Abstract: This article is devoted to analyzing the features of the image model used for interpreting the historical reality. Within the framework of this model history, historical fact and historical reality are considered to be a dynamic unity of past and present events. This creates the concept of historical experience including the concept of individual historical experience. According to the image interpretation model, past events are  not abstract but possess national and historical (temporary) content. As a consequence, it is possible to analyze specific features of a particular historical event in a new light, i.e. as a creation of credible and vivid images of the past. The methodology of the research is based on the genetic approach to understanding the concept 'historical reality'. The author analyzes historical continuity of how scientific views on the nature of historical reality evolved which predetermined the culturological interpretation of cultural phenomena. The main conclusion of the research is the proof of the thesis that the concept of historical reality has a double meaning that includes knowledge and understanding of the past, on the one hand, and continuous construction of the present, on the other hand. From the point of view of the image interpretation model, historical reality is viewed as a developed system of signs and symbols that has the status of 'reality' only in the process of learning and understanding the past. According to the author, the image model analysis is as important as other research approaches to history studies.