Book Museum

The Museum of Books and Printing was opened in 1985 in the Lutsk Gate Tower – a monument of defensive architecture of national importance of the XVI century, which has long been an important part of the city fortifications, served as the city gate and defense tower.

The beginning of the museum’s collection is connected with the creation by the Brotherhood of the Princes of Ostroh in 1910 of an ancient repository and library, the list of the first books was opened by the famous Ostroh Bible in 1581 and 9 other manuscripts and old prints. Currently, the museum collection has almost 5,000 exhibits. Among the unique editions are about one and a half thousand old prints of the XVI-XVIII centuries and almost 150 manuscripts of the XVI-XXI centuries. A prominent place is occupied by books published in the Ostroh printing house, which was founded by Ivan Fedorovich in 1577.

In 2019, in the competition “Small cities – big impressions” from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, one of the winners was the project “Interactive Museum of Old Prints”. During the project implementation the exposition of the Museum of Book and Printing was updated, modern digital technologies and new spatial solutions of the exposition were used.
Visitors can not only view old prints in shop windows, but also “flip through” their digital copies with the help of special tablets. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has added a new function to the Museum of Book and Printing – a cultural hub.