Museum of Folk Architecture (Sanok)

The museum was founded in 1958 on the initiative of Alexander Rybitsky and keeper of the Hedge Tour. It was the first ethnographic park founded in Poland after World War II , which, thanks to foreign contacts, received the status of an independent scientific and administrative institution in the seventies, along with the first-ever status of the library in the history of Polish museum activity. The Statute of the Ethnographic Park in Sanok served as the basis for many successive similar institutions. Skansen was opened to visitors on July 25, 1966. At the initiative of Alexander Rybitsky in the Ethnographic Park, the first experimental station in Poland to store historical wood was also created. Various festivals of music, handicraft and folk cuisine are also organized in the Ethnographic Park in Sanok. Folk music groups from different countries are invited, in particular Hungary , Slovakia , and Ukraine .

The project of building a small town sector was conceived as early as the 80s of the 20th century in the workshop of Alexander Rybitsky. The historian set himself a goal to show examples of the construction of the XIX / XX centuries, to restore the historical Galician market with all its functions. This project was launched in 2009, thanks to the funds of the European Union . It consists in the creation of a typical town in the second half of the XIX and early XX centuries, since during this period houses of the bourgeois type were created, with arcades around the market. In the sector of the Galician market there are 26 objects. The official opening took place on September 16, 2011.

During the reproduction of a typical placement of villages and economic kitchen gardens, over 100 wooden objects of the 17th — 20th centuries were collected in the museum. In addition to residential, housing and business facilities, there are also sacral buildings in the Park (a 17th century Catholic church, two 18th century Boyk churches, one 19th century Lemkova church and several picturesque chapels), public buildings (village school, hotel) and industrial buildings ( water mill , windmills , forge ). Churches, as well as residential and farm buildings are accessible to tourists. You can see, in particular, the interiors of craft workshops: weaver, potter, wheeled craftsman, manufacturer of wooden spoons, wicker baskets, etc. In the territory of the Ethnographic Park there is also a permanent exhibition of icons , called the Carpathian Icon, where you can see over 220 icons XV — XIX centuries, representing the full development of the technique of this type of painting on the territory of the Polish Carpathians . The activities of the Park also include temporary exhibitions organized through private collections. The exhibitions and museum warehouses contain about 30,000 exhibits, the sights of folk culture, the culture of inhabitants of the Subcarpathian cities and towns, including rich collections of icons, watches, copper plates, kilims , oleographies , ceramics and other items related to art and artistic craft.

Up to 1947, four ethnographic groups lived in the territory of south-eastern Poland: Boyky , Lemkies (Ruthenian groups), Dolinyans (a group connecting Polish and Ruthenian features) and Poguzhans (Polish group). Among this latter group, the ethnic Rusyn island was created by so-called “substitutes” , that is, residents of 9 Ukrainian villages located near the town of Krosno , isolated by Polish groups from the rest of the Ruthenian population. In spite of the fact that all the above mentioned groups lived in a mountainous area, they differed from each other in the way they were engaged in farming (among the Boyks and Lemkos, this was agricultural activity based on livestock , the Dolinyans and Poguzhans were mainly engaged in farming ). This difference influenced the nature of the material (construction, clothing) and spiritual (rituals, family holidays) culture, as well as many other elements of everyday life.

• Boiky - a group of Greek Catholic religions , spoke in the dialect of the Ukrainian language. They were engaged primarily in the production of wood, agriculture and animal husbandry . The fighters made their own clothes, at fairs they bought only a few accessories. White and red colors prevailed in their clothes.
• Lemks are divided into 3 ethnic groups, but they all use Ukrainian dialect and profess Greek-Catholicism . Livestock industry played a significant role in their farm, but they were also engaged in farming . At the end of the 19th century, many Lemkys emigrated to the United States , and World War II practically led to the complete depopulation of both the Lemkies and the Boyks.
• Dolinyans - this group was the effect of combining Poles living in southeastern Poland, Ruthenians and Germans . Dolinyans engaged in farming, thanks to fertile soils.
• Pogózанеny is a predominantly Polish group, but a small percentage consists of Rusyns and Germans . In addition to farming and animal husbandry, poguzhane engaged in weaving .

• Official site of the museum in Sanok
• Open Air Museum in Sanok