What comes to mind when you hear the word "museum"? The classic image: exhibits under glass, signs saying "Do not touch with hands!", silence in the hall...
So, do you think visiting museums is boring and uninteresting, which is why your last trip was back in your school years?
And what about learning where dreams come from or about the magic of the molfars to disperse the clouds; how love is born from instincts and seeing the heart from the fat; and maybe feeling like newlyweds again or for the first time...?
You can learn about all this and more in the unusual and original museums of Ukraine, which definitely won't make you bored, and it is about them that we would like to tell you.
Visiting such unconventional museums and their exhibits will help you have an interesting time, get vivid impressions, and change your ideas about going to the museum.
Ukrainian Wedding Museum, Velyki Budyscha
Here you can not only see the wedding ceremony, but also become a participant in the ceremony yourself. After all, this is a place where you can stage, and even really play, a wedding: with rituals, songs, and many wishes.
Local historians collected all the rituals that existed in different eras, telling about them in a funny, vivid form.
The peculiarity of the museum is that here you can not just touch the exhibits with your hands, but be transported to the past: interesting household items, beautiful textiles, handmade embroidery, photographs, carpets, blankets, furniture and much more that surrounded the inhabitants of Ukraine in the 17th-19th centuries.
Museum of Hutsul Magic, Verkhovyna
It is in the Carpathians, in Verkhovyna, that the Museum of Hutsul Magic is located.
And it's no wonder, because the best treasures of Hutsul culture truly have magical power.
Here you will see the “tools of labor” of the molfars. For example, a staff with which a frog was saved from a snake, and now it has a miraculous property: it reconciles quarreling spouses. Or a knife – a “thunder stick” with which clouds were dispersed. But the traditional local musical instrument – the drymba – tunes a person’s energy field.
Museum of Sexual Cultures of the World, Kharkiv
The first and so far only museum in Ukraine, the exposition of which is dedicated to the sexual culture of the peoples of the world, was opened in 1999 on the initiative of the staff of the Department of Sexology of the Kharkiv Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.
The various halls contain exhibits that tell the story of the sexual culture of twelve countries. They are open to all visitors of legal age.
There is also a separate teenage hall where you can study human anatomy, physiology, and psychology, as well as listen to lectures on sex education. After all, the museum, which has a reputation as the most spicy in Ukraine, has an educational function.
Smuggling Museum, Odesa
The original private museum was founded in 2013 by Alexander Otdelnov, who turned the region's disadvantage - crime - into an advantage. He "seasoned" it with his trademark jokes and naivety.
The museum's exhibition is still small, with over 150 items of confiscated contraband and illustrations of how they were smuggled across the border.
What kind of hiding places did the border guards have to find: jewelry in women's heels, thousands of cigarettes in cars, drugs in a teddy bear...
Did all the museum exhibits really arrive here from customs checkpoints? Yes and no. Most of the collection is replicas, exactly identical to the originals, since the originals serve as materials in criminal cases.
The tour of the exhibits is accompanied by an interesting narration by a guide: sincere Odessans with a light, humorous accent will tell you incredible and funny stories.
Museum of the History of the Toilet, Kyiv
This is probably one of the most daring museums. During a tour of the museum, the visitor learns an extraordinary number of historical details, which are often omitted from school history lessons due to the sensitivity of the topic. However, history has preserved many interesting facts, customs, and even some piquant details related to the topic of toilet culture.
The museum's exposition covers all stages of the development of domestic culture and hygiene: from primitive society to the present day.
Among the exhibits are models of ancient toilets, night vases, and a collection of toilet-themed souvenirs.
Museum of Dreams, Kyiv
Who am I when I sleep? Where do dreams come from? The answers to these and other questions can be found at the Museum of Sleep.
There are no usual display cases with exhibits here, so it is difficult to remain in the role of a spectator. Here, everyone is both an exhibit and an explorer of their own unconscious.
A notable exhibit of the museum is the Dream Chest, which is ready to share its dreams with you: you can peek, examine, and study dreams told by others.
You can come to the museum and personally place your dream in the Chest. Or you can simply do it on the museum's website...
Pysanka Museum, Kolomyia
The Museum of Easter Egg Painting is unexpected, first of all, for its architecture.
The main building of the museum, in the form of a large glass Easter egg 13.5 meters high and 10 meters in diameter, attracts you to look inside. The windows are made of different colored glass, which on sunny days turns the room into a kaleidoscope with a hundred colored sun bunnies.
Thus, the main building of the museum serves not only as an original decoration, but also as the world's largest painted Easter egg.
The museum's exhibition includes over 12,000 Easter eggs and decorative eggs from different regions of Ukraine and countries around the world. The collection of Easter egg paintings preserves traditions dating back to pre-Christian times.
In addition to exhibiting, the museum is working on preserving and restoring the Easter eggs. By the way, the technique used for the restoration is kept secret.
In 2017, for its high visitor rating, the Museum of Easter Painting received a certificate of distinction from the world-popular travel site TripAdvisor, which contains over 500 million reviews of tourism establishments around the world.
Lard Museum, Lviv
The establishment is dedicated to the famous Ukrainian snack in various guises.
Actually, it is a modern museum-restaurant, combining a museum, a restaurant, and an art space where parties, literary evenings, and concerts are held.
The exhibition features sculptures made of lard, as well as paintings, photographs, and other works by artists.
The main exhibit of the museum is a copy of a human heart made of lard; this exhibit was listed in the Ukrainian Book of Records.
And where else but here can you taste dishes made with lard, for example, ice cream with... lard.
Garbage Museum, Vinnytsia
In Kyiv, on the territory of a recycling plant, there is a garbage museum. But we will pay attention to the Vinnytsia museum, because the collection in Vinnytsia is even richer than in Kyiv :)
The museum was created by a storekeeper from Vinnytsia, Vyacheslav Voevodin, on the territory of an enterprise that collects and sorts garbage. Sometimes unnecessary things turn out to be valuable from a historical point of view.
Antiques, rarities, medals, statuettes, jugs, portraits, weapons – the exhibits of the collection, which were found in the trash. The most valuable is a German razor from 1695.
Brewery Museum, Lviv
Opened in 2005 on the territory of the oldest Lviv brewery, in a 19th century building.
Here you will learn about the history of brewing, see old beer bottles, vintage beer mugs from different European countries and different styles, barrels for transporting beer, and recipe books from the late 19th century.
On the second floor, you can examine beer under a microscope, see the process of creating a hoppy drink, or even create your own variety. After the tour, guests will be invited to personally taste the brewery's products.
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