At the beginning of November, the Klimentii Sheptytskyi Museum of Folk Architecture and Life completed the restoration of one of the largest exhibits, which began in June 2022 – the parish barn (second half of the 19th century) from the village of Lybokhora, Turkiv district.
In recent years, the roof of this valuable architectural object needed urgent attention, because it is also used as a storage facility for individual museum exhibits. In May 2021, the museum launched the charity project “Buy a shingle – save the barn”, under which everyone could participate in collecting funds for restoration. The first funds were collected in this way, later Lviv Skansen received charitable contributions from several companies, but the main part of the used finances is money from entrance tickets.
About 49,000 small spruce boards – shingles – were used to cover the roof of the barn. After the roof was covered, they were covered with a layer of oil (crude oil), which was traditionally used for this purpose.
“The board lies on top of each other, it actually covers most of the previous one. And it turns out that it is covered in two rows, one after another. This ensures greater thickness, water does not flow there, and the roof does not rot,” said Vasyl Markiv, head of the museum’s construction and restoration department.
The technology during the restoration of the roof was not changed so that the building did not lose its authenticity. According to the head of the Lviv Skansen Mykhailo Zakopets, the works were carried out by the museum workers’ own efforts.
“This is all the painstaking work of our craftsmen, completely handmade. One of the workers who covered the barn this year also did it last time, 30 years ago. We are convinced that this roof will last no less. At the same time, the success of this project is an example of how caring citizens and museum visitors can join together in the preservation of architectural objects,” said Mykhailo Zakopets.