OPEN AIR ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM

This museum is one of our most unusual. It is the only one of that kind in Yaroslavl oblast. The museum has a wonderful collection of carpentry and peasant architecture.

You will touch the rough wood of the Old Believers barn; visit the old Yuriev Chapel that we brought from its original the site on the Syt River where a true Russian hero, Prince Yuri Vladimirsky (13th century, the founder of Nizhny Novgorod) was killed in a big battle with the Mongol-Tatar army; listen to the rusty sound of a weathercock on the mill roof; sit on the stairs of the light-keeper’s house or look into the bachelor’s house.

You will see the history of some of trades of the past like the cooperage, oilseed processing industry, weaving, woodcarving and the ones that are still in use today like pottery making and blacksmithing.

You can book a private tour to visit the blacksmith’s workshop and have a chance to use authentic blacksmith tools, pump the air in the furnace to stoke the hot fire and and try the heavy hammer!

The blacksmith will tell you all about the workshop and the traditions and methods of forging metals and other things.

The museum has a souvenir shop where you can buy some unusual items like a replica of a medieval flint and steel, an amulet or a special horseshoe nail.