Attractions of Kyiv region

The history of Ukrainian literature from the 11th century to the present day is represented by the National Museum of Literature of Ukraine.

The museum opened in 1986 in the historic building of the Pavlo Galagan College, which housed one of the best private schools in pre-revolutionary Kyiv. The building in the style of late classicism was erected in 1871 by architect Oleksandr Schille at the request of public figure and philanthropist Hryhoriy Galagan, who lost his only son Pavlo early.

The interior of the two-story mahogany library by Italian masters, which has survived almost to this day, was particularly refined. Today, the library has an exhibition on the history of the school, which was called the "school of academics." In particular, the outstanding Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko, who in May 1886 married Olha Khoruzhynska in the house church of Saint Paul at the college, worked here.

The 11 stylized halls of the National Museum of Literature correspond to the historical eras of Ukrainian literature and introduce visitors to the literary process in Ukrainian lands from ancient times to the present day. More than 5,000 valuable exhibits are presented, including unique old prints, manuscripts, lifetime editions of works by Ivan Kotlyarevskyi, Taras Shevchenko, Panteleymon Kulish, Mykola Kostomarov, Ivan Franko, Mykhaylo Drahomanov, manuscripts of Lesya Ukrainka, Mykhaylo Starytskyi, Pavlo Tychyna, Maksym Rylskyi, Vasyl Simonenko, personal belongings of Panas Myrny, Ivan Nechuy-Levytskyi, Marko Vovchok, Oles Honchar, Ulas Samchuk, magazines and almanacs of the 19th-20th centuries, works of famous artists, documentary materials.

Visitors to the Literature Museum are certainly intrigued by the Sokyryntsi Nativity Scene from the Hryhoriy Galagan Palace - a box with a mobile puppet theater.

One of the largest art museums of Ukraine and a treasury of Ukrainian cultural heritage is the Ukraine National Decorative Art Museum  in Kyiv (used to be called the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art).

It is located on the territory of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" in the premises of the former metropolitan chambers and the Annunciation Church adjacent to them, which are architectural monuments of the 18th - early 20th centuries.

The museum collection was founded in 1899 as one of the components of the collection of the newly created City Museum of Antiquities and Arts, renamed in 1904 to the Kyiv Art, Industrial and Scientific Museum.

Now the museum collection consists of more than 78,000 works of traditional folk and professional decorative art of Ukraine from the 15th century to the present day. The main rarities of the museum: a wooden carved cross in a silver frame of 1576, clay tiles of the XV-XVII centuries, items of church sewing of the XVIII century, products of the leading porcelain and earthenware enterprises of Ukraine of the XVII-XIX centuries.

The pride and decoration of the collection are complexes of Ukrainian folk costumes of the 19th and early 20th centuries from all regions of Ukraine, where the art of cutting, weaving, embroidery, appliqué, punching, weaving, leather and metal processing are combined in a single artistic ensemble. Traditional women's jewelry attracts attention: dukachi, coral, Venetian necklace, beadwork.

Also, the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art has the largest collection of paintings by prominent Ukrainian folk artists Kateryna Bilokur and Mariya Prymachenko.

The Ukrainian Costume and Easter Egg Museum was opened in 2007 in one of the buildings of the Nemishaieve Agricultural Technical College on the initiative of teacher Tamara Uhnivenko. The institution operates on the basis of the Scientific and Methodological Center of Higher and Vocational Pre-Higher Education.

The exposition presents 50 men's and women's national costumes of the mid-19th - early 20th centuries from all regions of Ukraine, as well as household and wedding towels with traditional ornaments.

A significant place in the exposition is occupied by a collection of 3,000 Easter eggs of 27 types. Pottery and carving, weaving, and embroidery products are also presented. The exhibition of charms is of particular interest.

Thematic excursions and master classes on pysankari are held.

The Ukrainian Gram Records Museum opened in 2023 on the territory of the "Singing Field" cultural and artistic complex. The original exhibition was created by the Kyiv City Center of Folk Art at the initiative of Ukrainian musician Ivan Moskalenko (DJ Derbastler), one of the pioneers of the Ukrainian electronic scene.

The museum's collection contains treasures of Ukrainian music on various soundcarriers. More than 400 exhibits tell about the history of gramophone records and various aspects of the musical culture of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Sixtiers Dissident Movement Museum in Kyiv opened in 2012 in the building that houses the party "People's Movement of Ukraine".

