Attractions of Mykolaiv region

The Mykolaiv Vernissage is a small gallery of open-air paintings on Sobornaya near Chestnut Square, a place where Mykolaiv artists exhibit and sell their paintings.

Here you can order any painting, portrait or cartoon from an artist you like. Visiting this gallery is part of the cultural program of most Mykolaiv residents who have gone for a walk in the city center.

Mykolaiv Vernissage has existed since Soviet times. And although the number of artists has decreased significantly since then, this gallery is still considered one of the largest in Ukraine.

There are also several counters with souvenirs, where you can buy magnets or cups with the image of Mykolaiv, small works of art by local craftsmen, jewelry and other small tourist products.

Mykolaiv Yacht Club is a coastal recreation area in the northwestern part of the city on the Pivdenniy Buh River.

The oldest yacht club in Ukraine was founded in Mykolaiv in 1887 on the initiative of Adjutant-in-Chief of the Black Sea Fleet and Ports Yevhen Holikov, historian Mykola Arkas, scientist Volodymyr Ryumin. For its creation, a coastal area was allocated in Spassk - a suburb of Mykolaiv, where at that time the palace of Prince Hrihoriy Potemkin (not preserved) and the Turkish (Sultan) fountain (1792, restored in 1926) were located.

In 1904, the ceremonial opening of the newly constructed stone building of the Mykolaiv Yacht Club, built according to the project of the Mykolaiv architect and member of the yacht club, Leopold Rode, took place. This building has survived to this day.

The Mykolaiv Zoo is considered one of the best in Europe and is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

It was founded on the initiative of Mykolaiv City Duma Chairman Mykola Leontovych as a private aquarium-museum with free access to the public. Now the collection includes almost 3,295 individuals of 420 species, many of which are listed in the Red Book.

Large animals have the greatest success among visitors: lions, tigers, bears, hippos. The oldest animal in the zoos of Ukraine lives here - the 65-year-old crocodile Vasya. Children are amused by monkeys, chimpanzees and macaques, and adults by the "little nation" of meerkats, for which a special aviary "Meerkat Estate" has been built.

At any time of the year, the garden of live tropical butterflies impresses with a riot of colors. The enclosure for domestic animals "Grandfather's Hut" is decorated in a folklore style, being a kind of museum of rural life in the south of Ukraine.

The zoo has its own anthem, flag, emblem, anniversary coin and postage stamp.

The ruins of the ancient Greek city of Olbia are located on the southern outskirts of the village of Parutyne, on the shore of the Buh estuary.

Pontic Olbia was one of the four largest ancient polises in the Northern Black Sea region, having existed for a millennium - from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD.

It was founded by emigrants from Miletus, for whom the island of Borysthenes (Berezan) served as a transshipment point. Mentioned in the "History" of Herodotus.

It reached its peak in the Hellenic period (before the 1st century AD), then was a Roman province until it disappeared under the onslaught of the Huns.

The main altar (temenos), the central square (agora), foundations of temples and residential buildings, crypts of noble residents, fragments of the citadel, defensive walls and gates, roads, etc. were found. The search for the ruins of the ancient theater, which probably lies at the bottom of the estuary, continues.

In 1926, the excavation area was declared a state reserve. Now it is the National Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Olbia". A museum has been opened in the premises of the old lighthouse, where finds made during excavations are presented. The dungeon of the ancient crypt is available for inspection. A lapidary has also been opened, in which ancient tombstones and fragments of ancient architecture are presented.

Every year on the 20th of August, the "Muses of Olbia" festival takes place.

The national nature park "Buzkyi Gard" stretches from the outskirts of the village of Myhiia for 40 kilometers along the Pivdenniy Buh to the village of Oleksandrivka. Its area is 6,138 hectares within Voznesensk and Pervomaysk districts of Mykolaiv region.

The creation of a national nature park on the basis of the regional landscape park "Granite-Steppe Pobuzhzhya" began in 2004 as part of the implementation of the World Environmental Fund - International Bank for Reconstruction and Development project "Biodiversity Conservation in the Azov-Black Sea Corridor".

The local flora includes 900 plant species, 26 of which are included in the Red Book of Ukraine, 4 - in the European Red List.

The territory of the national nature park "Buzkyi Gard" coincides with the border of 1658 between the Ottoman Porte (Turkey) and the liberties of the Zaporizhzhia Nizove Army. In fact, the left bank of the Granitno-steppe Pobuzhzhya coincides with the boundary of the Buho-Hardova palanka of the Zaporizhzhia Army as of 1734. For more than three hundred years, the territory where the NPP was created was controlled by the Zaporozhzhians. Their administrative and economic center was located near the confluence of the Tashlyk River with the Pivdenniy Buh, on Gard Island, where a military camp with Cossack huts of up to 500 people was located. The facilities for catching fish were called gardas on Pivdenniy Buh. Such guards existed both in the Guard tract itself and in other areas on the Buh, where Zaporozhzhian winterers were located. Gards, as a method of fishing, existed in this area until 1945. Accordingly, this name first spread to the surrounding areas: Gardovy Island, Gardova Balka, the village of Gardove (now the village of Bohdanivka), Stariy Gard, Gardovy Shlyach.

