Pysanka Museum

The Pysanka Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to the pysanka, the traditional Ukrainian Easter egg. Located in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine, it functions as a subdivision of the National Museum of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya Folk Art. The museum has become a calling card of the city and was recognized as a landmark of modern Ukraine in August 2007. It is also cited in the list of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

The museum's origins trace back to 1983, when the executive committee of the Kolomyia city council approved the establishment of a pysanka department in the Church of the Annunciation. After intensive work on collection building and exhibition planning, the museum opened on 26 October 1987, coinciding with the 400th anniversary of the church's foundation. Initially, the church-museum operated only during summer months due to its location at a busy intersection. In 1990, the church was returned to the faithful, and from 1992 the collection was housed at 78 Roman Shukhevych Street. The current building, shaped like a giant pysanka, was constructed in just 90 days and inaugurated on 23 September 2000 during the 10th International Hutsul Festival, an event attended by the President of Ukraine and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. Director Yaroslava Tkachuk conceived the idea of an egg-shaped museum, which local artists Vasyl Andrushko and Myroslav Yasinskyi realized architecturally. The structure measures 14 metres in height and 10 metres in diameter, with exterior and interior dome surfaces painted to resemble a pysanka.

The museum holds over 10,000 pysanky, with some sources indicating the collection has grown to approximately 12,000 pieces. The permanent collection encompasses pysanky from most oblasts of Ukraine, including modern recreations of traditional designs alongside older examples from the Ivano-Frankivsk region dating to the 19th and 20th centuries. Notable is a recreation by Oksana Bilous and Zoya Stashuk of the Skarzhynska collection as depicted by Kulzhynsky. The collection extends beyond Ukrainian borders to include decorated eggs from Belarus, the Czech Republic, poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, the United States, Canada, France, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India. The museum also displays pysanky in various materials including stone, porcelain, and wood, with egg sizes ranging from quail to ostrich. A significant recent acquisition is a decorated goose egg from the 15th-16th century, discovered during excavations in Lviv in 2013. The museum organizes temporary exhibitions, typically featuring folk or original pysanky by local pysankary, as well as displays related to Hutsul Easter traditions and other folk arts.

Among the museum's most prized possessions is the 500-year-old decorated goose egg found in Lviv in 2013, representing the oldest egg in the collection. The museum also maintains a special collection of pysanky hand-signed by all Ukrainian presidents and most First Ladies, as well as by foreign politicians who have visited the institution. This signature tradition involves presenting visiting governmental and foreign delegations with a white chicken egg, melted beeswax, and a pen to sign the shell, which is then completed with traditional ornamental painting. The collection also features the recreation of the historically significant Skarzhynska collection.

The museum's defining architectural feature is its egg-shaped form, considered the world's largest Easter egg. The structure rises 14 metres high with a diameter of 10 metres. The interior spaces consist predominantly of coloured glass. Both the exterior and the inside of the dome are painted to evoke a pysanka, creating an immersive environment that embodies the museum's subject. This distinctive design, realized by artists Vasyl Andrushko and Myroslav Yasinskyi, makes the building itself the institution's most recognizable exhibit and a symbol of modern Ukrainian architecture.

The Pysanka Museum is located in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It operates under the National Museum of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya Folk Art. The museum's official website is http://hutsul.museum/pysanka/. Visitors can access the permanent collections and rotating temporary exhibitions in the galleries, which may include folk clothing, traditional historical Ukrainian dress, and other folk arts beyond pysanky. The institution continues to serve as a centre for the collection, preservation, and promotion of pysanka art, scientific study of folk artists' works, and transmission of this tradition to future generations.