The Art Nouveau mansion with a lion sculpture on the facade was built in 1907-1908 by architect Ihnatiy Ledokhovsky. Before the Bolshevik coup of 1917, housed the surgical hospital of Dr. Ihnatiy Makovsky. In 1911, the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire, Petro Stolypin, died in the Makovsky clinic, mortally wounded by a terrorist during a performance at the Opera House.

Since 1999, the central office of the People's Movement of Ukraine, one of the oldest political parties in Ukraine, whose founders were the famous Ukrainian sixties Vyacheslav Chornovil, Ivan Drach, Mykhaylo Horyn and others, moved to the building. Their political and human rights activities began during the "Khrushchev thaw" in the USSR in the 1960s, but later some of the sixties were repressed.

The Sixtiers Museum was opened on the basis of the collection collected by the activists of the sixties public organization. The exposition includes about 20,000 exhibits.

The Ukrainian Sixtiers Dissident Movement Museum is a branch of the Kyiv History Museum.

The Museum of Useless Things in the area of the Livoberezhna metro station in Kyiv is called the "Museum of Antiques" or the "Museum of Recycled Materials".

It was opened in 2007 on the territory of the "Kyivmiskvtorresurs" plant, which is engaged in the procurement and processing of secondary raw materials. Back in the middle of the 20th century, interesting things began to be systematically selected from the garbage here, and later, having learned that the factory accepts antique items, people began to bring them here.

Among the unique rarities are the very first vacuum cleaner in the Russian Empire, an ancient set of hairdressing tools, a set of torture tools for the tsarist gendarmerie, a sledge, a hemp processing machine.

An entire stand is dedicated to the Soviet theme, with about 40 different figures of the leader of the revolution, and the famous 7-meter statue of Lenin, brought from Crimea, is installed in the yard of the plant.

The large exhibition is located on the street under a canopy, and the small one is in a wooden old-fashioned house.

The Museum of Valor and Tragedy of Ukraine operates in the premises of the Volodarka Interschool Educational and Production Complex. It was created in 2018 by Oleksandr Ushynskyi, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, with the support of the Association of War Veterans, ATO participants, family members of the deceased and disabled war veterans headed by him.

The museum exposition has three sections dedicated to the Holodomor-genocide of the Ukrainian people, the Revolution of Dignity and the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, as well as the Russian-Ukrainian war. The founder of the museum traveled to many de-occupied cities and villages of Ukraine, where he collected many war artifacts that testify to the crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine. Here you can see fragments of Russian weapons and ammunition, military uniforms, household appliances stolen by the Russians, etc.

The Hrebeni Historical and Local Lore Museum bears the name of its founder, local historian Vasyl Kalynovskyi. It was on his initiative that the museum in Hrebeni was opened in 1967.

The exhibition presents fragments of ceramics of Trypillya culture, jewelry and tableware from the times of Kyivan Rus, weapons of the 16th and 17th centuries, materials about the events of the Second World War, ancient household items of local residents, photographs and documents of famous residents of Hrebeni: writer Oles Berdnyk, bandurist Vasyl Lytvyn and others.

The art gallery exhibits the works of local artists, sculptors and folk craftsmen. A collection of sculptures from the Soviet period is presented.

The historical and local lore museum of the Velyki Pritsky village was opened in 2016 on the initiative of the local journalist and poet Nadiya Vehera-Predchenko. It is located on the second floor of the building of the Velyki Pritsky village council.

The exposition presents objects, documents and materials about the history, culture and life of the village. A prominent place is occupied by the collection of embroidered towels, which includes more than 150 specimens. More than 100 scarves, many ancient women's and men's embroidered shirts are also collected.

Materials are presented about the villagers who participated in the Soviet-Afghanistan war, liquidation of the consequences of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant accident, and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

A separate exhibition is dedicated to the achievements of the local agricultural enterprise "Kolos".

Victoria Films Studio near Kyiv is one of the largest and most modern film studios in the country, engaged in the development, production and post-production of film and television projects.

The filming location of the film studio on the territory of 36 hectares is located on the outskirts of the village of Hurivshchyna, 15 kilometers from Kyiv. Large-scale real-life sites are located here: "Village", "Old Town", "Prison", "Lake", "River", "Field". There are also shooting pavilions, prop warehouses, a park of game vehicles, etc.

