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Detailed information about the exposition

House from Orikhovytsia
of Uzhhorod district

It represents one of the expanded options for a yard in the Uzhan Valley and the life of a villager farmer. The house has three rooms: a room, a hall, and a pantry.

The room has a traditional setting. The area near the stove was a kitchen area. The hostess prepared meals for the family, fodder for livestock, and baked bread here. Among the furniture, the table was also important. The corner where the table stood was considered the most honorable one - the guests were seated behind it, and the whole family gathered there during the holiday. Long carved benches were under the front and end walls, on which family members slept. Sometimes, owners sat near the window and used benches for various household tasks (repairing shoes, embroidering, spinning).

A barn, a wooden chicken coop on high legs, and a crane well are in the manor's yard.

House from Rakoshyno
of Mukachevo district

The house represents the housing of a middle-class villager, which is characteristic of the folk construction of the population in the valley of the Latorytsia River. The house was built in 1869, as evidenced by the carved inscription in the living room.

The house is made of wood, along the front and end walls, there is a semi-open gallery ("tornats"), the lower part of which is sheathed with boards and decorated with slotted carvings. The roof is gable with truncated gables, decorated with carvings in the form of stars and the moon.

The house layout has three rooms (two living rooms and a hall), which was typical for the housing construction of Ukrainians in the second half of the 19th century.

The manor yard has farm buildings: a barn, a kish ("koshnytsia") for corn, and a dovecote on high legs.

House from Dovhe
of Irshava district

The house reproduces the level of folk construction of the second half of the 19th century and is typical for the population of the valley of the upper reaches of the Borzhava River. The house is three-part, consisting of a room, a hall, and a storeroom.

The hall exhibition reproduces the pottery craft, which gained considerable popularity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Here you can see the potter's wheel and other tools of the potter's work - a wooden knife ("fokyish") for smoothing the outer side of products, a piece of leather ("slyzka") for smoothing crowns, a dart ("drut") for cutting products from the potter's wheel, pysak, which was used to paint the products.

A pottery stove for firing clay products is in the yard near the house.

House from Steblivka
of Khust district

The house represents one of the types of folk dwellings. They existed in the south of Khust and Tiachiv districts. The house is a sample of the only two-room dwelling in the museum exposition. Its feature is that both rooms are isolated from each other, and each has a separate entrance from the gallery.

The climatic conditions of the foothills determined the peculiarities of the shape of the roof. The roof is high, four-sloped, three times higher than the visible part of the walls. Snow slides off this roof faster, and water runs off.

Next to the house, there is an old apiary, in the exposition of which there presented a two-story structure ("pcholnyk") and several samples of beehives. The ancient "duplianka" beehives, made from a log hollowed out from the middle, attract attention. The lower part of the duplianka consisted of the bottom, built up from boards, and a hole for bees. More perfect are the frame beehives, which are also exhibited here.

Korchma from Verkhnyi Bystryi
of Mizhhiria district

The korchma from Verkhnii Bystryi, exhibited in the museum, was built in the 60s of the 19th century. It was transferred twice: first, from the old village dwelling above the river to the new road, which ran from the Vyshiv Pass to Mizhhiria, and then to Khust. With the appearance of other korchmas here, the usurer center of Verkhnii Bystryi was fully created. In the village, in addition to the official ones with a patent permit, there were also so-called "blind korchmas" (trafiikas) that did not have such a permit to sell drinks.

In 1977, the korchma moved to a museum. The framework, floor, and roof were built using traditional local construction techniques. However, the size and layout of the korchma are somewhat different from the villager houses.

The framework of the korchma is made of spruce logs, joined at the corners in locks ("kaniuks"). The foundation (tram) of the framework is installed on a low stone foundation. The roof is high, four-pitched, covered with wood chips. Semicircular holes, made in it, are dymnymy. The building has a large roof overhang. The wide roof protects the walls well from precipitation.

House from Bedevlia
of Tiachevo district

The house from Bedevlia was built in 1888 (the date (25th of March, 1888)  is carved in two places, one of them being the doorpost) and shows a typical dwelling of wealthy villagers.

