Ivan Samoilov, the founder of the museum-reserve, first restored the unique building of Saviour Transfiguration church in the village of Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha in 1968-1978. He did it almost on his own money and opened a museum in the Church. On the first floor you can admire the collection of the Ural folk wall painting, the only one in the world. It is also Samoilov's merit. After the Great Patriotic War (he took part in it) during 30 years he collected walls, ceilings, "red corners", doors and other things from peasant's houses, decorated with painting inside.

    Later Ivan Samoilov became the director of the whole museum complex in the open sky which he organized in N. Sinyachikha. All over his district and region he looked for, found and brought to the village old wooden chapels, peasants' houses and huts and other buildings, peculiar to the Ural Russian country-side. They date back to the XVII-XVIII-th centuries.

    In the museum you can see a few chapels, two of them are rotundas.

    The village inhabitants were on duty on the fire tower or at the fire station, watching surroundings. In case of fire they rang the bells and gathered the people to put it away.

    The jail tower is the example of the war fortifications of the XVII-th century. At last in the museum there are a few farmsteads where the interior of the previous centuries is reconstructed. Museum visitors say the farmstead of the XVII-th century is the most interesting in the reserve. Here you can see a peasant's hut, a barn, a cellar, a granary, a well with a sweep and a bath-house (or a sauna), made of three layers of logs