But the most attention is attracted by the entrance gate of the Victoria Films Studio in the form of a fairy-tale castle, reminiscent of Cinderella's castle in Disneyland. The gate is guarded by stylized figures of the Alien and the Predator over 3 meters high.

Access to the territory is closed, excursions are not conducted.

The Victoria Museum of Costume and Style was founded in Kyiv in 2017 by private collector Victoria Lysenko.

The exhibition was located in a renovated eclectic-style tenement house built at the end of the 19th century by the merchant of the first guild Lazar Chornoyarov.

Seven exhibition halls on two floors presented more than 1,500 authentic exhibits from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including clothing, shoes, accessories, jewelry, and ordinary household items used by residents of cities in Ukraine and Europe at that time.

The first hall presented costumes from 1900-1920, reflecting the pre-revolutionary style of Kyiv residents. The second hall was used for temporary exhibitions. The third hall exhibited clothing from the end of the 19th century, a characteristic feature of which were obligatory women's corsets. The exhibits of the fourth hall reflected the fashion of the first half of the 19th century, which was characterized by women's dresses with crinolines. The fifth hall was equipped with a recreation area and photo locations. The sixth hall provided an opportunity to examine some exhibits in detail almost up close. The seventh hall was equipped with a cinema hall and another photo zone.

Among the unique exhibits of the Victoria Museum is the only dress in Ukraine from the Charles Worth Fashion House of the early 20th century. A collection of fans of the 18th-20th centuries is also presented.

ATTENTION! On April 26, 2025, the owner and founder of the Victoria Museum Costume and Style Museum, Victoria Lysenko, announced the closure of the Museum due to low attendance, which did not cover the costs of operating the institution.

On August 30, 2025, the Victoria Museum resumed its work.

Museum of the archaeologist Vikentiy Khvoyka in the village of Khalepya near Trypillya is dedicated to the discoverer of the Trypillya archaeological culture, which some researchers consider a civilization. It was here, in the building of the former literacy school, that an outstanding archaeologist worked in 1896-1898.

The museum was opened on the birthday of the outstanding archaeologist - February 20, 2009. It is still the only museum in Ukraine dedicated to his activities. Most of the exposition consists of models of the excavation sites of Trypillya hillforts and originals of various documents.

Particularly valuable exhibits are Vikentiy Khvoyka's hand-drawn sketches of finds and pages from his diary.

In the same year, in the premises where the museum of Vikentiy Khvoyka was already located, a museum of the outstanding Ukrainian writer and philosopher Ivan Franko was opened in a separate hall.

The Vikentiy Khvoyka Museum is a branch of the Kyiv Regional Archaeological Museum.

The memorial museum-apartment of the composer Viktor Kosenko was founded in 1938 by his widow Anhelina Kanep-Kosenko.

The museum recreates the interiors of Kosenko's living room and office as they were during his lifetime. Among the personal belongings of the composer presented in the exposition, the oldest is the name silver spoon from Kosenko's parental home. An album made of crocodile skin with sheet music of themes from Kosenko's symphonic works attracts attention. Books from Kosenko's personal library are presented with the authors' gift inscriptions.

Now the Museum-apartment of Viktor Kosenko is a branch of the Museum of Theater, Music and Film Arts of Ukraine.

VIP Ostrich Farm was opened near Kyiv in 2001. The main activity of the farm is the breeding of African ostriches for the further sale of young animals and the breeding of an adult herd. Technologies of ostrich farms in the USA and Canada are used, which are adapted to Ukrainian conditions.

According to previous agreements, informative and entertaining tours of the farm territory are held. You can also buy commemorative souvenirs made of feathers and eggshells of African ostriches, take pictures with the birds and get a commemorative photo of the ostrich.

The Volodarka Local Lore Museum is located in a one-story building in the center of the village of Volodarka. It is dedicated to the history of the Volodarka region, the culture of its inhabitants, as well as outstanding figures of the village.

The exposition presents more than 1,500 exhibits - from photos and paintings to historical documents and household items. In particular, in the archaeological collection: coins, women's jewelry, dishes, tools and weapons of the ancient Slavs. The ethnographic collection includes ancient clothing, embroidered shirts and towels, old icons.