Museum of Ukrainian home icons

The Museum of Ukrainian home icons (Ukrainian: Музей української домашньої ікони) of the 16th to 20th centuries is the basic part and main attraction of the Radomysl Castle, a historical and cultural complex which is located in the town of Radomysl (Zhytomyr region, Ukraine).

Radomysl Castle. Museum of Ukrainian Home Icons. The Ceremonial Hall's piece of exhibition

The museum’s funds are based upon the private collection of icons collected by Olha Bohomolets, MD, a well-known Ukrainian doctor and public activist. It took nearly 16 years for Mrs. Bogomolets to form the collection (since 1996). This is the first and only museum of its kind in Ukraine and in the entire world, and it is also the largest museum of icons in Eastern Europe. It represents perhaps the largest Christian exposition in Ukraine.

The icons kept in the Museum are made by both professional and amateur artists. However, their works are equally valuable. Sometimes the artists used Ukrainian Christian folklore as the source of inspiration.

Olga Bohomolets, the owner of Museum of Ukrainian Home Icons tells the visitors about the icons of Museum's collection

Some icons retain the marks reminding of anti-religious policy and brutal atheism of the Communist dictatorship in Ukraine (traces of fire, slashes, bullet holes etc). Dramatic impression is produced by a chest for wheat made of headless icons.

The unique attraction of the Museum is a rare icon of St. Nicholas carved in stone in the 12th century. The tradition of such icons comes from the Byzantine Empire and they were used in churches in Rus' up to the 16th century.

The Museum holds nearly 5,000 items of Ukrainian sacral art from all around the country. Among them are not only Orthodox icons, but also Catholic and Greek-Catholic, including those respected among the followers of different Christian confessions (such as the Holy Virgin of Częstochowa, Berdychiv, Pochaiv etc.).