Kyiv Oblast: Museums and Garden Art

Kyiv Oblast brings together different themes for a trip: the Mezhyhirya Garden Art Park in Novi Petrivtsi, as well as museums in Pereiaslav and Marianivka. Each place has its own focus—from park design and nature reserve status to kobzar art, Taras Shevchenko, and everyday Ukrainian culture. You can first decide whether you are more interested in parks, music history, or regional history.

Nature and Park Art

The Mezhyhirya Garden Art Park is located in Novi Petrivtsi in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, and is part of the Emerald Network. As a park of national significance, it belongs to Ukraine’s Nature Reserve Fund; it is also described as Ukraine’s “youngest” park. Garden art and designated protected-area status thus come together in one place. For travelers who want to focus on park design, the park offers a different theme from the museums in Pereiaslav.

Museum scene in Pereiaslav

The Pereiaslav National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve is located in the city of Pereiaslav and brings together more than 20 museums across different fields. The Museum of Kobzar Art has a particular focus: it presents the origins and development of this art, as well as its traditional folk and folkloric and stage-academic forms. The exhibition includes documentary and material evidence, artworks, and the musical and poetic work of kobzars. The main collection comprises 242 exhibits, including 26 banduras. These figures give a concrete sense of the collection; at the same time, its subject extends beyond instruments to encompass musical and poetic traditions.

The Taras Shevchenko Testament Museum is also located in Pereiaslav. It was established on April 18, 2008, in the former manor house of the physician A. Kozachkovskyi. The exhibition presents the region’s history during the Cossack era chronologically from Shevchenko’s perspective and recounts his stay in the Pereiaslav area. The fifth room is a memorial room where Shevchenko stayed overnight during visits to the Kozachkovskyi family. His poem “Zapovit” provides another historical connection: Shevchenko wrote it on the night of December 24–25, 1845, in A. Kozachkovskyi’s house in Pereiaslav.

The open-air Museum of Folk Architecture and Everyday Life of the Middle Dnipro Region includes a towel museum with 300 towels from different regions. The site is also home to the Museum of the History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and a museum of Ukrainian customs. These collections complement museums devoted to specific art forms and historical subjects with further insights into culture and everyday life.

An artist’s life in Marianivka

Marianivka offers a different biographical focus. Opera singer Ivan Semenovych Kozlovskyi was born on March 24, 1900, in the village, which is now in Bila Tserkva Raion, Kyiv Oblast. The I. S. Kozlovskyi Memorial Museum and Estate was established there in 1995. The museum includes a park with a mausoleum and intersecting avenues, which Kozlovskyi planned together with architect Yakiv Drutskyi in the 1960s. Several museums and exhibition themes take center stage in Pereiaslav; in Marianivka, an artist’s biographical connection comes together with a museum and park dedicated to him.

Discover more destinations

Bila Tserkva, Brovary, Boryspil, Bilogorodka, Vyshneve, Irpin, Olyva, Vyshhorod, Vorzel, Knyazhychi, Kyiv, Brovary, Boryspil, Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Raion, Ivankiv Raion, Vyshhorod Raion, Brovarskyi Raion, Chubynske, Krasnyi Rih, Vasylkiv, Pirnove, Dymer, Hatne, Kyiv, Hora, Petrivske, Vysoke, Ordzhonikidze, Bucha, Sukholuchchia, Fastiv, Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, Kozyn, Mytnytsia, Novosilky, Baryshivka, Protsiv, Khodosivka, Rokytne, Slavutych, Tsybli, Trypillia, Babyntsi, Sadove, Hoholiv, Ukrainka, Krasylivka, Kodaky, Hrebinky, Uzyn, Yahotyn, Horенychi, Hlevakha, Boyarka, Stoyanka, Vita-Poshtova, Lebedivka, Romankiv, Peremoha, Havronshchyna, Hvozdiv, Hostomel, Zhukyn, Pidhirtsi, Voropaiv, Kyiliv, Kypiachka, Pohreby, Yatsky, Ruda, Krasne Pershe, Khokhitva, Volodarka, Yosypivka, Mysailivka

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