Museum "Hut-Grazhda" of a Hutsul housewife

The Hutsul Household Museum is a historical and ethnographic museum created in the house of the Haruk family (Zarichchia village, Kryvorivnia village). The land and tax books contain entries about this house dating back to 1858 (according to other sources, 1790). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Palii and Paraska Haruky lived here. The Haruks were often visited by Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, and Volodymyr Hnatiuk, who vacationed in Kryvorivnia and collected ethnographic materials. In 1964, the hut was used during the filming of the movie Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Since 1984, the hut-hrazhda has been empty.

In 1993, the building was restored and a year later, during the First World Congress of Hutsuls, a museum was opened here. The museum has hosted the following exhibitions: a photo exhibition by Lida Sukhi from Rochester, "Kryvorivnia through the Eyes of Foreign Guests," a photo exhibition by Vasyl Kobyliuk, "Verkhovyna in the Lens," and an exhibition of paintings from the museum's collection, "Art Beautiful and Eternal."

A hata-grazhda is a type of manor house characteristic of Galicia, where the living and utility rooms are connected and form a closed rectangular courtyard. This type of rural estate was widespread in the Hutsul region in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. It resembles a small fortress in shape-a closed courtyard consisting of a house and outbuildings attached to it, with a gate that was locked at night. The fortress was well fortified, mainly to protect it from predators and strong winds. As has been studied in many works, in particular by the famous Galician ethnographer V. Shukhevych, Hutsul houses were not located continuously, but were scattered in the mountains around villages.

This hut is closely associated with the name of Ivan Franko, because, having arrived at the invitation of Volodymyr Hnatiuk in 1901, Franko lived here in Zarichchia until 1906, when he moved to the village center, next to the hut of the herbalist Prots Mitchuk, who treated him with medicinal herbs for polyarthritis.

The Haruks' hrazhda consists of a three-chambered house (a hayloft and two rooms), side and back shelters, a perpendicular cage, and a fence. The fence is characterized by rather wide awnings, the height of which exceeds 2 meters. The yard of the estate is paved with stone tiles. In the interiors, visitors can see many authentic items of Hutsul life, including even walkers for children, which they used to learn to walk. There are also authentic Hutsul dishes decorated with carvings and mosaic decorations, carved tables, beds, benches and chests, various accessories for working with flax and wool, a loom, agricultural and woodworking tools, carts and sleds...

The Kharuks' house in Kryvorivnia near Verkhovyna is a functioning ethnographic and local history institution, a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Museum of Local Lore, and is a historical and architectural monument of Ukraine. It should also be noted that Kryvorivnia has a total of three preserved huts, but the other two are located far and high on the mountain ranges surrounding the Cheremosh valley, so they are not as easily accessible, and are also privately owned. Another hut, though much larger and "younger," can be visited by arrangement with the owners in the nearby village of Yavoriv.

To get to the museum, you need to stop in the center of the village, near the wooden church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (the church is not visible from the road, the landmark is a blue wooden chapel and an information stand). From here, you can cross the road bridge to the other side of Cheremosh, and then follow the signs to the museum for another 5 minutes on foot.

In the XIV-XIX centuries, when the Hutsuls lived far from each other, such manor-fortresses were typical for the Hutsul region, nowadays they can be seen very rarely, mostly in museums of folk architecture and life in Krylos, Lviv, etc.

The Museum presents many authentic items of Hutsul life, mostly from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Particular attention is drawn to an interesting "device" - stilts for children, with the help of which they learned to walk while their mother was busy with the household.

Day off: Monday. Opening hours: from 10:00 to 18:00. Lunch: from 13:00 to 14:00.

Entrance fees: for adults - 30 UAH, for students - 20 UAH, for children - 10 UAH.

Cost of the tour: 120 UAH for adults, 80 UAH for children.

Go to Verkhovyna by bus or minibus from Ivano-Frankivsk, get off in the center, then take a taxi or a shuttle bus to the village of Kryvorivnia, near the church there is a sign "House of Citizenship" on the road. At the sign, go across the river on the bridge, over the bridge - on the left.