Marc Chagall Museum

The house on Pakrouskaya Street was built by Chagall's father around 1900 and the family lived in it through the artist's childhood and youth, the period that supplied the imagery he used for the rest of his life: the wooden houses, the goats and cows, the fiddler, the yard and the street. It opened as a museum in 1997, furnished with period objects and household items of a Jewish family of that time and place rather than with paintings, since Vitebsk holds almost none of his work; the art centre elsewhere in the city shows graphics and reproductions. A bronze figure of Chagall stands outside. It is a small museum about a place rather than a collection.

Highlights

• The family house - the brick building on Pakrouskaya Street.
• Period furnishing - the rooms set out as a family home of the period.
• The yard - the courtyard the paintings return to repeatedly.
• The bronze figure - the sculpture of Chagall outside.

When to go

Year round; the museum is indoors and open through the winter, closing on Mondays. It takes under an hour. The art centre with graphics is a separate visit elsewhere in the city.

Practical notes

There are almost no original paintings here; the house is the exhibit. The museum is small and takes under an hour. Labelling is in Belarusian and Russian with some English. The house was reconstructed in part.

Nearby

Vitebsk city centre lies across the river; Polotsk is northwest.

Key facts