The Old Village Museum in Uzhhorod: Transcarpathia in miniature
In the very heart of old Ungvar, on the slope of Castle Hill, not far from Uzhhorod Castle, sits one of the most unique open-air museums in the country - the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, or the Old Village Museum in Uzhhorod. All its exhibits can be seen in the open air: these are the astonishing buildings of the lowland and mountain districts of the region: the Rusyn valley-dwellers, Romanians, Hungarians, Boykos and Hutsuls.
The history of the museum’s founding
The Old Village Museum in Uzhhorod officially opened at the end of June 1970. For the open-air exhibition the buildings most characteristic of each Transcarpathian ethnic group were selected (over its history the region was part of 22 (!) states) and moved to Uzhhorod. It is one of the first open-air museums in Ukraine, for before that a similar museum existed only in the town of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi. At first they wanted to build it outside the town, near the Horyany Rotunda, but settled on Castle Hill. Do not be frightened by the past of this site - the area on which the open-air museum stands was used in the XIX century as a cemetery and bore the name “Grave Garden”. In the city the museum was nicknamed the “Old Village”, for on arriving here you truly feel transported into a real Transcarpathian village.
All in all, today the open-air museum lets you see 7 homesteads, 6 dwellings, a church, a school, a granary (kish), a valylo (fulling mill), a mill, a smithy and other masterpieces of the people’s heritage - over 20 buildings of various purposes in all, and around 14 000 diverse exhibits! Each of them has - its own unique, one-of-a-kind story.
The Old Village Museum in Uzhhorod: only authentic exhibits
The first to appear in the open-air museum was a cottage from the village of Huklyve, in the Volovets district. Originally it was a smoke hut with an open hearth. In the past whole peasant families of the Rusyn valley-dwellers lived in such houses.
In the museum you can also see dwelling houses built in the XVIII-XX centuries. Striking and astonishing are the Boyko houses from the village of Rekity in the Mizhhirya area and the village of Husne in the Velykyi Bereznyi district. The latter is known as the “long cottage” and belonged to Mykhailo Sverlovych, who toiled hard in a mine in America in order to build the house. This cottage was among the first to be moved to the museum, in 1967.
Of particular interest is the grazhda house - a true architectural rarity! Today this type of Hutsul enclosed courtyard, with quarters for sheep and cattle, has almost not survived in Transcarpathia. It is the only architectural 
The architecture of the Romanian ethnic group, who still live in some villages of Transcarpathia today, is represented by a house from the village of Serednie Vodiane (Rakhiv district), and that of the Hungarians - a cottage from the village of Vyshkovo in the Khust area. One of the oldest monuments of folk construction is a house moved from the village of Tybava in the Svaliava district. This is a typical dwelling of the foothill districts.
The Transcarpathian interiors, which recreate the everyday life of the people of Transcarpathia in the museum, hold a host of interesting exhibits. These include old household utensils, all manner of items made by folk craftsmen, working tools, festive and everyday clothing and adornments. Also wonderfully original in its workings is the water mill from the village of Kolochava (Mizhhirya district) and a smithy from the village of Dubove (Tyachiv district).
The museum even has its own folk school - brought from the village of Synevyrska Polyana in the Mizhhirya district. The building was constructed in the second half of the XIX century from spruce wood using the traditional log-building technique. You will see the benches and desks at which the children studied, the slate boards on which they wrote, and the teacher’s old abacus.
In the open-air museum you can visit a genuine tavern from 1860, which was brought here from the village of Verkhniy Bystryi in the Mizhhirya district. Inside there are several rooms: the tavern itself with its bar, a kitchen, a pantry, the owners’ bedroom, an entrance hall and a yankir, or overnight shelter.
Unique wooden churches
Transcarpathia is famed for its unique wooden churches, one of them - the Church of St Michael in the village of Uzhok - is even inscribed on the UNESCO heritage list. Most such churches were built by unknown craftsmen “by eye”, 
without a plan, without nails or a saw, using only their hands and an axe. An example of such wooden architecture stands in the open-air museum too - it is the Church of the Archangel Michael, built in the village of Shelestovo in the Mukachevo area in 1777. It is the only classic Lemko church remaining in Transcarpathia, and in all of Ukraine there are just two. In the 1920s it was moved to Mukachevo, and from there, in 1974 - to the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Uzhhorod. The central and eastern log frames of the church have preserved the multi-tiered, so-called tent-and-stepped form of roofing. A slender bell tower rises above the church. The roof is made of shingle - oak scale-shaped tiles, while the lower tier of the roof is supported by carved posts. As with its other wooden “sisters”, no one knows the ingenious author of the Shelestovo church.
The Old Village open-air museum in Uzhhorod enchants everyone who has been here even once in their life, for it carries you back into the past of this wondrous region, showcasing unique historical architectural charms and traditions of the late XIX - first quarter of the XX century. It is like stepping into Transcarpathia in miniature!
