Today we will get acquainted with a historical place that carries a great history – the Antonychiv Family Manor Museum.
After all, museums are a place where people get to know the history of the past, discovering the culture of different generations. Therefore, in the village of Bortyatyn, in the former Greek-Catholic presbytery, the Antonychiv Family Manor Museum, the Bortyatyn branch of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion, was located.
This is a landmark of local importance, where the Antonychy family lived since 1928. On October 8, 1989, a room-museum of Bohdan-Ihor Antonych was created in the premises of the presbytery, thanks to the efforts of Ms. Iryna Kalynets, and an elementary school was used in all the other rooms. By the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth, the presbytery was completely reconstructed. On October 25, 2009, the grand opening of the Antonychyv Family Manor Museum took place.
Five spacious rooms housed the museum exposition, which was created by the employees of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion and which was exhibited until 2021. In 2021, thanks to the efforts of the Lviv Regional State Administration, funds were allocated from the regional budget for the re-exposition of the museum. The author of the project was the Honored Artist of Ukraine Orest Skop. And so, on the eve of the 113th anniversary of the birth of Bohdan Ihor Antonych, on October 4, a new museum exposition was opened at the Museum-manor of the Antonychyv family, Bortyatyn branch of LMIR. On the stands and showcases there are documents, letters, photos that tell about the life and work of the poet Bohdan-Ihor Antonych and his small Motherland – Lemkivshchyna; the history of the formation and development of the Greek Catholic Church on the territory of Yavorivshchya. The updated exposition tells about two extremely rich Ukrainian ethnic cultures – Lemki and Yavoriv, which influenced the formation of the worldview of the talented poet Bohdan Ihor Antonych.
The museum exhibits ancient household items donated by the villagers and belongings of the Antonychy family, although few of them have survived, as the Greek-Catholic presbytery was destroyed by the Soviet authorities. Bohdan-Ihor Antonych liked to come to Bortyatyn. In one of his letters, he writes that he is sitting in Lviv, but if he were in the village, he would write more than one good poem. Hanna Voytsytska, a good friend of Antonych from Bortyatyn, remembers that Bohdan-Ihor always walked with a stick, beat it on the ground and talked to himself, as it turned out – he was the one who composed poems like that, and used the stick to beat his beat. Old-timers of Bortyatyn recall that “If there were no Antonychis, there would be no Bortyatyn either,” because a church, a school and a shop were built in the village through the efforts of Father Vasyl – the basis of any village. The exhibition room dedicated to Bohdan Igor’s stay in Lviv deserves special attention. Antonych’s museum staff managed to get the windows and doors from the room where Antonych lived in Lviv at 50 Horodotska Street. They were restored and became wonderful stands on which photos, manuscripts and documents are placed, which tell about Antonych’s friends, mentors and vicissitudes of life.
The doors of the museum-manor of the Antonychy family are open to everyone who wants to learn something, see something interesting. People come here not only from Ukraine, but also from Poland, Slovakia, Belgium, they just want to see the place where the poet lived, to walk along the paths he walked, to feel the spirit of the Antonychys.