Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv Museum, Verkhovyna
Memorial museum of the mayor of Zhabie, ethnographer and author of “Dido Yvanchik”, in his 1933 house in the centre of Verkhovyna; founded by the Makivnychuk family.
Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv was born on 20 April 1889 in Holovy, in the Verkhovyna area. His teacher Luka Harmatii introduced him to Franko, Hnatiuk, Khotkevych and Kotsiubynsky; he acted in Khotkevych's Hutsul Theatre, recorded tales about the opryshky, funeral customs and a description of the koliada in Holovy for the Shevchenko Scientific Society's “Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk”, from 1927 was mayor of Zhabie — as Verkhovyna was then called — and in 1928–1930 a deputy in the Polish Sejm. His major work is the novel “Dido Yvanchik” about the life, customs and beliefs of the Hutsuls, written in the Hutsul dialect and completed on 20 April 1940; his wife hid the manuscript, and the book came out only in 2007 (zbruc.eu). On 15 May 1940 he was arrested by the Soviet authorities and on 11 October sentenced to eight years — after that his trail is lost (radiosvoboda.org). The house on Cheremshyny Street was built in 1933, in his lifetime (karpaty.rocks); Ivan Makivnychuk recovered the confiscated house and restored it with his daughter Nadiia (livingbyart.online), and the museum opened — according to Suspilne, in 2019, while carpathianculturalroute.com gives 25 June 2018. The exhibition includes photographs, archival documents, letters and the school desk he studied at (Suspilne), the NKVD file with his fingerprints (livingbyart.online), manuscripts and personal belongings (karpaty.rocks); in the yard there is a kryivka, a hideout whose entrance looks like an ordinary well (carpathianculturalroute.com).
Address: 1 Cheremshyny St., Verkhovyna (vidviday.ua, 06.10.2025; karpaty.rocks, updated 24.04.2025). Tickets: adults and pensioners 25 UAH, students and pupils 20 UAH (vidviday.ua, 2025; karpaty.rocks, 2025). The websites list no fixed opening hours — arrange a visit in advance by phone: +380964234411, +380666531377 (karpaty.rocks, 2025) or +380671577477 (carpathianculturalroute.com). The museum was founded by the writer's family; it is in the centre of the town, reached via the P24/H09 roads through Verkhovyna (carpathianculturalroute.com). Nearby hotels: Verkhovel, Vodohrai Karpat and Green House (karpaty.rocks).