5 best Museums of Kyiv

What is your first thought when you are planning your next trip to another city or country? Right! What interesting and useful you can see there. Of course, you start searching for a place to eat/stay for a night, monuments to see, parks and alleys have a walk, squares to look at the buildings and museums to visit.

All this helps us to discover a new place, make a city not a stranger but a good friend. Each city has a lot to show, be sure and let it touch your heart kindly. Kyiv is very old and has a great history. That wasn’t always easy. Its streets still remember all sad and joyful events, the walls of old buildings still keep in memory everything that had happened there.

People used to build museums for keeping for good, something we should remember or want to show to everyone in all around the world. Our cultural heritage, modern art achievements, famous peoples’ lives – everything has been kept there for the next generations.

Explore our unique culture when you are tired of just eating/walking during your Kyiv tour, visit the best of Kyiv’s museums, get to know our history, make an acquaintance with talented personalities. We can offer you 5 indeed worth seeing museums on different taste:

1) Mykola Syadristy Microminiatures Museum

Syadristy has been creating masterpieces for more than fifty years, each item is hand-made by using different approaches. Actually, he is the founder of this type of art, the genius of mind and unique handcrafted items. If you want to get into this tiny world of creatures you should visit the exhibition of the works of Mykola Syadristy. His famous works – a chessboard on the head of a pin; the smallest book in the world with 12 pages of the poetry of Taras Shevchenko, a rose vine in a hollowed out hair – not all the masterpieces of this self-taught artist. His museum in Kyiv makes this city interesting for guests of all ages. It is situated on the first floors of an ancient monastery – Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra. You realize all the significance of his works only when you your eye from the microscope and just see nothing. The only fact that there are just four museums in the world that show us the universe of micro-miniatures is already a reason to visit Kyiv and enjoy the exhibition!

2) Kyiv Museum of Wax Figures

3)World War II Museum (Museum of Great Patriotic War)

This colossal complex, that covers 24.7 acres, is one of the largest museums in Ukraine. It is a memorial to the German – Soviet war 1941-1945 in which 7.5 million people lost their lives. What strikes you most about this place is the sheer scale and atmosphere. As you stroll around the grounds loud patriotic war songs are played through speakers, and large elaborate sculptures of Soviet wartime struggle to jump out of the walls at you. There is an area just to your right as you enter the complex. For a small fee you can sit and climb over old WW2 tanks, planes, helicopters and guns. Subtle it is not, but behind all of this is some moving and thought-provoking historical information.
The museum itself is actually situated underneath the Motherland statue. It is set on three floors which are circular. It has to be said that there is little information in English but much of the photographic evidence transcends words and is sometimes a little disturbing. The Jewish massacre, Kiev in ruins, death helplessness and Nazi occupation, it is all here in all its horror. Leave yourself a whole morning or afternoon to see all that is here and do not forget your camera. There are some great photo opportunities as you will be on a hill so you will have wonderful views of the Golden Onion shaped domes of the churches.

4) Museum of Cultural Heritage

The Museum of Cultural Heritage presents the works of those Ukrainian artists who were to live abroad. The collection of the museum is exhibited in eight halls of the old restored house. The museum building is the architectural monument dated to the end of the 18th century-the beginning of the 19th century. They remained an oasis of old Kiev, the old-fashioned building in the very center of Pechersk (one of the most famous areas of Kiev) became the “family home” for many members of Ukrainian Diaspora who had been working abroad for many years.

The exposition of the museum deals with the life and creativity of composers, choirmasters, writers, poets, choreographers and singers who were born in Kiev, got education here and had been working in the city for a long time and then somehow were forced to leave their native city. It became possible only nowadays that they and their creative achievements are known not only to the specialists in the field of fine arts, but to a great number of those people who love and value Ukrainian culture and arts. Visiting the museum’s hall, visitors are able to get acquainted with biographies and creative activities of these famous people. The Museum of Cultural Heritage holds a number of personal and subject exhibitions, and a huge exhibition is called “Ukrainian Life Reflected in Post Cards”.

The eighth hall is completely dedicated to the memory of famous ballet-master and dancer Serge Lifar. In the third hall there are works of Krychevsky’s family exhibited. The fifth hall is dedicated to the Ukrainian press and the second hall committed to the creative work of Ukrainian Diaspora. The main aim of the museum is to return the rich national heritage of great Ukrainian masters to their mother country and to present it to everyone.