Back to the Ukrainian past at Pirogovo Open Air Museum

IMPORTANT UPDATE, FEBRUARY 2022: Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th and there’s an ongoing war. Therefore, it’s NO LONGER SAFE to travel anywhere in the country, and this includes Kyiv and the rest of Western Ukraine! I will keep this post up in the hopes that things will change for the better – but PLEASE DO NOT TRAVEL TO UKRAINE AT THIS TIME!

After spending a week in Kyiv, my mum and I were eager to get out of the city and into nature! We didn’t really know where to go, but after researching, I suggested that we go to the nearby Holosiiv National Nature Park and then walk through it to get to the Pirogovo Open Air Museum. Doing this, we would experience a good mix of Ukrainian nature, culture and history.

We caught the metro from downtown Kyiv to Holosiivska station, located at the periphery of the nature park. The park belongs to the forest-steppe zone and consists of several spatially disconnected woodlands and large lakes, surrounded by the urban area of Kyiv.

The 1,879 hectare area has a variety of landscapes with significant biodiversity and important cultural and ethnographic monuments, making it a popular outdoor destination for locals.

We spent a few hours walking through the open woodlands, feeding ducks by the many lakes and admiring the beautiful golden-domed Sviato-Pokrovskyi Golosiiv Monastery from afar. After walking alone through the forest for what seemed like forever, we finally came to a spot that was bustling! In the middle of the forest was a ski resort – who would’ve guessed that!? We spent a few moments there looking at the skiers and cuddling the cutest little puppies before walking back into the forest.

Not long after, we came to the tiny village of Samburky. Despite being surrounded by a forest that is surrounded by an urban area, the village felt very rural. Although we didn’t have time to go out into the countryside on this trip, seeing Samburky was a great taste of it, and actually felt very “real”. I thought that we were almost at the open air museum now, which our tired legs were waiting for, but unfortunately, I had misread the map and we had ended up at the back of the museum. At most museums this wouldn’t be an issue as one could simply walk a few hundred meters to the entrance, but in this case, it was not simply a small walk. At 150 hectares, the museum is rather huge and it just happened to be fenced in – all the way. Otherwise we could’ve just walked through the museum to the entrance, but nope, instead we had to follow the fence around the museum for several kilometers before we finally came to a road that led us to the entrance.

  

We weren’t actually sure if it was open or not as there weren’t many people about, but luckily it was – and it actually turned out to be my highlight of the trip to Ukraine! The museum was founded in 1969 in the ancient village of Pyrohiv that dates back to the Bronze Age. The museum itself contains several traditional village with over 300 pieces of folk architecture, brought to the area from all parts of Ukraine, including traditional houses, windmills, schools, churches and cathedrals. Each village represents the folk architecture and life of a specific time period and region of Ukraine, spanning from the 17th to the 20th century.

It’s possible to enter most of the buildings, where you’ll find traditional household items, textiles, ceramics, metal handicrafts, woodwork, glassware, musical instruments, paintings etc., representing the everyday lifestyle in the old villages. You can also be lucky to see local volunteers and artisans dressed in traditional clothes and demonstrating the use of old items. We met an old man who was playing a traditional Ukrainian instrument, which sounded wonderful. We also had several chats with senior volunteers, whose jobs were to unlock the doors of the buildings that we wanted to enter.

The area is incredibly picturesque, and I could’ve easily spent several hours walking around and exploring everything – if only it wasn’t for our tired legs. After all, we’d been walking through the forest all day before even getting to the museum! Needless to say, I absolutely loved Pirogovo Open Air Museum. Mainly because it reminded me a lot of my old workplace, the Land of Legends, which I miss dearly.  The visit gave us a great insight and understanding of Ukraine and the nation’s history, and it’s highly recommended as a day trip from Kyiv!

  

How to get to Pirogovo Open Air Museum

Through Holosiivskyi National Nature Park = Catch the metro from Kyiv to Holosiivska station. The metro is easy to navigate, and all the station names are written in English as well as Cyrillic. Walk southwest through the park until you get to the museum. Don’t forget to bring a map or download an offline map for your phone (I always use maps.me), so you don’t get lost. To get back to Kyiv, take bus no. 11 or no. 507 or a taxi back to the metro station and catch a metro to downtown. I don’t know how frequently the busses run, but we only waited for about 20 minutes. I’m sure the employees will help you out with either the bus times or calling a taxi.

Directly from Kyiv = Catch a metro to the Demiivska station and take bus no. 11 or no. 507 or a taxi to the museum. Reverse the itinerary to get back to Kyiv.

Info on the museum

• Opening hours = 10 AM to 5 PM. As far as I could tell, the museum is open year-round, but may be closed on national holidays.
• Ticket prices = 50 UAH for adults, 30 UAH for students and pensionists and 15 UAH for children.
• Toilet facilities = Not the best – I’d recommend going to the toilet in Kyiv or in nature!
• Official website = http://www.pyrohiv.com/