The town of Borshchiv is located in the far south of Ternopil oblast, in the western portion of Podillya.  It is a distinct ethnographic region, and its beautiful and characteristic embroidery is well known throughout Ukraine.

In the center of town, on the main square, is a lovely building with graceful onion domes.  It was built in the late 1800s by Prosvita (“Enlightenment”), a society created in the nineteenth century in western Ukraine for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education among the local population.  The building was a cultural center, with a library, reading rooms, and other cultural amenities. 

The center was shut down by the Soviets in 1939, and allowed to fall into ruin. It has been rebuilt in recent years, and a local museum created on the premises.

The museum covers the history and ethnography of the Borshchiv region.  There are archeological exhibits, with mammoth bones, petrified wood, and Trypillian (and later) artifacts.  There are displays about and descriptions of all the eras of local history.  Examples of local costumes and crafts are exhibited, and the works of local artists grace the walls (including an homage to Jacques Hnizdovsky). There is even a basket of local pysanky.

It is a lovely museum, and an obvious labor of love on the part of the townspeople.  It deserved much more time than I was able to spare. 

Two views of the basket of pysanky on display in the Borshchiv town museum.  Mixed in with the

traditional Podillyan pysanky are several wooden ones.

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