Attractions of Kryvorivnia

The wooden Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin in Kryvorivnia was founded in 1719, and was rebuilt in its present form in 1818. Tempera paintings of the 19th century have been preserved.

The Church is considered one of the best examples of the Hutsul school of folk architecture. There is a legend according to which it was in this church that Oleksa Dovbush, the people's avenger and leader of the Carpathian opryshkas, met and fell in love with the girl Dzvinka, who later betrayed him.

Thanks to the efforts of the abbot of the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin, Ivan Rybaruk, the church has been restored to its authentic appearance - now, as before, it is covered with shingles, not tin, like most of the present-day Carpathian churches.

The Ethnographic Museum of Antiquities of the Hutsul region was opened in the yard of his own house by Yaroslav Zelenchuk, an ethnographer and historian from Kryvorivnia.

In one hall, several thematic expositions are successively placed: ancient times (gathering, hunting, fishing tools), shepherding and Polonynian farming, woodworking and construction, crafts and handicrafts, samples of decorative and applied art (clothes, painted pottery, wood carvings), musical instruments (drums, violins), liberation struggle (world wars, opryshk movement).

In particular, a copy of the smoking pipe of the legendary hutsulka of Chukutykha is presented.

The Literary and Memorial Museum of Ivan Franko was opened in Vasyl Yakibyuk's house, where the writer rested several times in 1906-1914.

He liked Kryvorivnia so much that he chose this village for his permanent summer vacation and came here almost every summer with his family for 12 years. Here he was visited by Lesya Ukrayinka, Hnat Khotkevych, Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky, Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, Volodymyr Hnatyuk, Volodymyr Shukhevych and others. Already sick, Franko continued to work here, dictating the texts of his works to a local teacher.

The Literary and Memorial Museum of Ivan Franko was founded in 1960 on the initiative of the wife of the writer Hnat Khotkevych - Platonida. In the exhibition, located in 5 rooms, Franko's personal belongings are stored: a bed, a desk and a chair, a bench for guests, a clock, etc. An interesting Hutsul stove decorated with tiles made by Oleksa Bakhmatyuk (1874).

The Literary and Memorial Museum of Ivan Franko is a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Museum of Local Lore.

The Museum of Local Lore was established in the village Kryvorivnia in 1965 on the basis of a secondary school.

The exposition tells about the history of the Hutsul village, life and way of life of the region's inhabitants.

The museum has more than 100 exhibits.

The "Grandfather's Pharmacy" museum in Kryvorivnia near Verhovyna is dedicated to the history of folk medicine in the Hutsul region. The exposition presents healing herbs, fruits, roots and tinctures from them, which were used to treat Ukrainian highlanders in ancient times.

The excursion begins with the herbal room (museum-pharmacy pantry), where visitors are told about the history of medicine in the Carpathians and about the healing properties of Carpathian herbs and the preventive properties of herbal teas.

In the second room, visitors can learn about the use of special tinctures with fly agaric mushrooms, snakes and bees in traditional medicine for the prevention and treatment of serious diseases.

"Grandfather's Pharmacy" also offers tastings of tinctures based on herbs, fruits, berries and Montenegrin roots, aromatic Carpathian teas, and berry syrups for children. The same products can be purchased in the museum shop.

The "Khata-Grazhda" museum was created in Kryvorivnia on the basis of one of the few examples of this typical Hutsul house-fortress, built in 1858.

Residential and commercial buildings with hollow outer walls surround a small courtyard, forming a closed space. Grazhdas served to protect against enemies, wild animals and bad weather.

At the end of the 19th century, the Kryvorivnia Grazhda belonged to the Kharuk family, who were often visited by the writer Ivan Franko and the ethnographer Volodymyr Hnatyuk.

In 1964, this Khata-Grazhda was used during the filming of the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors". Since 1984, the house has been empty. In 1993, it was restored and opened as a museum.

Exhibitions of paintings and photographs are held.

Museum "Khata-Grazhda" is a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Museum of Local Lore.

The house-museum of the famous historian and politician of the Ukrainian People's Republic Mykhaylo Hrushevsky was opened in Kryvorivnia at the place where he bought the estate from the local landowner Pshebylivskyi at the beginning of the 20th century.

The future president of Ukraine visited here on vacation several times.

The villa burned down in 1917, but in 2003 it was recreated based on the surviving drawings and memories of eyewitnesses.

The museum presents biographical documents and photographs, an ethnographic collection, and household items from the beginning of the 20th century.

Kryvorivnia Museum of Mykhaylo Hrushevsky is a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Museum of Local Lore.

The memorial museum of the Hutsul writer, folk philosopher, poet and artist Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit has been open in her house in Kryvorivnia since 2005 on public grounds.

The creative output of the mystic is about a thousand works, including 46 handwritten or printed books in a single copy, which the author illustrated and bound with her own hands, as well as several dozen small books.

The books "Heavenly Throne from the Foot of the Earth", "Prayers in Glory of the Holy Baptism of Ukraine-Rus" are devoted to spiritual reflections.

The creative heritage of Plytka-Horytsvit includes the fantasy-adventure novel "Indian Charms: Adventures of the Hutsuls in India". In addition, she wrote poems in the Hutsul dialect, painted pictures, was engaged in photography, and conducted ethnographic research.

Even during his lifetime, the house of Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit resembled a museum, it was visited by many Ukrainian scholars. Since 2022, the memorial part of the Kryvorivnia Museum of Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit has been housed in creative personality house. The authentic interior with cabinets filled with handwritten books has been preserved. Her paintings, photographs, documentary information about her life and work are presented.

Most of the exposition is located in the new museum premises in the center of Kryvorivnia.

Memorial Museum of the Hutsul writer, poetess, artist and folk philosopher Paraska Plytky-Horytsvit in Kryvorivnia was founded by the Verkhovyna Village Council in 2021.

It includes the memorial house-museum of Plytka-Horytsvit, created in the artist's apartment in the hamlet of Hrashparivka in 2005. The main exposition of the artist's works, opened in 2022, is located in the building of the former Kryvorivnia village council. The exhibition presents works of folk naive art of the writer and artist, who is called "Homer of Hutsul".

Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit's literary work combines under the title "Gift to the Native Land" 46 large handwritten and typewritten books of 500 pages each, as well as dozens of small books with her illustrations and homemade covers.