The house is divided into three parts: two living rooms and a hall. A door leads to the hall from the porch. You can see the inscription "The house was built by Tyvodar Ivan" on the doorpost.

A kish set up for drying and storing corn cobs is in the yard in front of the house. It has a four-sloped roof, which is removable to fill with corn cobs. In the lower part of the basket, there is a small rectangular hole for removing the cobs.

House from Serednie Vodiane
of Rakhiv district

The house from Serednie Vodiane is a typical dwelling of a middle-class villager of the end of the 19th - the first half of the 20th century, pretty common among the Romanian population of the region, consisting of a festive room, a dining room, and a living room.

We enter the courtyard of the Romanian house through a monumental entrance consisting of two parts: a wooden gate for passage and a wide gate for carts. Similar gate types were widely used in Transcarpathia and were a bright decoration of the streets.

The entrance to the house is from the main facade: at first, we get into the hall and from here - into the living quarters.

House from Vyshkovo
of Khust district

The house from Vyshkovo represents one of the types of folk housing of the Hungarian population of Transcarpathia. It was built in 1879, as evidenced by the carved inscription on the central scroll ("meshterherenda").

The house layout, which consists of four rooms, is peculiar: two living rooms, a kitchen, and a storeroom. On one side of the house, under the closet, is a cellar storing fruits, vegetables, and wine. A high foundation built on this side changed the house's appearance.

Watermill from Kolochava
of Mizhhiria district

In addition to house samples, our museum presents samples of technical old Transcarpathian structures: a mill, a stupa-suknovalnia, and a valylo. A mill building, consisting of a room for the mechanism and a small room,  was traditional for a Transcarpathian village of the 19th - early 20th centuries. It served as a temporary shelter for the miller and the villagers who brought grain.

The average size of the mill was 4×8 m2. The working room occupied two-thirds of the area of the building. It had through doors: grain was brought into one, and finished products - flour - were taken out of the other.

Mills were usually built near a river or stream. The river water was brought to the mill through a special channel (called "roztoka," "mlynovytsia").

In addition to the room with the mechanism in the mill, there was also a small living room where the miller could live, or people stayed overnight while waiting for their turn.

House-grazda from Rakhiv district

One of the most colorful examples of Hutsul folk construction is the house-grazhda - a complex of residential and farm buildings that forms a single architectural and constructive building, closed around the perimeter, reminiscent of a fortress. The construction of closed complexes, in addition to economic needs, also performed defensive functions: protection of residents from danger, domestic animals from wild animals, and during the long winter - from wind and snow.

The buildings are located in two rows. The first row consists of a three-part dwelling with storerooms attached to it on both sides and sheds sheltering sheep from the rear facade. The second row is made up of farm buildings - a barn ("stalov"), a yard storeroom ("klit"), behind which is a woodshed ("drovarnia").

House from Yasinia (settlement Keveliv)
of Rakhiv district

The house from the village of Yasinia is a model of housing construction and household culture of the poor Hutsul and is the oldest in the museum's exposition (built in the middle of the 18th century).

The house is one of the smallest in the museum in terms of area, but its appearance gives the impression of a reliable, strong dwelling that has served more than one generation of people. The walls of the hut were built using a log technique from four massive ash half-logs with a diameter of 50-60 cm. The plan of the building is three-part (living room-hall-pantry), semi-chimney with the discharge of smoke into the hall through a four-sided pipe woven from rods and plastered with clay.

House from Rekity
of Mizhhiria district

The house from Rekity represents one of the common types of folk dwellings of the Boykos of Transcarpathia.

The Boykos' dwelling has preserved several architectural and structural features: a high roof, which exceeds the frame of the wall, and a trapezoidal entrance door, the shape of which dates back to the existence of a primitive dwelling (kurin).

Young shoots of spruce ("tsari," "koroli") draw attention to the doorway of the entrance door leading to the hall - an ancient talisman that performed protective and protective functions (it protected against thunder and lightning, and evil spells of witches).

The house is divided into three parts: a living room, a hall, and a storeroom.

House from Huklyvyi
of Volovets district

The house from Huklyvyi represents a common version of the folk housing of the Boykos, which consisted of a hall, a room, and a storeroom.

