An enchanting wooden little house with carved window frames and patterned cornices on one of the quiet streets of Sergiev Posad is tucked behind a modest sign carved from wood. It declares that before you is the Peasant Life Museum "Zhili-Byli," neat and completely unlike the pompous and austere state museums with their stern cloakroom attendants.
This collection was opened by a creative and many-talented man - painter Viktor Bagrov. The artist's studio is located nearby, and his paintings adorn the walls of the small bright rooms. In addition, Viktor Yuryevich is an excellent woodcarver, and all the wood patterns in the museum's design are his handiwork.
The collection appeared as a result of the artist's fascination with various antique items, mainly pre-revolutionary and pre-war ones. At first he simply collected rare little things for himself, and when several hundred had accumulated, he realized that it was time to open an exhibition.
The Peasant Life Museum "Zhili-Byli" will take you back several decades. Samovars and charcoal irons, wooden and clay peasant tableware, antique toys made of wood and clay, as well as embroidered ritual towels of wondrous beauty and clothing made of homespun linen - all this was created by the hands of masters of the past and the century before last. There are also tools used by peasants: spinning wheels, butter churns, and other interesting implements.
