselves helped transport the Church of St. George to us. A memorial plaque was also delivered with him. We took as a basis the date stamped on it - May 30 - and conditionally consider it the birthday or, perhaps, the day of resurrection of all the villages of Pereyaslavshchina flooded in the reservoir.

They gathered those whose small homeland remained under water. There is great sadness in people's eyes. Since, in fact, they have nothing from their grandfather and great-grandfather. Maybe some chest, a towel, a shirt, or someone left an entire hut in the museum... Nikolai and I would also go, sometimes, to the Dnieper - where his great-grandfather once lived in Tsybli and had 80 hectares there land. Then Nikolai will point to the surface of the water and sometimes joke: there, they say, is my land...

Nikolay:— When the holiday was held on the Market Square of the museum, the Dnieper Wave choir from the village of Tsybli performed. 40 people stand on stage, sing and cry... Only what Sikorsky preserved is what remains for them from their homeland...

Lyudmila:— We have, for example, the house of Fedot Khvostik. Once upon a time there lived a man in one of the nearby villages, he had his own apiary - as many as 1000 hives. During the Great Patriotic War, he bought a tank for the front with his own money. He was so rich. And Ponytail also had three sons and a daughter. The children grew up and moved away. And the eldest son, in order not to dismantle his father’s hut, donated it to our museum. It is one of our largest - 9x16 meters, oak, strong, although built in the 19th century. The descendants live some in Kyiv, some in Moscow or somewhere else, but they often come to their father’s house as if it were their own home.

Correspondent: - Do they really spend the night in the house?

Nikolay:— There is now a Beekeeping Museum there. In the entryway there are all sorts of beekeeping supplies... There is also a photo of Grandfather Tail...

Correspondent: - You say - a beekeeping museum? Is there another museum on the territory of your museum? A museum within a museum?

Lyudmila:- Yes, and not just one - there are about a dozen of them. Each of them has a personal supervisor, or, as we joke, a director. I am, say, the “director” of the Museum of People’s Land Transport, and Nikolai, among other things, is also involved in the Museum of Bread.

Correspondent: - So introduce them at least briefly before we examine them on the spot!

On display at the Museum of People's Land Transport

Lyudmila:— I’ll tell you about “my” Museum of People’s Land Transport. It presents a collection of more than 70 exhibits. Carts, sleighs, carriages, carts... Back in the 50s, Mikhail Ivanovich ordered his messengers: go to Father Makhno, in Gulyai-Polye, and bring a real cart. They brought... There is a phaeton. At one time there were two masters of carriage making in our area. One of them, Gusakov, lived in Pereyaslav itself. He made that phaeton that is now on display, and it was found all the way in the Cherkassy region. We even have an Olympic chariot. After her, Sikorsky sent his deputy, Vera Petrovna Melnik, to the Olympic Games, and she delivered the chariot on which the real Olympic flame was transported... And there are also reconstructed things. For example, Chumatskaya mazha. As is known, the Milky Way ran from Kyiv to the Pereyaslav region. So we decided to reconstruct the mazhi. They even made amulets...

Postal Station Museum

Nikolay:— If you enter the Cossack church, you will see: everyone there is wearing towels. This is the Museum of the Ukrainian Towel; it contains about 4,000 exhibits, let’s consider the entire history of the Ukrainian people. There is also a separate Museum of Folk Rituals and Customs. And museums of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, beekeeping, forestry, the classic of Jewish literature Sholom Aleichem, the inventor of the electric welding machine Nikolai Nikolaevich Benardos...

Correspondent: — Wait a minute, what does an ethnographic museum and electric welding have in common?

Nikolay:— Everything is simple here: Sikorsky “pulled” everything interesting and instructive that he could to Pereyaslav. Therefore, exhibits, one way or another connected with Benardos, flowed here from everywhere, and we have many memorial items. This museum was opened in 1982, on the 100th anniversary of the invention of the electric welding machine. Benardos invented it first, although for a long time it was believed that the palm belonged to the Americans. For some time, Nikolai Nikolaevich (who, by the way, is also the inventor of the tin can and the electric razor, which is also described in the museum exposition) lived in Pereyaslav, and was buried in Fastov. The local museum workers at one time refused the proposal of the Institute of Electric Welding named after Academician Paton to organize a museum, but Sikorsky seized on it with great enthusiasm.

