A Carpathian Village in the City of the Lion. Shevchenkivskyi Hai

The cultural capital of Ukraine, our beloved Lviv, rich in architectural heritage and national traditions, known for its theatres, churches, parks and coffee houses, will never cease to amaze with masterpieces of monumental art. The city of 3 thousand lions in stone and metal, scattered all across the district, has concealed within itself yet another pearl of folk building.

Lviv. The Klymentii Sheptytsky Museum of Folk Architecture and Life

Not far from the centre, with its Baroque and Renaissance stone houses, in a colourful corner on wooded hills, are located wooden architectural monuments that have moved to the capital of Galicia from other regions of Western Ukraine.

Lviv. Shevchenkivskyi Hai. A Carpathian cottage

The Museum of Folk Architecture and Life was founded in the 1920s by the art historian I. S. Svientsitsky and opened in 1971.

On a territory of 36 hectares are presented the surviving specimens of wooden architecture of Hutsulshchyna, Lemkivshchyna, Boikivshchyna, Polissia, Podillia, Volyn, Bukovyna, Pokuttia, Lowland Zakarpattia and the Lviv region.

The skansen numbers more than 22 thousand exhibits and 124 architectural monuments.

Each village in miniature occupies its own picturesque corner in the ethno-park, and the journey from one zone to another turns into a fascinating and instructive walk.

A shepherd's hut

Unofficially the museum is called Shevchenkivskyi Hai, in honour of the national poet.

The Lviv skansen has gathered the largest number of sacred buildings among the world's open-air museums, and services are held in all its churches. The pioneer of the museum is considered to be the Church of St Nicholas from the village of Kryvky in the Lviv region, built in 1761. As the number of believers grew, the villagers wanted to dismantle the old prayer house and build a new one in its place. At the request of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and his brother Klymentii Sheptytsky, whose name the museum bears, the shrine was dismantled and in 1930 brought to Lviv on carts.

The Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha was erected in 1992 in memory of the union of Lemkivshchyna with Kyivan Rus. The church is a copy of the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian from the Polish village of Kotań, in which, before the deportation of 1945, Ukrainians lived and prayed.

In 1969 the Trinity Church arrived from the village of Klokuchka, dating to 1774. This former diocesan cathedral is composed of three oak log frames of different sizes and constructions.

The cemetery chapel in the village of Yalynkuvate, Skole district, Lviv region, is composed of the logs of a church of 1752 destroyed during a storm.

In the 19th century, schools were built with public money from local building materials. The primary school in the village of Busovysko, Staryi Sambir district, Lviv region, consists of two halves — a classroom and living quarters for the teacher. Pupils climbed the porch, entering the village temple of learning, and on the roof a school bell announced the start of lessons.

In the museum you can enter every house, view the interiors of the dwellings, admire the paintwork and examine the holy images, the embroidered towels and the tableware. The preserved objects recreate the atmosphere of the time when the owners lived in them.

The Boikos are an ethnographic group who engaged in farming and in the working of wood and flax. In the Boikos' houses, the living and the domestic quarters were placed under one roof. The home was decorated with a gallery, something like a veranda, and with arched doors.

A cottage from the village of Mshanets, Staryi Sambir district, Lviv region, demonstrates a specimen of the simplest closed-type dwelling of the early 20th century.

In the so-called "long cottage", roofed with straw and boards, there is everything needed for living and for running a household — the entrance hall, the living room, the shed, the storeroom, the carpentry workshop and the stable.

The main types of activity for the inhabitants of Lowland Zakarpattia were farming, animal husbandry and horticulture.

Among the people of Zakarpattia, the dwelling and the domestic buildings are joined together and fenced in. The cottage in the village of Zarichevo, Perechyn district, Zakarpattia region, was built by M. Pekar. The master restored it in 1973 for the exhibition.

The village of Vyznytsia, Mukachevo district, Zakarpattia region, is represented by a cottage of 1860.

The homestead from the village of Krainykovo, Khust district, Zakarpattia region, consists of a cottage, a storeroom, a well and a mill.

A Ukrainian village begins with an apiary, and the inhabitants of the Carpathians have engaged in beekeeping since ancient times.

On the grounds of the skansen you can see what the water and windmills, the fulling mill, the smithy, the sawmill, the oil press and the wells were like in the villages of Western Ukraine.

In the village of Triitsia, Sniatyn district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, a cottage built in 1895 was treated with clay and whitewashed.

The homestead of a well-to-do owner from the village of Verbovets, Kosiv district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, is arranged according to the characteristic traditions of Hutsulshchyna. The former pigsty, threshing barn and shed serve as exhibits of the skansen, and in the house a collection of faience tableware and homespun clothing has been gathered.

All the buildings of the homestead from the village of Berezhonka, Vyzhnytsia district, Chernivtsi region, are enclosed by a fence. Household objects, agricultural implements, tools, a well, and cages with rabbits and hens recreate the atmosphere of a genuine Bukovyna village.

On the grounds of the museum, various folklore festivals and fairs, haivky and nativity plays, unusual performances and master classes are constantly held. Only in Shevchenkivskyi Hai can you learn to play ancient musical instruments, boil soap, churn butter, paint stained glass, bake bread in an oven and many other crafts.

The relief of the ethnographic park bears a resemblance to the relief of mountain villages.

Steep descents and stony climbs, forest thickets and the blue mirror of a woodland lake, the singing of birds and the scent of pine recall excursions to the Dead Lake and the Dovbush Rocks in the very heart of the Carpathians.

But this world, in which our forefathers lived, is located in the central part of our beautiful Lviv.

Lviv. The Klymentii Sheptytsky Museum of Folk Architecture and Life. The cherry tree

The address of the Klymentii Sheptytsky Museum of Folk Architecture and Life: Lviv, Chernecha Hora Street, 1. Opening hours: 10:00-18:00. Day off — Monday.

You can have a bite to eat at the cafe on the grounds of the skansen or in the numerous cafes of Lviv.

Coordinates: 49°50'43"N 24°4'12"E