Transcarpathian Local History Museum
The Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore was founded on 20 June 1945, when the People’s Council of Transcarpathian Ukraine adopted a resolution on the establishment of the People’s Museum of Transcarpathian Ukraine in Uzhhorod. Seventeen rooms in the building of the former county administration were allocated for its exhibition (today this building houses the Regional Art Museum named after J. Bokshai).
The Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore was created on the basis of ethnographic and natural history collections of the former Uzhhorod Zemstvo Museum. In the spring of 1947, the museum was relocated to Uzhhorod Castle, where it is still located today. The first exhibition at the new site was opened in 1948 and included departments of nature, history, ethnography, and socialist construction.
In 1950, the museum was enriched with valuable archaeological and historical collections from the former Lehoczky Museum in Mukachevo, and at the beginning of the 1960s it was supplemented with a significant collection of traditional Transcarpathian folk costumes.
Today, the Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore features several permanent exhibitions.
The Nature Department presents the physical and geographical characteristics of the Transcarpathian region, as well as information on its flora and fauna, using valuable artistic dioramas. The Archaeology Department displays artifacts illustrating the region’s ancient past.
On the second floor, in the restored halls and the chapel of the former theological seminary, visitors can explore the history of Uzhhorod Castle and the city itself, as well as the activities of the prominent Hungarian statesman Count Miklós Bercsényi, one of the castle’s owners in the 17th century. This section also covers the history of religion and the development of spiritual culture in the region, presented through interesting artifacts, furniture from the 17th to early 20th centuries, and rare antique books.
A separate exhibition hall is dedicated to the Counts Schönborn, while the palace galleries display examples of artistic and household metalwork in Transcarpathia from the late 18th to early 20th centuries.
In the western wing of the second floor, on 12 March 2009, a new modern exhibition titled “Transcarpathia Between the Two World Wars” was officially opened. It covers the period from 1914 to 1938 and includes 324 original documentary and material exhibits that illustrate the historical background leading to the events of Carpathian Ukraine. The establishment of the Carpathian Ukrainian state, to which the following exhibition is dedicated, was the result of many years of activity by Ukrainian patriotic forces across all areas of the region’s socio-political life.
Adjacent to it is the memorial museum-room of Avgustyn Voloshyn, a prominent Ukrainian scholar, educator, church and public figure, cultural and political leader, President of Carpathian Ukraine, and Hero of Ukraine.
Of particular interest to visitors is a new exhibition from the museum’s collection of cold and firearms from the 16th to early 20th centuries, featuring 60 examples arranged chronologically by type and place of manufacture.
The thematic exhibitions “Folk Musical Instruments of Transcarpathia” and “Traditional Folk Costume of Transcarpathia” present unique collections from the Department of Folk Art and Ethnography, spanning from the 1920s–1930s to the present day.
Each year, the museum’s researchers create 4–5 temporary exhibitions dedicated to various themes.