Bila Tserkva

The "Oleksandria" State Dendrological Park of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was established in 1793 by the crown hetman Frantsishek Ksaveriy Branytskyi and named after his wife Oleksandra.

Bila Tserkva Park was considered one of the best in Europe. The plan was developed by the French park developer Muffot. The park covers more than 200 hectares, has 25 reservoirs, and has 2,500 species of plants, including those from South America, China, and Japan: red oak, tulip tree, Kobus magnolia, Japanese rhododendron, and others.

The basis of the planning is the Great Lawn, from which a network of alleys, decorated with park architecture and sculptures, runs for 20 kilometers: "Romantic Ruins", "Chinese Bridge", "Lion" spring and others. The "Echo" colonnade has unique acoustics: a word spoken in a whisper at one end of the colonnade is heard at the opposite end. According to legend, Prince Potemkin-Tavriyskyi is buried under the Rotunda.

The summer palace of the Branytskys was destroyed during the Soviet period, but the "Ball Pavilion" has already been restored in its original form.

In the garden "Moor" (year 1816) with an area of 4 hectares, surrounded by a stone wall 3 meters high, more than 300 fruit and berry crops from all continents of the world are grown (excursions with tastings are held).

The highest point of the park is Paliy Mountain, on which a monument to Semen Paliy is erected.

The building of the "Economic Yard" now houses the directorate and Living Nature, Flora and Fauna Museum of the Park "Oleksandriya", which features marble park sculptures. You can buy seedlings here.

Bila Tserkva Museum of Local Lore presents a large collection of objects of material and spiritual culture of the Southern Kyiv region.

The museum was founded in 1924 by local historian Stepan Drozdov-Myshkivskyш on the basis of his own collection of antiquities. The museum is now housed in an original constructivist building erected in 1983 on Castle Hill opposite the Church of Saint John the Baptist, near the foundations of the ancient Church of Saint George in the time of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.

The exposition consists of nine chapters that tell about the nature of Southern Kyiv, the ancient history of the region, the events of the Polish-Lithuanian era and the Cossacks, the heyday of the city in the XVIII-XIX centuries, the development of industry and education, the Soviet era and modernity.

Among the most valuable exhibits of the museum: the Scythian sword akinak, a unique Chernyakhiv lamp with the image of a human face, ancient Rus women's jewelry. Valuable relics of the Cossack times are the flag of the Cossack Hundred of the Bila Tserkva Regiment, a mace, a bunchuk, timpani and weapons. The basis of the collection of numismatics are Roman coins, Kyiv hryvnias, money of the Cossack era. The art department presents icons, paintings and sculptures of the XVII-XX centuries from the Branytsky collection. Visitors are especially interested in the recreated interiors of housing of different segments of the population at that time.

A modern reconstruction of the Church of Saint George, which gave the city its current name, was built on the Castle Hill of ancient Saint George near the Bila Tserkva Museum of Local Lore. A monument to the city's founder, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, has been erected on the observation deck above the Ros River.

The Branitsky Winter Palace served as the city residence of the count family in Bila Tserkva, while in the summer the Branitskys lived in a country palace on the territory of Oleksandriya Park.

The two-story building in the style of classicism was built at the end of the 18th century on the bank of the Ros River to the west of Castles Hill. The main facade is decorated with a four-column portico of the Ionic order.

Now the building of the former Winter Palace houses the Art School named after Yuriy Pavlenko. Almost no interiors have been preserved.

The Choral (Central) Synagogue was built in the 19th century at the expense of the Jewish community of Bila Tserkva. The building is made in the eclectic style.

At the age of 16, the cantor Pinkhas Minkovsky began his career here, about whom Babel wrote in one of his stories about Benya Kryk: "Yosyp's funeral will be in the first order: six horses, like six lions, two chariots with wreaths, a choir from the Brody Synagogue, Minkovsky himself will come to mourn your late son."

During the Soviet era, the synagogue was closed, now the building belongs to the Technological and Economic College of the Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University.

The medieval park "Gyurgiv Fortress" was created in 2022 on an island in the middle of the river Ros in Bila Tserkva.

This is an entertainment complex based on a stylized wooden medieval fortress modeled on the architecture of Kyivan Rus. A wooden bridge across the strait of Ros is built to the fortress. The entrance gate with the gate tower leads to the territory surrounded by a fence with watchtowers. The territory is equipped with a stage, a melting pot, fair canopies, paved wooden paths.

The fortress hosts concerts, international and national competitions in medieval warfare, festivals of historical reconstruction and more.