Poltava Local History Museum, Local history museum in Poltava, Ukraine

Muzeum Krajoznawcze w Połtawie is a regional museum housed in a substantial building in central Poltava, displaying archaeological artifacts, historical documents, and regional collections. The exhibitions span multiple levels and present objects that trace the history of the area from ancient settlements through to modern times.

Founded in 1891 on the initiative of Professor Vasyl Dokuchaev as the Natural History Museum of the Poltava Provincial Zemstvo, with Mykhailo Olekhovsky as its first head. In 1906 Kateryna Skarzhynska donated some 20,000 items and a research library. From 1920 the whole zemstvo building housed the Central Proletarian Museum of Poltava Region; after wartime looting and fire, the collection was rebuilt.

The museum displays traditional crafts and folk art that reflect how people lived in the Poltava region over generations. Through textiles, pottery, and household items on view, you can see the skills and artistic traditions that families passed down through time.

The building stands on a slope, so it shows two and a half storeys from the main facade and three and a half from the courtyard. The entrance is opposite the Taras Shevchenko monument in Sun Park, a constructivist work by Ivan Kavaleridze. The symmetrical H-shaped plan places the vestibule, main hall and assembly hall in the centre, with wide corridors in the wings.

The museum's name honours Vasyl Krychevsky, the architect and artist whose Ukrainian Modernist design won the 1902 competition for the building. His facade carried 15 glazed majolica coats of arms of Poltava province districts, and Opishnia potters fired 24,458 tiles for the interiors.