Museums are an integral part of the cultural heritage of any country. Within the walls of museums, the history, art, and culture of each nation are preserved. Ukrainian museums are no exception. This article covers the 10 leading museums in Ukraine that you must visit.
Contents:
- National Art Museum of Ukraine
- National Museum of the History of Ukraine
- Lviv National Gallery of Art, named after Voznytsky
- National Museum of Literature of Ukraine
- Lviv Historical Museum “Arsenal”
- Museum of Pysanka Painting
- Dnipro National Historical Museum, named after Yavornytsky
- National Museum of Cosmonautics named after Korolev
- Odessa Archaeological Museum
- National Museum of Arts, named after Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko
These museums are just a small part of Ukraine’s rich museum heritage. However, each deserves attention and repeated visits.
National Art Museum of Ukraine
The National Art Museum of Ukraine is one of our country’s largest and oldest museums. Its collection includes over 40,000 exhibits, including masterpieces of Ukrainian iconography, painting, sculpture, graphics, and media works from different eras and styles.
Intellectuals and industrial patrons are credited with creating the NMU, which became the first public museum in Kyiv. The first stone of the institution was laid on September 21, 1897.
Petro Boytsov designed the NMU, but the legendary Kyiv architect Vladyslav Horodetsky improved the project further. The structure was built in the neoclassical style.
The museum’s collections are housed across two floors and are divided into three categories:
- Ancient art
- Art from the 19th to early 20th century (paintings by Volodymyr Borovykovsky, Dmytro Levitsky, Taras Shevchenko)
- Art from the 19th to 21st century (works by Alla Horska, Tetyana Yablonska, Fedor Krychevsky, Oleksandr Archipenko).
The museum has one of the best icon collections in Ukraine. A highlight is the polychrome wooden relief “Saint George with the Life Story” from the 12th century, which was brought from Byzantium.
In addition, the museum preserves some of the best collections of ancient polychrome sculpture, 18th-century Cossack portraits, and folk paintings of “Cossack Mamay.” Also significant is the Ukrainian Baroque art collection. The NMU’s collection is constantly updated with contemporary works.
Address: Kyiv, 6 Mykhaila Hrushevskoho St.
National Museum of the History of Ukraine
This is one of the most significant historical museums in Ukraine. The NMHU holds over 800,000 exhibits from the earliest to the present day. These include archaeological and numismatic collections, ethnographic exhibits, weapons, decorative and applied arts, manuscripts, old prints, paintings, graphics, and relics from the Ukrainian national liberation movement of the 20th century.
The museum opened in 1899. Initially, it was called the Museum of Antiquities and Arts and was located in an unfinished building on Oleksandrivska Street (today Hrushevskoho St. 6).
The museum moved to its current location on Volodymyrska Street 2 in May 1944 and was renamed in October 1991.
The museum has a branch: the Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, which houses unique exhibits of precious metals and gems. Among its most valuable collections are items from the Scythian period, works by ancient Rus masters, and pieces from Ukrainian jewelers of the 14th–20th centuries.
Address: Kyiv, 2 Volodymyrska St.
Lviv National Gallery of Art, named after Voznytsky
The Lviv National Gallery of Art is the largest art museum in Ukraine, with over 60,000 exhibits dating from antiquity to the present. The museum houses the most valuable artistic collections, including European art, Lviv sculpture, Ukrainian portraiture from the 16th to 19th centuries, icons, and furniture.
The museum was opened on February 14, 1907. The foundation of its first collection was the collection of Podilian sugar magnate I. Yakovych.
The gallery comprises 16 museum complexes, working as separate departments or sections. These include: “European Art of the 14th–18th Century,” “European Art of the 19th–21st Century,” “The Boim Chapel,” the museum “Art of the Ancient Ukrainian Book,” the museum “Rusalki Dnistrova,” the museum of the oldest monuments of Lviv, the museum “Lviv Baroque Sculpture of the 18th Century: The Work of I. Pinsel,” the museum-workshop of T. Bryzh, the museum of modern sculpture by M. Dzyndra, the “Olesky Castle” museum-reserve, the museum of M. Shashkevych’s estate, the “Piatnychanska Tower” museum, the museum of Ivan Vyhovsky, the “Zhovkivskyi Castle” museum-reserve, the “Zolochiv Castle” museum-reserve, and the “Pidhoretsky Castle” museum-reserve.
Address: Lviv, 3 Stepanova St.
National Museum of Literature of Ukraine
This museum is a significant center for studying Ukraine’s literary heritage. It is housed in a historic building from the late 19th century, once home to Pavlo Halahan College, one of the best private educational institutions of its time.
