The museum was founded on 18 April 2008 in the town of Pereiaslav in the former mansion of Dr A. Kozachkovskyi, with whom Shevchenko stayed and was treated from October 1845 to January 1846. Shevchenko visited Kozachkovskyi twice more, in June and August 1859. Kozachkovskyi’s house was built in 1820 and today is listed among the historical and architectural monuments of Ukraine. It was here, on the night of 24 to 25 December 1845, that the poet wrote his “Testament”. In total, in the autumn of 1845 in Pereiaslav and Viunyshche, Shevchenko wrote such works as “The Servant Girl”, “The Caucasus”, “To the Dead and the Living and the Unborn…”, “Kholodnyi Yar”, “David’s Psalms”, “To Little Mariana”, “Days pass, nights pass” and “Three Years”. On assignment from the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission, Taras Shevchenko sketched the architectural monuments of Pereiaslav. Drawings that have survived include “Ascension Monastery”, “St Michael’s Church”, “Intercession Cathedral”, “Andrushi” (two drawings with this title), “In Viunyshche” and “Stone Cross of St Boris”.
In the Kozachkovskyi estate two acacias planted together by Kozachkovskyi and Shevchenko have survived.
The museum’s exhibition reveals in chronological order the history of the region in the Cossack period through the prism of Shevchenko’s understanding of it, and tells about the poet’s stay in the Pereiaslav region.
The museum consists of 12 halls:
- Halls 1–3 of the exhibition are devoted to the historical events of Pereiaslav from the 14th century to the national liberation war of the Ukrainian people in 1648–1657, the theme of Cossack uprisings and their leaders.
- Hall 4 is devoted to Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.
- Hall 5 is a memorial room where Taras Shevchenko stayed when he was a guest of the Kozachkovskyi family.
- Hall 6 is an exhibition devoted to the history of Taras Shevchenko’s acquaintance with Dr A. Kozachkovskyi in St Petersburg.
- Halls 7–8 contain copies of Shevchenko’s drawings.
- Hall 9 is the exhibition hall.
- Hall 10 is the library of the Kozachkovskyi family
- Hall 11 is the study of Dr A. Y. Kozachkovskyi
- Hall 12 is the drawing room of the Kozachkovskyi house.
The first four halls, united by the theme “Historical Pereiaslav”, introduce visitors to the era of valiant knights, bold Cossack campaigns, and the struggle against fierce external and internal enemies. The exhibition includes a collection of Ukrainian, Polish and Russian weapons of the 17th–18th centuries: Cossack pipes, powder flasks, the 17th-century painting “Cossack Mamay”, a unique portrait of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi by an unknown 17th-century artist, Cossack regalia of the 17th century, and more.
The next four halls of the exhibition are memorial rooms: the drawing room, the guest room in which T. H. Shevchenko lived, the library and the study of Dr A. O. Kozachkovskyi. They recreate the interiors of rooms of the first half of the 19th century, which helps convey the spirit of that era and come closer to the surroundings in which the poet lived and worked in 1845 and 1859.
Three literary and artistic halls tell about Taras’s studies at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts, the poet’s early work, and T. H. Shevchenko’s acquaintance with many people of Pereiaslav and personally with the owner of the house, about the “Pereiaslav autumn of the Kobzar” – a period of real creative upswing for the artist. In the interior of the drawing room you can see a sofa, a card table with playing cards and visiting cards laid out on it, armchairs, a settee, and a gilded cabinet with 19th-century crystal and porcelain tableware. The walls are decorated with icons and paintings.
