Pirogovo, Kiev, Ukraine

It was a lovely autumn day in Kiev, Ukraine. But we were a little bit tired by all this noisy and crowded big city. So we needed to have a walk in the nature or some villages. For this in Kiev there is a perfect place – an “open-air museum”.

Museum of Folk Architecture and Life (Pirogovo)

(Музей народної архітектури та побуту України)

The foundation of “Museum of Folk Architecture and Life Ukraine” started in 6^th February 1969 during the times of Soviet Union. Pirogovo is the name of a village near the museum but now for local people this is the popular name of the museum (Although the origin of the toponym is uncertain, pyrohiv is genitive plural form of the Ukrainian word for pie.). The great idea for this museum is to preserve the culture of Ukrainian villages during the period 18^th – 20^th century.

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Everything in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is great to see, to learn about the history of this great country. But the rural museum is my most favourite. So one sunny day we took the metro to station “Demievskaya”, after that an old trolleybus, number 11. This type of trolley cars are well-known in Eastern Europe. We reached …er, not exactly the museum, but we reached the last station of the line, and after a short walk of about 20 minutes we reached the museum doors.

It was Wednesday. Wednesday is the day of prophylactic. The houses are being cleaned, flowers are being planted in the house gardens, like in the country. But there still are and some open houses where you can see the typical rural Ukrainian interior. And the advantage – no too much tourists.

The admission fee is 30 hrivni (Ukrainian currency is Ukrainian hryvnia, 30 hrivni are about 2,6 euro)

Ukrainian village in 60th and 70th (contemporary village)

Our journey starts from Ukrainian rural houses from the time of USSR. That was also the time of creation of the museum so the section was named “contemporary village”. The houses are so lovely colorful, everyone who had lived in Eastern Europe in this period can recognize some furniture from his home or the home of his parents. Beautiful tidy quiet home yards and gardens. With oaks, birch or the red colors of rowans (mountain ash).

A lovely house from Ivane-Puste village – Termopil region (close to Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania)

Singers field

Here in the field on the background of wind mills and seated at wooden benches and tables we were had a greasy sausage and borsch (very tasty soup). The prices are a little higher than the normal prices in Kiev, but you should try everything. There you can visit also some cute restaurants with traditional food.

Poltavschina and Sloboda (historical region today – Kharkiv and Sumi)

Unfortunately I’m not sure which house is from Poltavchina and which one is from Sloboda, but they all are so gorgeous and lovely beautiful.

Polesia

A historical region divided between Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Russia.

Bukovina

Another historical region close to Moldova, nowadays divided between Ukraine and Romania.

Carpathian Ukraine

One of my big dreams is to visit this picturesque Carpathian Mountains. They are so close to my country (Bulgaria) but I’ve never been to this part of Europe, what a pity! Carpathian, wait for me soon!

In the museum the Carpathian area is also placed in the highest part. You should gather all your powers to make this walk in the top of the hill. There is a small touristic train, but we reached this part at our own feet.