Attractions of Baturyn

The palace of the last hetman of Ukraine, Kyrylo Rozumovsky, rises impressively on a cliff above the Seim River in the town of Baturyn, which served as the hetman's capital in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It is an outstanding architectural monument of the era of classicism of national significance, the only preserved Hetman's palace and the only architectural structure in Ukraine, built according to the project of architect Charles Cameron. It is part of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve "Hetman's Capital".

The construction of the palace and park complex lasted from 1799 to 1803, already after the hetmanship together with the remnants of Ukrainian independence was liquidated by the government of the Russian Empire. In fact, Rozumovsky did not have time to live in his new palace, as he died the year construction was completed. His descendants did not use the palace for its intended purpose, it was badly damaged by a fire, was in a dilapidated state for a long time, and was partially restored several times.

The revival began at the initiative of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko at the expense of patrons. On August 22, 2009, the restored palace of Kyrylo Rozumovsky with the exposition of the Museum of the Hetmanship was solemnly opened for visitors.

On the first floor of the palace, you can familiarize yourself with the historical past of Hetman Baturyn through the prism of Kyrylo Rozumovsky statesmanship, as well as with the history of the construction and restoration of the palace and park ensemble. The interiors of the second floor have been restored according to the analogues of the preserved works of Charles Cameron and are luxuriously decorated with paintings of scenes from ancient Greek mythology, plant ornaments and Hetmanian kleinods.

Furniture and interior items, paintings, icons of the 18th and 19th centuries are exhibited in the halls. The Hetman's Hall, where the "Stone" table with a marble board inlaid with semi-precious Ural stones is exhibited, is particularly magnificent. Among the things that personally belonged to Kyrylo Rozumovsky and his family, you can see the hetman's life company sword, the seal of Rozumovsky's cloth factory, the hetman's station wagon and fragments of Rozumovsky's tombstone.

A regular French park is laid out around the palace, restored according to the scheme of the master plan of the palace-park ensemble. The original palace outbuildings have not survived, their reconstruction is frozen.

Historical and cultural center-museum "Maclay's Sails" (Vitryla Maklaya) was opened in Baturyn in 2014 for the 168th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding scientist-traveler Mykola Mykluho-Maklay.

This is the third museum created by the descendants of the scientist Oleksandr and Nadiya Mykluho-Maklay.

Mykola Mykluho-Maklay himself was not directly related to Baturyn, but he was a descendant of the Zaporozhzhian Cossacks, and his patron was Count Oleksiy Tolstoy, the great-grandson of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky, who spent his best years in Baturyn.

In the second half of the 19th century, Mykluho-Maklay studied the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania, wrote many works on zoology, zoogeography and physical geography.

The museum presents a gallery of portraits of Maklay and members of his family, a family coat of arms, materials from ethnographic expeditions, models of ships, statuettes of island natives, maps, and more.

In one of the rooms of the museum, there is a corner where you can try on 19th century costumes and take a picture near the ship's helm.

The Maklay Sails Museum in Baturyn is part of the hotel and restaurant complex of the same name.

The Baturyn Archeology Museum was opened in the reconstructed premises of the Resurrection parish school (1904), which is located next to the Resurrection Church, not far from the Citadel of the Baturyn Fortress.

The Baturyn Archeology Museum  is part of the "Hetman's Capital" National Reserve.

The exposition is unfolded in three halls according to the chronological and thematic principle. The Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age periods are represented by fragments of ceramics and silicon products. Ancient Rus material: dishes, glass bracelets, jewelry made of non-ferrous metals, iron and bone products. The date of construction of the Polish fortifications is indicated by a silver thaler minted in Basel in 1622.

Rebel weapons tell the story of the liberation movement of the Ukrainian people: battle axes, pitchforks, etc. Baturyn's hetman period is characterized by Cossack derivatives and household objects, copies of documents and maps, craftsman's products, in particular, original tiles with images of the coats of arms of Ukrainian hetmans Ivan Bryukhovetskyi, Ivan Mazepa, and Pylyp Orlyk.

Relics of the heroic defense of the city in 1708 found during the excavations deserve special attention - body icons and crosses of massacre victims, fragments of a cannon and a bell. The symbol of the tragedy was the burnt icon of the Mother of God with the Child on a copper plate with traces of gilding by the masters of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra at the end of the 17th century, found by archaeologists in the grave of an elderly woman with a crushed skull.

The wooden Cossack fortress in Baturyn on the Seim River was reconstructed in 2009 on the same site where from 1669 to 1708 the fortified residence of three Ukrainian hetmans was located: Demyan Mnohohrishny, Ivan Samoylovych, Ivan Mazepa.