A characteristic feature of the layout of the house is the location of the living room between the barn and the pantry, which contributed to its insulation. Each of the three premises has its functional purpose and equipment.

The pantry, a cold and clean room, was used to store food, various dishes, household items, and traditional festive and everyday clothes.

House from Husnyi
of Velykyi Bereznyi district

The manor house Husnyi is an example of a single-row type of courtyard construction, in which housing and utility rooms are placed in one row along a straight axis and united by one roof.

Unique geographical and climatic conditions caused house construction and location. Such a manor house, which received the name "long house (hyzha)," represents an early form of construction, widespread in Transcarpathia, especially on the Boyko-Lemko border.

The house is a long (19 m) rectangular building, under one roof of which there are five rooms: a hall - a room - a pantry - a stodola ("pelevnia") - a barn ("stainia"). The agricultural and animal household direction of the economy determined the need for appropriate economic premises, the nature and number of which directly depended on the socio-economic status of the villagers.

House from Tybava
of Svaliava district

One of the oldest houses in the museum - a house from Tybava, Svaliava district - represents folk construction at the end of the 18th century. According to some researchers, Yurii Venelin-Hutsa was probably born in this house since his parents lived here. The man is a famous Ukrainian historian, philologist, ethnographer, and researcher of the history of Bulgaria.

The house is a log three-part structure typical for this area. It consists of a room, a hall, and a storeroom.

The hall and the storeroom were used as utility rooms. Essential items - susiks for grain and various household utensils - are stored here.

Church from Kolchyno
(settlement Shelestovo) 
of Mukachevo district

One of the best examples of the old Transcarpathian temple architecture is the Church of the Archangel Michael. It is the gem of the museum exposition. The church was built in 1777 in Shelestovo (now subordinate to the village council of Kolchyno) of Mukachevo district. In 1927, it was moved to Mukachevo to be preserved as a piece of folk construction, and in 1974, it was installed on the territory of the museum.

The Shelestovo church is a model of the Lemkos church-building tradition. Folk masters managed to create a complete architectural composition of the temple, which combines the traditional forms of Boyko type with Lemko. The genius of the builder managed to combine two styles (tent and baroque) into a single integrated architectural composition, which still amazes us with its beauty and perfection. The plan of the church is two stories but three parts: a vestibule (babynets), a nave, and an altar.

At the entrance to the church, we can see bells cast in 1925 in the workshops of Mali Heiivtsi. This village workshop, founded by Ferenc Egri back in 1793, supplied bells to the countries of Central Europe, which testifies to the rich traditions of artistic molding in Transcarpathia in the past.

School from Synevyrska Poliana 
of Mizhhiria district

The school on display in the museum is a peculiar monument of folk construction of the second half of the 19th century. It is a typical rural dwelling with changes in the traditional layout, such as larger dimensions.

The school is built from spruce wood, using traditional logging techniques. An open gallery stretches along the main facade at the foundations. The roof is four-sloped. Rafters are attached with horizontally nailed battens, and the wooden chips are installed on them.

The structure of the ceiling ("podovynia") consists of four longitudinal beams ("gerendas") on which thick boards are laid. The floor in the classroom and the teacher's room is made of clay, and the hall and storeroom are made of thick boards.

On the doorpost is written: "In the year of God, 1883, Ternavchuk Ilko and his wife, Plaha, and their children gave the task. The work was completed on the 24th of the month of July. Master Halai Yurko".

Smithy from Dubove
of Tiachevo district

This specific object was a necessary component of almost every Transcarpathian village in the past. The main tools, tools, weapons, household items, and even jewelry were made from iron.

The first forges, as centers of iron processing, were already at the beginning of the establishment of the Kyivan Rus statehood. However, the possibility of having smithies in an earlier period is not excluded. Various blacksmith tools were found in different areas. 

As a rule, a village began with a smithy. It was usually placed at a crossroads so that passers-by could shoe their horses while traveling on one or another road.

The forge played a crucial role in the economic life of the Transcarpathian village in the past, and now it is a fascinating piece of folk crafts.

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