Detailed description of the Museum of Ecology and Ethnography of the Carpathian Region
In Yaremche, the basis for the creation of such a museum was the private collection of Hilovsky, which included more than 700 exhibits of art and household items of the Hutsuls. It was thanks to this collection that the first museum was founded in Yaremche in the 1930s. A larger local history museum was opened on its basis in 1963. Local historian Mykhailo Muzyra played a major role in its creation. Thanks to his efforts, a large number of ethnographic, historical and natural history exhibits were collected in a short period of time.
In 1967, the original building of the museum was constructed, which looks like a partisan hut (designed by architect V. Stasiv). This original building housed the S. Kovpak Museum of Partisan Glory, which was created on the basis of the local history museum. After Ukraine gained its independence in 1993, this Soviet museum was reorganised into the Carpathian Regional Museum of the Liberation Movement. In 2007, after another reorganisation, the museum became a branch of the Kolomyia Museum of Hutsul and Pokuttya Folk Art named after Y. Kobrynsky, and was renamed the Museum of Ethnography and Ecology of the Carpathian Region.
Visiting this museum, you can learn a lot about the ethnic groups of the Ukrainian Carpathians, the cultural and everyday life of the Carpathian region, and the relationship between humans and the environment. However, the main profile of the museum is the folk art of the Hutsuls of the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The museum’s exhibits include tapestries by the People’s Artist of Ukraine Mykhailo Bilas, spindles, blankets, Hutsul clothes, household items, collections of Easter eggs, ceramic products from the Gilovsky workshop, etc.
Nowadays, this museum has become the true heart of Yaremche’s cultural life. Its life is filled with exhibitions of Hutsul folk art, festivals, thematic roundtables and seminars, ethnography lessons for pupils and students, as well as meetings with famous artists of the region.