Lyudmila:— The story of the founding of the Space Museum is somewhat similar. It may seem incredible, but it just so happened that it is located... in a church. There is also a logical explanation for this fact: in order to protect the Vyunishchansky temple from flooding, Sikorsky resorted to a trick - he began to equip it, supposedly temporarily, with a Space Museum. With the support of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, its exhibition now contains unique exhibits, many of which have been in space. So the “temporary” museum has been living in the temple for more than 30 years.

Nikolay:— Indeed, many relics of the history of the region, Ukrainian culture, national traditions and rituals “moved” to us, to Tatar Mountain. When, for example, in the very center of Pereyaslav there was an ancient building of a horse-drawn postal station. And when they began to build a modern trading establishment on that site, the station immediately moved to us, its arrangement was recreated according to the model of the 19th century, and the Postal Station Museum was founded on this basis.

Lyudmila:— Knowing about Sikorsky’s ability to zealously and carefully preserve national relics, our fellow countryman Academician Tolochko, apparently, could not trust anyone else to take care of a unique archaeological find... In the Kiev Podil in the 70s, a metro was built, and at a depth of five meters they found the remains of an ancient craft street. Archaeologists were allowed to excavate only one courtyard. Therefore, since then it has been kept with us, the reconstructed exhibition is of extreme interest to visitors...

At the spring festival

Correspondent: - It looks like your visitors are interested everywhere. Is the museum always as crowded as it is today?

Nikolay:— People are very interested in the history of their region. They come as families and individually; excursions are booked by schoolchildren, students, military personnel...

Various public holidays have been held here for a long time. Today, you see, we celebrate “Green Sunday.” That's why there are especially many guests. A festive symbol - a milestone - was installed on the market square. Amateur artistic groups and masters will gather to glorify the earth, nature, and the sun. Ask the heavenly powers for blessed rain and a bountiful harvest.

Lyudmila:— We have been holding such holidays and festivals since 1986. Since then, when the state still fought against the church, national rituals and ancient beliefs of people. Even then, the museum nevertheless risked returning to national sources...

Media center of the First Excursion Bureau

We recently visited. And I want to dedicate this article to him. Stay with us, many photos and videos await you.

The small town of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky is located 85 kilometers from Kyiv. It attracted us with its historical and ethnographic reserve called “Pereyaslav”. It gives us great pleasure to visit such valuable and picturesque sights.

I’m glad that in Kyiv there is Pirogovo and Mamayeva Sloboda, where you can take a break from the bustle of the city and plunge into a completely different time space. It was not in vain that I remembered them, because open air museum in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky in its value and ideology can be compared with them.

A picturesque road led us to the city, surrounded on both sides by yellow rapeseed fields and lush winter grasses. Despite the fact that my task was to follow the navigator, I was constantly distracted by the surrounding nature, and thank God, to Pereyaslav, you don’t need to turn around too much, the road is good and you almost always need to go straight, without much hobbling, which cannot be said about the city itself. We didn't see a single sign where the museum was located!! How so?! We drove around Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky for forty minutes, and it seemed that we already knew it like the back of our hands.

As you can imagine, we arrived at the main entrance to the reserve, not in a very good mood. But everything changed when we stepped onto the territory of the open-air museum. We were amazed by the abundance of greenery and trees, due to which in some places the rays of the sun did not reach the ground. The air is clean and fresh, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing. Beauty…

The vast territory contains ethnographic exhibits of Ukrainian huts, churches, and household items from different times. The Pereyaslavl principality is associated with very important and significant historical events, and the city itself, according to chronicles, was the third largest after Kyiv and Chernigov. G. Skovoroda, Sholom Aleichem, V. Zabolotny were born, lived and worked here, and T. Shevchenko wrote his famous “Covenant”.

The open-air reserve is famous for its huge number of museums, as confirmed by the sign in front of the entrance. Honestly, we didn’t visit them all; we had enough of the ethnographic huts of the Middle Dnieper region, which characterize how people of different crafts and incomes lived at that time.

