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museumUNESCO World Heritage⭐ 4.6 (4521 reviews)

National Museum of Folk Architecture and Folkways of Ukraine

Living open-air museum - a journey through Ukrainian villages

📍 Kyiv, Kyiv•🏛️ 1969

About This Site

National Museum of Folk Architecture and Folkways of Ukraine (Pyrohiv) is Eastern Europe's largest open-air museum covering 133.5 hectares, featuring over 300 authentic buildings from all regions of Ukraine.

Pyrohiv Museum was founded in 1969 and is a unique architectural and landscape complex representing the major historical and ethnographic regions of Ukraine. The museum territory occupies 133.5 hectares (1.5 km²), where over 300 monuments of folk architecture have been collected from different parts of Ukraine and restored on this territory. The museum preserves over 70,000 exhibits of household and traditional culture: costumes, old textiles, embroidery, carpets, ceramics, metalwork, woodcarving, glassware, musical instruments, paintings, and household items. The exposition includes houses (khaty), farm buildings, wooden churches, and windmills. The oldest building in the museum is the Naddnipranska Church built in 1742. A picturesque hill with several windmills is the museum's centerpiece. The territory is divided into sectors, each representing the folk architecture and life of a specific Ukrainian region: Middle Dnieper, Slobozhanshchyna, Polissia, Podillia, Carpathians, Southern Ukraine.

Historical Significance

On February 6, 1969, Resolution No. 105 of the USSR Council of Ministers 'On the establishment of the State Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Ukrainian SSR' was adopted. This followed a number of public initiatives, including an open letter from architect S. Verkhovsky along with well-known Ukrainian figures of science and culture. Petro Tymofiyovych Tronko (1915-2011) is considered the founder of the museum, who personally chose the museum's location. The museum was opened to visitors in 1976. In 2004, the museum received National status. Since 2008, the museum has been under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The museum is the largest open-air museum in Eastern Europe and is of exceptional importance for the preservation and study of regional Ukrainian traditions. It is a unique place where visitors can see authentic buildings from different epochs (16th-20th centuries) and regions, learn about the life of Ukrainian villagers and townsfolk. The museum is an important center of cultural-ethnographic research.