Koropove

A high cliff above Siverskyi Donets on the southern outskirts of the village of Koropove, from its 60-meter height offers wonderful views of the surrounding area.

Nicknamed Cossack Mountain, because the Cossack Nicolas monastery was located nearby, the ruins of which have been preserved in the village. When Empress Catherine II liquidated the Zaporizhzhia Sich in 1788, the monastery in which many fugitive Cossacks were hiding was also destroyed.

According to legend, Cossacks in monastic robes broke through the ranks of Russian troops surrounding the monastery and threw themselves from the bank cliff into the river, trying to escape by swimming. Today, a memorial cross has been erected on the mountain.

The Homilsha Forests are a reserve massif of deciduous forest on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets River 40 kilometers south of Kharkiv, between the villages of Velyka Homilsha and Koropove.

The national nature park "Homilsha Forests" was created in 2004, but as early as the 18th century, Peter I drew attention to the natural value of local landscapes, issuing a decree on the allocation of protected ship groves near Homilsha. In the 1970s, the "Homilsha Forest Dacha" reserve was created, recreation centers began to appear around it.

The list of rare plants in the forest is 132 species. One of the areas is called a "branch of the taiga" because very tall silver fir trees grow here. About 500 hectares of 130-150-year-old oak forest have been preserved to this day, and there are some 300-year-old oaks.

Rare birds are found here, including the white-tailed eagle, the burying eagle, the blue kingfisher, the bee-eater, the white-tailed eagle, the vulture, and others. Waterfowl liked the picturesque Kosach Bay.

Archaeological monuments of the Stone and Bronze Age, hillforts and burial grounds of Scythian, Alanic and Slavic antiquity have been preserved.