Pirogov National Museum

The Pirogov National Museum, about 6 kilometres south of the city centre, preserves the estate where the great Russian-Ukrainian military surgeon Nikolai Pirogov spent the last years of his life from 1866 until his death in 1881. Pirogov was one of the most significant medical figures of the 19th century, pioneering surgical techniques and field triage methods that saved enormous numbers of lives in the Crimean and other wars.

The estate includes the main house (furnished as it was in Pirogov's time, with his medical library, instruments, and personal effects), the grounds with their old trees and walks, and the small church where Pirogov's embalmed body lies in an oak coffin with a glass lid. The embalmed remains are in a remarkably good state of preservation and have been maintained by a succession of embalmers. The combination of domestic-life museum and this unusual final exhibit makes for a compelling and slightly surreal visit. The museum is accessible by city bus from the centre; a taxi is easier.

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A story
Nikolai Pirogov invented field triage — the practice of sorting wounded soldiers by severity to maximise the number who could be saved. He also pioneered the use of ether anaesthesia in battlefield surgery. When he died in 1881 his wife requested that his body be embalmed; his doctor used a method Pirogov had never written down, and it worked remarkably well. The body has been maintained and re-embalmed periodically ever since, and is still on display in its oak coffin in the estate church.