The museum’s collection includes over 85,000 exhibits. Among them are publications from the 17th–18th centuries, lifetime works by Ivan Kotliarevsky, Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Mykola Kostomarov, Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Drahomanov, manuscripts by Lesya Ukrainka, Mykhailo Starytsky, Pavlo Tychyna, Maksym Rylsky, Vasyl Symonenko, and personal items of Panas Myrny, Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, Marko Vovchok, Ivan Bahriany, and others.
The museum also contains Pavlo Halahan’s College library, which is almost intact. Ivan Franko worked there from 1885 to 1886.
Address: 11 Bohdana Khmelnytskogo St.
Lviv Historical Museum “Arsenal”
This institution is one of the oldest museums in Ukraine. It has regional and national significance, and its collection contains about 380,000 exhibits.
The museum’s collections are divided into categories: numismatics, orders and medals, textiles, metal, leather, sculpture, wood, archives, sphragistics, awards, archaeology, Kyivan Rus’, modern era archaeology, photo negatives, photographic materials, glass, porcelain, clay, rare books, old prints, manuscripts, posters, graphics, reproductions, bonds, paintings, clocks, furniture, art wood, musical instruments, weapons, philately, plastics, and honors related to the Ukrainian liberation struggle.
Among the museum’s most valuable exhibits are Eastern military tents, armor of Polish winged hussars, Hutsul weapons, ancient awards, letters from Jan III Sobieski, autographs of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand, a lock of Napoleon’s hair, and personal items of Solomiya Krushelnytska and Maria Zankovetska.
A significant part of the collection is devoted to the history of Lviv, including ceremonial swords from the Lviv Court in the 16th century, the coats of arms of Lviv from the 17th–18th centuries, and relics from Lviv guilds.
Address: Lviv, 6 Rynok Square
Museum of Pysanka Painting
This museum opened in Kolomyia in the fall of 1987. Initially, the exhibits were in the Church of the Annunciation of the Holy Virgin, a 16th-century architectural monument.
In 2000, the museum moved to a new building, which was constructed in the shape of an egg, a symbol of pysanka (Ukrainian Easter eggs). This unique architectural design became a hallmark of the museum and the city.
Today, the museum houses over 12,000 exhibits of this decorative folk art. The collection includes pysanky from various regions of Ukraine and other countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Belarus, France, Canada, the USA, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, China, Egypt, and Algeria.
Address: Kolomyia, 43B Chornovola Avenue
Dnipro National Historical Museum, named after Yavornytsky
One of the oldest museums in Ukraine, it holds 240,000 exhibits. It was founded in 1849 as the “Museum of Antiquities of the Katerynoslav Governorate.” The collection’s centerpiece at that time was the mummy of an Egyptian woman.
The museum’s development is linked with the name of academician Dmytro Ivanovych Yavornytsky, who served as its director starting in 1902.
The museum now has several branches: the memorial house-museum of Academician Dmytro Yavornytsky, the diorama “Battle for the Dnieper,” the center dedicated to Olena Pivovary’s family, the museum of “Literary Dnipropetrovsk,” and others.
Visitors can see the ancient “Polovtsian babas” at the museum entrance — statues carved from stone.
Address: Dnipro, 16 Dmytro Yavornytsky Avenue
National Museum of Cosmonautics named after Korolev
This famous museum is dedicated to the history of space achievements and the feats of Ukrainian and world cosmonauts. It is named after the outstanding Ukrainian scientist and rocket engineer Serhiy Pavlovych Korolev.
Here, you can see models and samples of rockets, spacecraft, satellites, and cosmic soil.
The museum also tells the stories of Ukrainian cosmonauts, including Leonid Kadenyuk, the first Ukrainian in space. A memorial house is also dedicated to Korolev, which you can visit.
Address: Zhytomyr, 5 Dmytrivska Street
Odessa Archaeological Museum
The oldest archaeological museum in Ukraine was founded by Ivan Blaramberg, one of the first researchers of the monuments of Southern Ukraine and Crimea.
The museum includes 170,000 historical sources from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages. It features unique exhibits from Ancient Egypt and the most extensive collection of ancient artifacts.
Another valuable collection is the 50,000 coins, the highlight of which is Prince Volodymyr’s ” zlatnyk,” one of only 11 worldwide.
Address: Odessa, 4 Lanzheronivska Street
National Museum of Arts named after Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko
The Khanenko Museum is one of the most important museums in Ukraine, representing art from Europe, Asia, and the Ancient World. It traces its history back to the 1870s. The museum’s collection is based on the works of Ukrainian collectors and philanthropists Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The museum holds over 25,000 exhibits, including original paintings by Rubens, Bellini, Zurbarán, David, and Boucher, as well as sculptures and applied arts from Europe and fine and applied arts from Iran, Tibet, China, and Japan.
The museum is located in two historic buildings on Tereshchenkivska Street, which are architectural and historical landmarks.
Address: 15-17 Tereshchenkivska Street
