Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Life

It is also popularly known as the Strochitsa Museum. This one-of-a-kind open-air museum in Belarus was founded in 1976. The opening was preceded by extensive work, including organizing scientific expeditions to various regions, searching for and studying ethnographic artifacts, researching architectural objects, and their transportation. Residential and farm buildings from different villages and towns were carefully dismantled, transported to Ozertso, and then meticulously reassembled. Ethnographic expeditions brought back stoves, benches, dishes, baby cradles, dining tables, vehicles, farm equipment, and other items of peasant life. The museum's collection reflects the everyday life of Belarusians in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, telling about folk traditions, religious customs, and cultural values of our ancestors.

The exhibition of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life consists of three parts, each dedicated to different ethnographic regions: Poozerye, Podneprovye, and Central Belarus. Each part reflects the typical architectural and domestic features of a specific region.

The museum's collection includes 35 architectural objects, created from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century. Among them are:

• religious buildings – temples, chapels, bell towers;
• public buildings – a village school, a tavern, a puppet theatre;
• farm buildings – a blacksmith shop, a mill, a barn;
• manor complexes, representing the houses of wealthy residents of the Belarusian village and the poor representatives of the peasantry.

Museum objects in Ozerets were restored carefully, with great attention to detail. That is why, when visiting the complex, guests are left with the feeling that time stopped in this place more than 100 years ago. Authentic interiors have been restored inside peasant houses, a village school, a Uniate church from the early 18th century and other buildings. Furniture, dishes, examples of clothing and footwear, household items, and other exhibits are not kept under glass but are organically integrated into the peasant hut atmosphere. Under the roof of the puni – a building for storing hay – traditional vehicles are collected: sleds, carriages, carts, and a 19th-century city carriage. Benches, wells, wooden fences, domestic birds and animals, and paths carefully trodden between the yards create a sensation for the museum visitors of moving through a real village from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries.

The Museum of Folk Architecture and Life operates year-round. Guests have the opportunity to book a tour and an animation program, take an audio guide, or visit the museum without a guided tour. The open-air museum in Ozertso covers a large area – 151 hectares, so plan to spend at least two hours exploring the museum.

Strochitsy regularly hosts concerts, music festivals, exhibitions and cultural events dedicated to traditional folk holidays - Kupala, Maslenitsa, Kalyady, Dzyady. On the territory of the museum, there is a souvenir shop and a restaurant with national cuisine dishes.

Getting to the open-air museum is easy – it is located 4 kilometers from the ring road, behind the "Malinovka" car market. Buses regularly depart from the “Yugo-Zapadnaya” bus station to Ozertso, and you can get here by minibus from the “Petrovshchina” metro station.