Orsha Ethnographic Museum "Mill"

Orsha ethnographic museum "Mill" is located in building of an old water mill, which was built in 1902 on the expense of the City Council on the place of an artificial channel, which connects the river Orshitsa and Dnieper. Orsha mill is a monument of industrial architecture. It should be mentioned that the town mill was one of the largest ones not only in Orsha district, but generally in the Mogilev province, that included Orsha in the early twentieth century.

In 1991, the program "Revival" began the reconstruction of the building. Restoration of monuments had been successfully completed by the end of 1994, and on June 23, 1995 there was opened Orsha ethnographic museum "Mill." By the resolution of the Council of Ministers on May 14, 2007 № 578 the building of the museum "Mill" received the status of historical and cultural value with category "2", which was put on the list of historical and cultural heritage of the Republic of Belarus. To present day mill has retained features of industrial architecture of the early twentieth century.

Museum is located on three floors with two main exhibition halls. The first part of the exhibition, which is called "Our Daily Bread", presents exhibits that were previously used by the peasants during the sowing campaign and the harvest of grain. Besides that the exposition presents everyday things that can tell us about simple everyday life of the Belarusian peasants: drums, samples of goods which were taken by the peasants to the market. Here you can see the layout of a peasant house, enclosing a description of the internal layout of the building.

The second part of the exhibition, "The light of the soul and talent", is located on the second floor. Here visitors can make the acquaintance of the handicraft items of XIX - early XX century, as well as the objects that represent spiritual culture. In the exhibition you can see a lot of embroidered towels, which affect by their patterns and colors. The collection of traditional women's national costumes that Belarusian peasant wore on weekdays during the holidays represents considerable historical value. It's also a pleasure to mention the icons of the manual work that were made by the master V. Yankowskaya.

There is a room for temporary exhibitions in the lower part of the building.