Their external and internal decoration are significantly different. Each hut contains embroidered towels, icons, clothing, household items or areas of activity. For example, in the village priest, we saw a baptismal font for babies, in the weaver - a wooden spindle, in the beekeeper - ancient beehives, etc. The rural surroundings are complemented by wooden churches and ancient “crane” wells.

Housing can also be used to judge the level of income of villagers. A rich man's house looks magnificent, even just from the outside. Solid oak gates, the original design of the hut, the number of buildings in the yard, not to mention the interior luxury. If you compare it with the housing of a poor person, whose hut is small, surrounded by a frail wicker fence, there are no more buildings. Inside it is divided into a place for livestock and for the owners. Of course, as in our time, the differences are significant.

Two lakes adorn the green area; it’s a pity that they are only overgrown with reeds, but it would have been such a wonderful view. Moreover, there are benches around for admiring. Each hut is guarded by an auntie, she looks after the appearance, cleans and welcomes guests.

Entrance to museums on the territory of the Pereyaslav Nature Reserve is paid. The price is symbolic but, in my opinion, it would be better if the cost were included in the entrance ticket. On the other hand, everyone can choose exactly the museum they want to visit.

Of course, such complexes cannot do without a market area. Various events are held here: fairs, traditional celebrations, wedding ceremonies and celebrations.

Resume. Compared to the open-air museums we saw in Kyiv, the Pereyaslav Nature Reserve is not as well maintained as it should be. The grass is not mowed everywhere, the bushes are not trimmed, and the dry tree branches are not cut off. It would be nice if all this was “rehearsed” for visitors. I would like to see such valuable sights in their proper form, because this is our history... our past, which we must know and remember.

I liked the rich green area. Very picturesque, there is a lot of space to walk. The open-air museum in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky has a valuable collection of historically important exhibits. We enjoyed walking there.

How to get to the open-air museum in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky

The town on the banks of the Dnieper - (since 2017 - Pereyaslav), is known in Ukraine as a city of museums, of which there are more than 25 in its small territory. All museums are part of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Pereyaslav", and most of them are located in a unique open air museum - Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper Region.

Construction of Ukraine's first open-air museum began in 1964 on Tatar Mountain. The main theme of the museum, which is spread over an area of ​​25 hectares, is the life of the Middle Dnieper region. More than 300 unique objects recreate the life of different eras - from the Stone Age to the home of the late 19th century.

On the picturesque territory of the museum there are 122 architectural monuments, about 20 courtyards with houses and workshops, which allow you to see how different segments of the population lived and worked in those days. The decoration of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper is the most beautiful arboretum and two artificial ponds.

At the entrance to the museum, guests are “greeted” monuments of Scythian tribes, dated VI-IV millennium BC. A little further there are houses from the times of Kievan Rus (XI century), in which poor people lived.

The 16th-19th centuries are presented as typical for Transnistria rural yards and houses. You can see houses that belonged to families with different income levels - from poor to rich, as well as different professions (a potter's house, a midwife's house, a priest's house, a cooper's house, a weaver's house).

Many churches were brought to the museum from different parts of Transnistria. For example, the very first iconic attraction of the museum was Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary- a temple built back in Cossack times (1606) on the territory of the Belotserkovsky eldership. Installed next to it belfry XVIII century, which was brought from the village of Bushevo in the Rokitnyansky district in the 1970s. Recreated near the church Cossack cemetery with stone and wooden crosses brought from destroyed cemeteries in the 18th century.

No less interesting are the defensive buildings of those times, presented Cossack pledge XVII century. Similar fortresses were built on the borders of Cossack territories and were surrounded by a moat and high towers. Inside such buildings there were stables and dwellings of the Cossacks.

Museum map

In addition to walking through the open-air museum, which is undoubtedly Ukraine, we recommend visiting thematic museums located on its territory:

1. Museum of Ukrainian Rituals and Customs.

2. Museum of the History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

3. Museum of the towel.

4. Museum of Medicinal Plants.

5. Beekeeping Museum.

6. Museum of N. N. Benardos (inventor of electric arc welding of metals).

7. Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts.

8. Space Museum.

9. Land Transport Museum.

10. Museum "Post Station".

11. Bread Museum.

12. Museum of the writer Sholom Aleichem.

You can visit the Open Air Museum in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky either independently or as part of a tour.

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