The Gomel Regional Museum is housed in a building near the palace complex and covers local history from prehistory through the Soviet period. The most significant section deals with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, which affected the Gomel region more severely than almost anywhere else in Belarus. The exhibit includes dosimeters, maps of contamination zones, photographs of the evacuation, and accounts from affected residents.
This section is the most compelling reason to visit if you are interested in the history of the disaster. Gomel and the surrounding Polesye region received heavy fallout and thousands of residents were evacuated from the exclusion zone; the museum presents this history in a sober, factual way that avoids both sensationalism and denial.