Attractions of Verkhovyna

Hutsul musician Mykola Illyuk, head of the Hutsul ensemble, opened the museum of Hutsul life and art "In Trembitarya" at his home in Verkhovyna.

Ilyuk's house is located on a mountain in the village of Shveykovo.

The exposition presents traditional Hutsul costumes, household items and over a hundred folk musical instruments. The host conducts tours, telling about the origin of the Hutsuls, their life and crafts, rites and traditions. He plays most of the presented musical instruments.

Offers visitors master classes in playing the famous Hutsul trembit, drumba, cymbals, and bagpipes.

In 1999, a private museum of Hutsul lifestyle, ethnography and musical instruments was opened in his house by Roman Kumlyk, a musician and collector from Verkhovyna.

He collected exhibits for the museum for 30 years. These are folk clothes made of linen and leather, and painted clay plates, and Hutsul hatchets-bartka, and money signs of different times, and many other ancient things and objects of folk life.

The collection of folk musical instruments is the most diverse: violins, trembits, cymbals, drumbas, kobzas. The special pride of the collection is the Hutsul bagpipe - Duda.

Previously, tours were conducted by the owner of the museum himself, accompanying the story about each instrument with the performance of folk melodies and songs. After the musician's death, his daughter Natalya receives guests.

A visit to the Roman Kumlyk Museum of Musical Instruments must be arranged in advance.

The house-museum of the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" in the Verkhovyna village of Hlifa was opened in 2000 in the house where the director of the film Serhiy Paradzhanov lived in 1963-1964 during the filming.

Here, visitors can watch the film and get acquainted with the history of the creation of the picture.

The following expositions are active: life and work of outstanding people, ethnography and everyday life, historical and architectural heritage.

The Hutsul Magic Museum is located in one of the recreation complexes on the outskirts of Verkhovyna, which is considered the informal capital of the Hutsul Region.

Its purpose is to preserve the memory of the famous Carpathian healers and seers, who are called Molfars here.

The museum presents items used by Molfar magicians and which tell about ancient Hutsul magic.

The Hutsul Magic Museum also hosts workshops on making original wooden teaspoons, spinning wool threads, and mirror calligraphy.

The private museum "Galeria of Hutsul Traditions and Rites" was created in Verkhovyna by local historian Pavla Rashkovska.

A special feature of the museum is the interactive form of familiarizing visitors with Hutsul traditions and rituals. The hostess of the museum conducts tours in the form of a conversation with visitors at a table with Carpathian tea and pastries.

The exposition presents a large number of Hutsul embroidery and other elements of folk clothing, which visitors can try on. The excursion is complemented by master classes on tying a scarf and playing the drum.

Upon request, you can organize a dinner with traditional Hutsul dishes and tinctures on Carpathian herbs in the "Galeria".

The hostess of the museum also conducts author's tours of Verkhovyna.

Cheese factory-museum "Khata-Staya" was opened in Verkhovyna in 2014. The herd is a traditional element of the estate of Hutsul shepherds, where budz cheese is made from sheep's milk.

The real hundred-year-old Hutsul house was moved by the owners from a remote village. The oldest part of the building is a room with a stove, where embroidered shirts and towels, dishes (plates, jars), carpets, etc. are collected. Here, the hosts prepare meals in the oven.

The second room "Hutsul Svitlytsia" is intended for holding master classes and tastings.

But first, visitors are offered to take part in the process of making budza in a herd, where a cauldron of milk is placed over an open hearth. After that, a tasting is held.

You can also learn to cook Hutsul dishes or take a weaving lesson here.

The private museum of the film "Oleksa Dovbush" in Verkhovyna was opened in 2018 by local entrepreneurs and public activists Mykola Danylyuk and Volodymyr Sumaruk.

The exposition tells about the legendary Opryshky leader Oleksa Dovbush, whose rebel unit operated in Prykarpattia in the middle of the 18th century, as well as about the shooting of the film of the same name by the Oleksandr Dovzhenko film studio, which was shot by director Viktor Ivanov in 1959 in Verkhovyna and nearby Kryvorivnia.

The exhibition presents photos and various rare items related to the shooting of the film. A special feature of the museum is the presence of a large multimedia screen, which shows fragments of the film "Oleksa Dovbush" and other films that were shot in the Carpathians.

For children in the courtyard of the museum there is a play zone "Oprishky fun", where you can compete in strength, dexterity and dexterity.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Verkhovyna is one of the largest wooden architectural structures in Ukraine.

It was built in the 18th century. Burned down in 1944, restored in 1994.

A vivid example of Hutsul folk architecture.

The "Corkscrew Museum" tasting room was opened in 2020 by collector Petro Antypov in his own yard in Verkhovyna. In his collection there are more than 600 corkscrews of various shapes and sizes – in the form of animals, birds, keys, weapons, glasses, etc.

