Vyatskoye Museum Village

The 'Vyatskoye' historical and cultural complex named after Yelena Ankudinova is a phenomenon of the Russian countryside: since 2008 businessman Oleg Zharov has bought and restored over thirty architectural monuments in the village of Vyatskoye in the Nekrasovsky district, turning it into a museum village with 15 museums. The statuses impress: the country's only private museum of federal significance (2022), a UNESCO World Heritage tentative-list candidate (2019), the Intermuseum Grand Prix (2015), and a State Prize for its creators (2012). Up to a hundred thousand visitors a year come for the 'Sounds of Time' with a Bruggers organ, the 'House of Angels', the museum of Russian enterprise, a black-wash bathhouse and the 'Vyatskoye cucumbers' — a revived local craft. Vyatskoye shows how private money and museum culture can revive a village: the 'Province — the Soul of Russia' and 'Nekrasov Days in Vyatskoye' festivals, the Resurrection church, the embankment. It is about half an hour from Yaroslavl.