The Study

The biggest room on the first floor was a study room of I. Franko. On the desk one can see his personal things, such as an inkstand, a wooden box for manuscripts, a pocket watch, a Hutsul iron knife for paper cutting, a bronze candlestick, and also books – volumes of Shakespeare, Heine, Mickiewicz, Pushkin and Dante that
I. Franko translated into Ukrainian. On the desk, there are signatures of I. Franko, his poem Moses written in 1905. Mykhailo Kotsiubyns’kyi saw him working on “Moses”. He recalled: “In his poor house he was sitting at the table barefoot and was weaving a fishing net, like a poor apostle. He was weaving a fishing net and writing the poem “Moses”. I do not know if he caught a fish, but my soul was caught by his poem”. On the chair, where I. Franko sat long time ago, there is a fishing net, woven by his hands.

In the last years of his life I. Franko created a lot of translations and paraphrases from old literatures. On the bookshelves one can see literary works read by
I. Franko as well as some of the works authored by him in the last period of his life.

On one of the shelves of the wardrobe there is a “horn of prosperity”, a present made to I. Franko by the world-renowned Ukrainian singer Solomiya Krushelnyts’ka. On the walls there is a portrait of I. Franko painted by Ivan Trush as well as some other paintings of this artist. Nearby one can also see a portrait of an unknown woman by M. Reizner. In the corner of the room there is a sofa, upholstered with the black oilcloth, near the furnace there is a wicker chair, associated so much with the last minutes of I. Franko’s life. Near the furnace there is a clock stopped at 4 p.m. On the day of May 28, 1916 one of the greatest Ukrainian writers passed away. But he left after himself eternal masterpieces, and one of the remembrances is this memorial house with the writer’s possessions.