Aktivsky Canyon on the Mertvovod River and the adjacent canyon on the Arbuzinka River (Maly Aktivskyi Canyon) are a separate part of the "Buzkiy Gard" National Park.

The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin in Kryve Ozero has been known since 1766, when it was Greek Catholic. She became Orthodox in 1794.

In the 19th century, the wooden temple burned down. The new Church of the Nativity of the Virgin was built in 1824 from bricks at another location. In 1890-1899, a stone belfry was added at the expense of the landowner Lavrentiy Shyrochenko.

Recently, an image of the Mother of God appeared on the wall of the church, which became the object of a mass pilgrimage of believers.

The royal summer residence in Voznesensk was built in 1837 for the visit of Russian Emperor Nicholas I.

A small palace is located on the edge of Maryin Grove.

Currently, this is the building of the state-owned enterprise "Voznesensk Forestry".

The Novyi Buh People's Historical Museum was opened in 1980 in the premises of the city's cultural center.

Materials on the history of the region are collected in the Novyi Buh museum.

The complex of residential buildings of the Odesa Railway Department was built in Voznesensk at the beginning of the 19th century.

Well-preserved two-story houses organically fit into the city's architecture.

The railway station is located nearby.

The building of the Officers' Assembly in Ochakiv was built in the middle of the 19th century in the style of classicism.

In 1906, the trial of Lieutenant Petro Schmidt and other participants in the mutiny on the cruiser "Ochakiv" took place in this building.

The Schmidt monument is located opposite the Officers' Assembly. On the pedestal is carved the text of the signal raised over "Ochakiv" after the beginning of the uprising on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet: "I command the fleet. Schmidt."

In Soviet times, the former building of the Officers' Assembly housed the House of Fleet Officers and an art gallery. The building is currently in a state of disrepair.

The two-story building of the Officers Club in Mykolaiv is an example of civil architecture of the 19th century.

The house is made in the style of classicism, built in the 1820s by order of Admiral Oleksiy Hreyh as a club for naval officers. In 1872, it received the status of a Naval Assembly and turned into a cultural and educational center for naval employees during the wintering of ships. Prominent naval commanders gathered here - Pavlo Nakhimov, Mykhaylo Lazaryev, Volodymyr Kornilov, Fadey Bellinshauzen, Oleksiy Butakov, Stepan Makarov, Mykola Arkas and others.

It still maintains the profile - it now houses the House of Naval Officers.

The Pervomaisk Museum of Local Lore was founded in 1927 by the well-known archeologist Pavlo Kharlampovych.

At the beginning of World War II, the museum's fund included about 20,000 exhibits. Most of the collection was destroyed during the war, in particular the archaeological collection, which was collected during the Pivdenyi Buh archaeological expedition of 1928-1932 on the banks of the Pivdenyi Buh and its tributaries.

The museum was restored only in 1985. Today, it is a branch of the Mykolaiv Regional Museum of Local Lore as a department. It has 15 chapters, in which you can familiarize yourself with the history of Pervomaisk region from the Stone Age to modern times.

The permanent interest of visitors is aroused by the exposition "Village House" and the exhibition of holograms, which is constantly in operation, which presents objects from the most famous museums of Ukraine.

Museum employees conduct tours of the city and its surroundings.

Pushkin Square was opened in Mykolaiv in 1988. It is located at the intersection of Pushkin Street and Naberezhna Street, where the Inрul Bridge begins.

In 2011, the square was reconstructed, and the fence around it, which was regularly painted with graffiti, was decorated with drawings based on the plots of famous fairy tales and episodes from the writer's life.

A bronze sculpture of twenty-five-year-old Pushkin on a granite pedestal, created by Yuriy Makushyn, was installed in the park. In 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Pushkin sculpture was dismantled by the municipal services of the city by the decision of the Mykolaiv city council.

The Catholic Church of Saint Joseph was built at the expense of Catholic parishioners in 1896 according to the project of the architect Vladyslav Dombrovskyi.

In 1934, it was closed by the Bolsheviks. A local history museum was housed in a nearby building on the territory - one of the first museums of antiquities in the territory of the former Russian Empire (founded in 1803, more than 160,000 exhibits were collected: antiquities from Olbia, instruments of Kyivan Rus, Cossack weapons, etc.).

Since 1992, services have been resumed in the church. In recent years, an organ has been installed, and organ music concerts are held. In the yard - a collection of stone women.

Saint Michael's Pelagia Monastery adorns the rocky banks of the Inрul River on the territory of the "Pryinhulskyi" regional landscape park.

In the center of the complex stands the church of Saint Pelagia, built in 1896-1904 by the brothers Andriy and Mykhaylo Durilin, following the will of father Isidore Durilin, in memory of their mother Pelagia, who died early. An unknown German architect used the modern style fashionable at the turn of the century, embodying it in the "a la Russe" style. The twelve-headed church with domes was crowned with mirror crosses. There are three thrones in the church: Saint Archstrategist Michael, Saint Pelagia and Martyr Andriy Stratilatus. Before the Soviet-Ukrainian war, a parish school operated at the Pelagie church.

During the period of Soviet power, the temple was looted, the premises were used as a warehouse.

In 1994, an Orthodox nunnery of the Moscow Patriarchate was founded at the restored Pelagia Church. The restoration of the temple continues. The construction of the winter church, which is adjacent to the nuns' cells, has been completed.