The Carpathian mountains were home to various ethnic groups. To learn about the material and spiritual culture of the Lemko, Bojko, Pogórzanie and Dolinianie peoples, you should visit the Museum of Rural Architecture in Sanok, which is open in all seasons. It is visited by over 140,000 tourists every year.
Looking like small villages
The open-air museum is beautifully located at the foot of Mount Biała Góra in the San river valley. Established in 1958, today it comprises an area of 38 ha. The first exposition opened to the public in 1966. It presented a granary from Przeczyca from 1732, a croft from 1861 and cottage from 1906, both from Skorodne, a tserkva from Rosolin from 1750, a cottage from Dąbrówka from 1681, as well as a hut from 1901, water mill from Wola Komborska from the second half of the 19th century.
The open-air exposition is divided into sectors dedicated to the specific ethnic groups. Each sector looks like a small village with furnished houses, farm buildings and churches. The stories told by the guide bring to life the images of people who used to live, work and celebrate special occasions in the mountain hamlets or villages along the San river. Today the ethnographic park in Sanok contains over 150 buildings and structures and each of them holds a separate story. Because of this one visit is not enough to explore all the secrets of this place.
Icons
The open-air museum hosts many events and exhibitions. One of these is the fair ‘The ‘Carpathians Enshrined in Wood’. Craftsmen from the region and from abroad present their products made of wood, the main material of the Carpathians. On this occasion you can also admire icons made by local artists. Indeed, icons, or religious works of art, are an important part of the cultural landscape of the Carpathians. Because of this one of the historical buildings in the ethnographic park holds a permanent exhibition, where visitors can see over 200 icons, the oldest dating from the late 15th/early 16th century. The exhibits are arranged in a chronological order, so you can see the changes which emerged in the style of Carpathian icons over the centuries.
What else is there?
It is not only artefacts related to rural culture that are on display here. The museum collections contain more than 31,000 exhibits, including those related to the cultural heritage of people once living in towns and in manorial estates, as well as artefacts connected with the Jewish people once living in this area. As an example you can see here a replica of the 18th-century synagogue from Połaniec and a manor house from Święcany. During the installation of the manor house at the exposition, a handwritten pencil inscription was discovered on one of the construction beams, stating that the manor house was built in 1861 and the foreman's name was Socha.
A separate sector within the ethnographic park presents exhibits related to the history of the oil industry in the Carpathians. In a way, this exposition supplements the presentation of the cultural heritage of the Pogórzanie ethnic group, since their life and traditions were greatly affected by this industry.
Another fascinating section in the Sanok open-air museum is the Galician Town Square which opened in 2011. Rural areas always had various economic, administrative and cultural links to the nearby towns. This was especially visible at the market squares during fairs where people living in the countryside could exchange their products for various services on offer in the town. The exposition presents a typical layout of a late 19th century Galician town square with a post-office, hair-dresser’s, shoe-maker’s, as well as chemist’s shop, and many more. Here, visitors can get a glimpse of the life as it used to be many years ago.