The exhibits are hung in a large gazebo, which also serves as a tasting room. The owner personally conducts tours with stories about the history and varieties of corkscrews.

Visitors are also offered tastings of homemade wines and chacha, which the owner produces from Transcarpathian grapes. Smoked budz cheese is offered with the wine.

The grazhda-museum of the "Annychka" film in Verkhovyna was opened in 2016 in a hundred-year-old Hutsul hut, in which in 1968 the film director Borys Ivchenko shot some episodes of this famous film produced by the Dovzhenko Film Studio.

The opening of the museum took place during the film festival "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: On the trail of the "Annychka" film".

The museum premises are one of the few Hutsul grazhda preserved in the Carpathians from the beginning of the 20th century. It is a complex of a residential building and outbuildings that form an enclosed courtyard with a gate, which provides residents with the best protection from bad weather and wild animals.

The exposition reflects the life, customs and traditions of the Hutsuls, and also contains interactive elements. Presented are photos of the former owners of the barn and actors who were involved in the "Annychka" film, shoot here the footage from of the film, some items of film props.

The regional Historical and Local Lore Museum "Hutsulshchyna" in Verkhovyna was opened in 1938 thanks to the active support of the public and political figure, ethnographer-folklorist and original writer Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv.

Objects of folk life, clothes, paintings, etc. are presented.

Workshops are held, during which you can observe the process of making Hutsul carpets.

Historical and Local Lore Museum "Hutsulshchyna" is a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Museum of Local Lore.

The Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv Memorial Museum was opened in Verkhovyna in 2018 on the initiative of his descendants.

The exhibition is dedicated to the Hutsul public and political figure, ethnographer, writer, participant in the liberation struggle, Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv, who in the 1920s and 1930s was a voivode of Verkhovyna and an ambassador to the Polish Diet. He collaborated with Ivan Franko, Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky, Hnat Khotkevych and Stanislav Vincenz. After the annexation of Prykarpattia by the Soviet Union, Shekeryk-Donykiv was repressed.

The museum is located in the house built in 1933, in which he lived for some time in Verkhovyna. The exposition presents old photographs, archival documents, letters of Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv and his personal belongings. In particular, you can see the school desk at which he studied as a child.

In 2021, the UPA Museum-Hideout opened in the basement of the Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv Memorial Museum in Verkhovyna.

The Tasting Hall "Cheese Shop in the Attic" ("Syrna Lavka Na Horyshchi") opened in 2020 in the center of Verkhovyna, next to the city market. The shop offers tastings of craft products from its own polonyna farm for groups of up to 45 people.

Local certified Hutsul cow bryndza is produced according to traditional technology from whole milk of cows that graze on mountain meadows at an altitude of more than 700 meters above sea level.

During an excursion to polonyna, you can get acquainted with the production process of polonyna cheeses and taste them surrounded by mountain landscapes. In the city tasting room, you can also taste the finished products of the polonyna cheese dairy: cow bryndza, sheep bryndzya, vurda, ordinary and smoked budz. In addition, you can order wine, Carpathian tea, guslenka and kulesha. In addition to cheeses, the store offers dried and pickled mushrooms, honey and honey products, and teas made from Carpathian herbs.

Tasting hall "Cheese Shop in the Attic" is a member of the Association of Carpathian Head Cheesemongers and participates in the Cultural and touristic route "Hutsul Cheese Plays".

The tasting room "Bryndza Mine" ("Kopalnia Bryndzy") in Verkhovyna offers tastings of traditional polonyna cheese products and analogs of European cheeses of our own production.

Cheeses are made according to traditional technology on the "Krynta" mountain meadow, where cows graze in the season and a mountain cheese dairy works. In the off-season, a home mini-farm operates.

At the tastings, in particular, two Ukrainian cheeses with a registered geographical indication are presented: Hutsul sheep bryndzya and Hutsul cow bryndza. You can also taste Vurda (light cheese made from whey), smoked Budz (cheese made from whole milk), hard cheeses Caciotta and Chornohora aged for 2 months. The tasting set additionally includes polonyna fat, honey, bread, wine, moonshine.

The tasting room "Bryndza Mine" is an object of the Cultural and touristic route "Hutsul Cheese Plays".

The UPA Museum-Kryivka (hideout) in Verkhovyna opened in 2021 in the basement of the Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv Memorial Museum.

The museum was created by the owner of this century-old building, Ivan Makivnychuk, whose ancestors included UPA fighters. The secret entrance to the hideout-museum is through a well.

The museum exposition reproduces the atmosphere in which Ukrainian rebels lived during the liberation struggle in the middle of the 20th century. Authentic weapons, clothes, interrogation log, other documents and old photos are presented.