Kaniv

Assumption Cathedral was built in 1144 by Prince Vsevolod Olhovych. The type of architecture is close to the Kyiv churches - Kyrylivska and Bohoroditsa Pyrohoshcha.

From the year of foundation of Assumption Church, it is customary to keep the official chronicle of Kaniv, although the city existed earlier. A classic example of Byzantine architecture.

In 1185, a defense against the Polovtsy was being prepared near the walls of this temple after the unsuccessful campaign of Prince Ihor Svyatoslavych of Novhorod-Siverskyi. In 1587, Cossack leader Ivan Podkova, who was executed in Lviv, was buried here. Destroyed by the Turks in the 17th century, the temple was restored in 1805, and in 1861, a funeral procession with the ashes of the poet Taras Shevchenko, brought from St. Petersburg, left for Chernecha Mountain.

The temple is active, it belongs to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The nearby building of the former Basilian school now houses the Museum of Folk Decorative Art, which previously occupied the premises of the church.

Nearby, there is a monument to Saint Makarius Kanivsky, who was the abbot of the Kaniv monastery in the 17th century and died during the Turkish invasion.

Chernecha Hill in Kaniv is one of the highest Kaniv mountains (244 meters) on the high right bank of the Dnipro, the burial place of the Ukrainian poet-prophet Taras Shevchenko.

According to folk tales, in the 11th and 12th centuries, on the slopes of Chernecha Hill in the Monastyrok tract, there was a cave monastery of Kaniv, where monks (ukr. – chentsi) secluded themselves, which is where the name of the mountain comes from.

During Cossack times, the Holy Intercession Monastery, known since 1702, was located here.

The poet Taras Shevchenko planned to buy a plot of land for his own estate on Chernecha Hill shortly before his death in 1961, after seeing these places during his last visit to Ukraine. Here he was reburied at the request of the public, according to the will. Since then, Chernecha Hill has been called Taras Hill (Tarasova Hora).

Now it is a memorial park, the central element of which is a monument to Taras Shevchenko, erected over his grave in 1939. This bronze monument by the sculptor Matvyi Manizer is considered the highest monument to Shevchenko in Ukraine - 17 meters. There is an observation deck near the monument, which offers a wide panorama of the Dnipro.

From the pier and parking lot at the foot of the mountain, a granite staircase with 392 steps leads to its top, with recreation areas and the "Lilium" fountain (1977, architect Anatoly Moshenskyi).

The landscape park on Chernecha Hill with an area of 45 hectares is a component of the Shevchenko National Reserve "Taras Hill".

The wooden Cossack Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the Monastyrok tract at the foot of Taras (Chernecha) Hill in Kaniv was restored in 2014 for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko.

The Church of the Intercession existed on this site in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the spiritual center of the Kaniv Holy Intercession Orthodox Monastery, which gave the name to the tract and Chernecha Hill. The monastery was destroyed by the Poles in 1776, but the Greek Catholics preserved the church and moved it to the Assumption Cathedral, which was destroyed at that time. There he was painted by the outstanding French artist Jean-Henri Muntz. Muntz's drawing became the basis of the project of reconstruction of the Church of the Intercession. It is also called the Tarasov Church.

There is a Cossack memorial in front of the church.

The decision to create a historical museum in Kaniv was made in 1963, but it was actually opened only 28 years later. It is located in an old building in the center of the city.

The first exposition was dedicated to the Trypillia culture, the next - the history of the Kaniv region from the Paleolithic to the Ancient Rus state.

The permanent exhibition "Antiquities of Kaniv" with ethnographic material of the 19th century, several thematic exhibitions have also been opened.

Kaniv HPP is the youngest hydroelectric power station of the Dnipro Cascade, it is its second stage.

The hydroelectric dam forms the Kaniv reservoir with an area of 675 square kilometers. During the creation of the reservoir, many residents of neighboring villages were forcibly relocated, some villages were flooded.

The station was put into operation in 1972, and reached full capacity 4 years later (444 MW). It was also planned to create a hydraulic storage station, but the work was stopped in 1992.

The structures of the hydroelectric hub include: the HPP building, a complex of navigation and lock structures, earthen dams and protective structures on the right bank, and others. Road and railway bridge crossings are laid from above.

From the dam, you can see the supports of the railway bridge over the Dnipro, destroyed during the Second World War.