The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village is an award-winning open-air museum which recreates an early 20th-century community of agricultural settlers who came to Canada from Ukraine. Every aspect is carefully recreated, with restored period buildings populated by costumed performers. You will be fully immersed in this important era of the local history.
Between 1892 and 1930, around 100,000 Ukrainian pioneers settled in Alberta, seeking available agricultural land. Today, Canada is home to the third-largest Ukrainian population, after Ukraine itself and Russia.
The village site, with over 30 historic buildings, is divided into four areas, with farmsteads, a rural community, a town and an “overview” area, where you’ll be introduced to three important Ukrainian settler families of the era. Find out about the first settlers who lived in “burdei”, a cross between a dugout and a log cabin, explore the grocery shop and market square, and see the world through the eyes of the settlers’ children at the one-room village school.
To achieve the most accurate experience possible, the costumed performers stay in character at all times. When you speak to them or ask them questions, they will answer as if they are still in the pre-1930 era.
If you visit during the summer season, you’ll have the chance to participate in daily activities. Help a famer tend to his crops, try your hand at quilting or play a game of horseshoes.
The village also celebrates a number of key dates during the year. If you time your visit right, in addition to the usual village routine, there will be concerts and dancing, historical exhibits and artifacts, as well as a village market selling hand-crafted souvenirs. Ukrainian Day is the perhaps the biggest event, but the village marks harvest time with a threshing bee and heritage food festival, as well as hosting a celebration of dance featuring the best local Ukrainian troupes.
The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village is 30 minutes by car from Edmonton, next to the Elk Island National Park. It is open from late May to early September. Entrance is free for children under 7 years old.
