Museum and Tourist Center "Golden Khokhloma"

About museum

Khokhloma painting is an outstanding phenomenon of Russian folk decorative and applied art that emerged in the 17th century in the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate and took its name from the large trading village of Khokhloma. Wooden items were originally produced in monasteries for the tsar's court. In the 19th century Khokhloma tableware became available in many parts of Russia, as well as in Persia, India, Central Asia, the United States and Australia. In 1916 the School of Artistic Woodworking was opened; its first graduates founded an artel that gradually grew into a large production association. Today Khokhloma painting is a leader in the manufacture of decorative wooden wares with Khokhloma decoration. The traditional gilding technique, derived from icon painting, has hardly changed over the years. It includes five main operations before a wooden item becomes "golden". The town of Semyonov is rightly considered the capital of Golden Khokhloma.