The life and activity of Pylyp Orlyk and Kyrylo Rozumovsky are also connected with the hetman's capital in Baturyn (a monument "Hetmans. Prayer for Ukraine" has been erected).

Baturyn Fortress was founded in 1625 on the ancient Russian settlement by Polish magnate Oleksandr Pyasochynsky. In 1664, when Baturyn was already a hundredth Cossack town, the fortress could not be captured by the troops of Polish King Yan Kazymyr.

Baturyn fortress consisted of external urban earthen fortifications with a fence and a citadel (castle), where the residence of the hetmans was located. There was a stone hetman's house and a wooden Resurrection Church, an entrance gate and three towers.

In 1708, all the buildings of the Baturyn Fortress were completely destroyed during a punitive operation by Russian troops under the command of Oleksandr Menshikov on the orders of Tsar Peter I of Moscow in revenge for Hetman Ivan Mazepa for siding with Swedish King Charles II during the Moscow-Swedish War. In memory of the Baturyn tragedy, during which almost the entire population of the city was destroyed (5-6.5 thousand soldiers, 6-7.5 thousand civilians), in 2004 a memorial was erected on the site of the north-eastern tower of the citadel. cross.

By 2009, the reconstruction of three defensive towers, wooden fortress walls, a stone hetman's house, a treasury and the castle Resurrection Church, which were included in the exposition "Citadel of Baturyn Fortress" of the Hetmanate History Department of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve, was completed Hetman's capital ".

An exhibition of three-dimensional figures "Light Hetmans. Life for Ukraine" has been opened in the Hetman's house.

From the observation deck of the gate tower of the Citadel of the Baturyn Fortress, the best panorama of the Seim Valley opens.

The Holy Intercession Church in Baturyn is one of the churches of the hetman's capital, the confessional of Hetman Ivan Mazepa.

The first wooden church, built on this site in the 17th century, burned down during the Baturyn tragedy, arranged by the Russians.

The five-domed stone temple was rebuilt in 1789 in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Nearby was the building of the church and parish school.

The Holy Intercession Church complex was completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.

The revival of the church began in 2000 at the expense of the Ukrainian diaspora, and after 8 years the restored Intercession Church was consecrated.

The house-museum of the General Judge of the Zaporizhzhia Army Vasyl Kochubey in Baturyn is a rare example of civil architecture of the Ukrainian Baroque era.

This is the only building that has survived since the Baturyn Fortress after the destruction of the Hetman's capital by Moscow troops in November 1708.

The one-storey brick building of the General Court was built in the second half of the 17th century during the time of Hetman Demyan Mnohohrishny. He performed both administrative and housing functions.

From 1700 it was inhabited by Judge General Vasyl Kochubey and her family. His 16-year-old daughter Motrona (Motrya) was in love with her godfather, 58-year-old Hetman Ivan Mazepa, but the father was adamantly against their marriage. Kochubey and his associate Ivan Iskra tried to settle accounts with Mazepa by informing Tsar Peter I of Moscow about the hetman's secret negotiations with King Charles XII of Sweden. The tsarist government extradited the informers to Mazepa, and they were sentenced to death. After the execution of her father, Motrya went to the monastery. The monument, the Alley of Love and 500-year-old oaks in the manor park (there are the remains of the ramparts of the Baturyn fortress) remind of this dramatic story.

The house of Judge Kochubey has housed the Museum of History and Local Lore since 1975, which in 2006 became part of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve "Hetman's Capital". The exposition acquaints with the history of the house and the Kochubey family, and also deeply reveals the theme of Motrya’s and Mazepa's love.

The interiors of the investigation and pre-trial detention rooms with an exposition of instruments of torture are recreated in the basements.

Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the beekeeper, inventor of the hive Petro Prokopovych, who lived in Baturyn.

The Resurrection Church in Baturyn is the family tomb of the last hetman of Ukraine, Kyrylo Rozumovsky.

The temple in the style of classicism was built at the expense of Rozumovsky in 1803 at the same time as the Hetman's palace. Named in the same way as the wooden church that was located until 1708 on the territory of the Baturyn fortress.

In 1805, over the grave of the hetman, his son Oleksiy Rozumovsky installed a marble tombstone in the shape of a pyramid by the sculptor Ivan Matros. Under the bas-relief with the image of the deceased, the epitaph and family coat of arms of Rozumovsky with the motto: "To multiply glory with deeds" were engraved.

The Resurrection Church was restored and consecrated in 2009.