Stryi Local History Museum "Verkhovyna"

TheStryi Verkhovyna Museum of Local Lore is a district museum of local lore in the city of Stryi, Lviv Oblast, a collection of materials and objects on ethnography and historical development of the Stryi region. The museum is located in the city center at 15 Olesnytskoho Street. The director of the institution is Halyna Veres (born on April 6, 1958, higher education, non-partisan, lives in Stryi).

The former property of Yevhen Olesnytskyi, a lawyer and public and political figure from Stryi. The house was built in 1899. The lawyer Olesnytskyi lived here until 1909 and had his own legal office. In 1909, he became the head of the "Selskii Hospodar" company and moved to Lviv. He sold his house to the Ukrainian "Cash for Claims". Later, this building became the center of life for the Ukrainian community in the city. In 1918-1919, the officers of the Ukrainian Galician Army lived here. Under Polish rule, in 1920-1939, the building served as the home of various public organizations: "Plast, the Union of Ukrainian Women, and others. In the 1920s, there were branches of the Ukrainian Music Institute and the Native School. During the German occupation, there was a kitchen that served a German hospital. From 1946 to the present day, this building has housed the Stryi Verkhovyna Museum of Local Lore.

The Stryi Local History Museum "Verkhovyna" was founded in 1932 by R. Dombczewski with the cooperation of O. Siletskyi (he was the head collector), O. Bachynska, T. Zaleskyi, and I. Maksymchuk; for some time the museum's curator was the Ukrainian artist Oleksa Kharkiv. Already in 1937, the number of exhibits amounted to about 2,000 items.

In 1939, with the incorporation of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian SSR, the institution was closed. After World War II, the museum was reorganized. Since then, in 1946, the museum has been housed in the former house of the Stryi lawyer and public and political figure Yevhen Olesnytskyi (built in 1899), which he sold to the Ukrainian "Kasa Zadatkova" in the late 1910s, and later this building became the center of life for the Ukrainian community of the city, including under Polish rule.In 1918-1919, the building was occupied by officers of the Ukrainian Galician Army, in 1920-39 it housed the offices of the Plast and the Union of Ukrainian Women, and during the German occupation there was a kitchen that served a German hospital.

At the time of Ukraine's independence, the Stryi Local History Museum "Verkhovyna" was granted state status: according to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of February 2, 2000, No. 209, the institution was included in the list of museums that store museum collections and museum objects that are state property and belong to the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine.

The collections of the Stryi Local History Museum "Verkhovyna" include more than 26 thousand items.

The museum has 6 permanent exhibitions and 2 halls with changing exhibitions. The museum exposition consists of 3 departments:

• The Nature of Stryi Region (two halls) tells about the geological past, minerals, flora and fauna of the southwestern part of Lviv region;
• Ethnographic (one hall) - demonstrates samples of folk crafts, introduces the life, customs and rituals of the Boykivshchyna;
• History of the region (three halls) - informs about the oldest settlements on the territory of Stryi region, the history of medieval Stryi, and the Oprishkovian movement. It covers the history of Stryi region during the Austrian rule, the events of the First World War, and the struggle of the region's inhabitants for the Ukrainian state. A separate room is dedicated to the victory of the UPA soldiers.

The most valuable exhibits are old prints, icons, folk clothes, Boyko and Hutsul Easter eggs, embroidery samples, rare books, coins, medals, as well as weapons of Cossacks and opryshky, ancient musical instruments, etc.

The Memorial Complex "To the Fighters for the Freedom of Ukraine", the Memorial Museum of the artist Petro Obal, the Memorial Museum of Olha Bachynska, the Museum of the Bandera Family, and the exhibition hall function as branches of the institution.

The museum organizes scientific local history conferences and has its own publications, including special issues of the newspaper Kraiiznevyi Visnyk and two collections of local history research.

The museum has a library with over 5,000 items of natural history, historical, and fiction books, as well as regional periodicals dating back to the second half of the twentieth century.