The D.I. Yavornitsky Historical Museum of Dnipropetrovsk is the pride of the city, known throughout the country and even beyond its borders. In addition to the richest collection of antiquities and absolutely unique exhibits, the museum attracts visitors and unusual events, including a theatricalized night excursion.
Dnipropetrovsk Historical Museum is one of the largest in Ukraine. People even from other countries come here to see rare antiquities. The museum’s fund has more than 250 thousand exhibits, and the beautiful building in which it is located is an architectural monument of national importance.
The building of the museum was built in 1902-1905 by architects G. Sandetsky and G. Panafutin, who were inspired by Hoffmann’s house in Berlin. However, the history of the museum itself began much earlier — in 1849.
Governor A.Y. Fabr and gymnasium director Y.D. Grakhov decided to establish the first in the region «Public Museum of Yekaterinoslav Province» and placed several dozens of exhibits, collected from their own collections, in the Potemkin Palace. The pearl of the collection then, as well as today, was an Egyptian mummy of a woman with a child, brought from Egypt by the governor. Years passed, and the museum’s collection was replenished with new rarities: exhibits were brought by local residents, donated to the institution by collectors, the largest contribution was the collection of A.N. Polya of almost 5 thousand items, which was transferred to the museum after his death.
During the Crimean War and afterwards the Historical Museum of Dnepropetrovsk was located in the building of the current building of the Medical Academy. At today’s address — in a beautiful historical building in the style of classic and art nouveau the museum has been located since 1905.
During the Second World War, like other institutions, the museum was badly damaged and lost part of its collection, but the most valuable exhibits were preserved, largely thanks to D.I. Yavornitsky — the director and benefactor who ran it for 30 years. After his death, the museum was renamed in honor of this outstanding man, the guardian angel of the museum.
Today Historical Museum is a huge collection of various antiquities, absolutely unique diorama «Battle for the Dnieper», thanks to which in Khrushchev’s times it became famous for the whole Union.
In 1975 a new complex was added to the old building according to the project of architect V.A. Zuev, and the exhibition area increased from 550 to 3215 square meters. In addition to 5 exhibition halls and 8 exposition halls, the complex accommodated a unique diorama «Battle for the Dnieper», which has become a legend. It is an 840-square-meter canvas recreating the general picture and individual episodes of the heroic battle, painted by famous artists N.Y. But and N.V. Ovechkin. Thanks to the unique atmosphere created in the diorama hall with the help of lighting and sounding, visitors become eyewitnesses of a historical event that took place decades ago.
A visit to the museum is an excursion to different times and epochs from the Stone Age to the beginning of the last century. There are archeological, ancient Egyptian, antique, cult, book and archive, numismatic, ethnographic and many other collections, including the most interesting collection of Cossack antiquities. It is impossible to describe all the collections and exhibits, we can say about the most famous among them: it is a statue of the Aryan god Indra 3 thousand B.C., world famous under the name of Kernosovsky idol, a statue of Pharaoh Ramses VI, the largest collection of Scythian and Cumans stone women — the «age» of some of them is more than 5 thousand years, the carriage of Catherine II, the first Soviet tractor and many other unique things.
If you visit a night tour of this attraction of Dnepropetrovsk, you can get acquainted not only with the ancient and mysterious, but even otherworldly world — the museum creates a completely fantastic environment in which the years and eras change and the most interesting stories are told by the mouths of prominent historical figures.