Parkhomivka Art Museum

In the 1950s a history teacher at the village school in Parkhomivka, Afanasiy Lunov, started a collection with his pupils, writing to museums and collectors and acquiring what nobody else wanted. What they built over decades is genuinely extraordinary for a village of a few thousand: graphic work by Picasso, a Malevich, paintings by Repin, Aivazovsky and Shishkin, icons, Chinese and Japanese art, all in a former estate building.

Highlights

• The Picasso graphics - prints in a village collection built by a schoolteacher.
• The Russian and Ukrainian painting - Repin, Aivazovsky, Shishkin and others.
• The Malevich - avant-garde work in an unlikely setting.
• The story - a collection assembled by a teacher and his pupils from the 1950s.

When to go

April to October is the comfortable season. The museum keeps set hours and closes on some weekdays; checking before the long drive matters. Winter access is possible but the roads are worse.

Before you go

It is a long drive from Kharkiv for a small museum, and it is sometimes closed without notice. Display conditions are modest. Labelling is in Ukrainian.

Nearby

Sharivka Palace is northeast, and Kharkiv is northeast beyond it.

Key facts