National Museum of Folk Architecture and Folkways of Ukraine, Open-air ethnographic museum in Pyrohiv, Ukraine
The National Museum of Folk Architecture and Folkways of Ukraine is an open-air museum in Pyrohiv on the southern edge of Kyiv. The collection includes around 300 buildings from all parts of the country, among them wooden churches, windmills, barns, and homes spread across a large wooded site.
The museum was founded in February 1969 and opened to the public seven years later. Many of the buildings were erected from the 16th century onward in different villages and later moved to this location.
Many of the wooden houses show how families lived in the countryside, with stoves, hand-woven rugs, and ceramic dishes inside the rooms. Visitors can walk through the farmsteads and see how workshops, barns, and storage buildings were arranged around a common yard.
The site lies near Holosiiv Forest and is accessible most days, with paths between buildings that are partly unpaved. Comfortable shoes are useful because distances can be long.
The oldest exhibit is a house from 1587 that was brought here from Samary village in the Volyn region. Some of the churches were built entirely of wood without nails, with all parts fitted together using joinery.
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