Attractions of Kirovohrad region

The fire-technical exhibition-museum in Kropyvnytskyi is also known as the Fire Protection History Museum. It is located on the territory of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Kirovohrad region.

Expositions in three halls tell about the history of fire protection of the steppe region and about the activities of the modern rescue service. Among the exhibits are a variety of technical equipment for firefighting and clothing samples of fire and rescue service fighters.

The highlight of the first hall is the diorama "Yelysavethrad Fire of 1834", which shows the tragic event of the past, as a result of which the city burned to the ground. Of particular interest to visitors are the old fire pump and the legendary horse-drawn barrel carriage used by Yelysavethrad rescuers in the 19th century. A miniature fire engine and models of vintage fire engines are also presented.

In the hall of fire prevention and prevention, it is possible to see with the help of a mirror diagram what stages a fire goes through from a spark to complete elimination. Household appliances and interior items that have been in fires are also presented here.

The museum has a local lighting system, which allows visitors to concentrate their attention on one or another object as much as possible thanks to the directed flow of light to the required area of the exhibition.

The defensive ramparts of the fortress of St. Elizabeth, which started Kropyvnytskyi, are located near the current city center.

Founded in 1754, the fortress bears the name of Saint Elizabeth, the heavenly patron of the Russian Empress Elizabeth. The ramparts of the fortress are built in the form of a star-shaped polygon, the ends of which are sharp bastions.

The Elizabethan fortress served as the headquarters of the Russian military command in the south of Ukraine, a stronghold of Russian influence in the Zaporizhzhia lands and a center of struggle against the Haydamak movement. In 1769, the fortress withstood the siege of the Turkish-Tatar army of Khan Crimea-Girey. After the end of this stage of the Russo-Turkish war and after the liquidation of the Zaporizhzhia Sich, in 1775 the Elizabeth fortress lost its military and strategic importance, and in 1784 it was disarmed.

However, the unique earthen fortification structure has survived to this day. The barracks in which the regiment of General Mykhaylo Kutuzov was stationed at the end of the 18th century have also been partially preserved. A memorial sign was installed - ancient guns.

On the territory there is a memorial to the Eternal Flame at the military cemetery of those who died during the Second World War.

The geometric center of Ukraine is a point that was first identified in 1989 by Doctor of Geographical Sciences Viktor Shevchenko as the geographical center of Ukraine.

He came to the conclusion that the center of Ukraine is a point with geographic coordinates of 48*21" north latitude and 31*10" east longitude. This point is located on the outskirts of Dobrovelychkivka, in the "Kozatska krynytsya" district.

By the decision of the district council in 1991, a granite memorial was installed.

However, in 2005, as a result of new research, it was established that the geographical center of Ukraine is located near the city of Shpola in Cherkasy Region. The point in Dobrovelychkivka was awarded another honorary title - the geometric center of Ukraine.

A large chorale synagogue in the characteristic eclectic style of the end of the 19th century with a romantic direction of the Moorish style was built in Kropyvnytskyi in 1853.

In 1895, it was reconstructed according to the project of the famous Elisavethrad architect Oleksandr Lyshnevskyi. At that time, about 25,000 Jews lived in the city.

After the Second World War, the synagogue was closed, the building was in a state of disrepair. Now it has been restored and returned to the Jewish community of Kropyvnytskyi.

In 1998, 2 significant projects of Jewish culture started working in the premises of the synagogue - the historical museum "Jews of Yelisavethrad" (at the time of its creation it was the first communal Jewish museum in Ukraine) and the Jewish musical and dramatic theater "Thiya".

The Haivoron Local Lore Museum was created in 2005 on the basis of the materials of the Railway Workers Museum, which was founded in the 1950s and told about the history of the Haivoron Railway. It is located in the Center for Culture and Leisure of the Haivoron City Council.

More than 2,000 exhibits are presented in 40 thematic expositions, which are dedicated to the nature, history, culture and art of the Haivoron region, outstanding personalities of the region.

The historical section of the museum is decorated in the form of wall books, which highlight the history of the Haivoron region and the Haivoron railway. A large collection of Trypillya ceramics is also exhibited.

In the ethnographic department, the color of the Ukrainian house of the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century is reproduced. The most interesting exhibits are a working loom, embroidered towels and shirts, and old agricultural implements.

The art department contains works of art by outstanding artists-compatriots, including 150 works by Mykola Zhydeliov, made in various artistic techniques and styles. Paintings by the folk artist Nataliya Shevchuk and wooden sculptures by the master of folk art Hryhoriy Pylypyshyn are also presented.

In 2024, the museum received from Latvian partners a unique narrow-gauge locomotive of the ESU2a series, which can work as a mobile power plant.

The Haivoron narrow-gauge railway is one of the few operating narrow-gauge railways in Ukraine. It was built in 1897 as part of a large network of narrow-gauge railways, created in the south of Ukraine by the Southern Association of Access Roads.

The 130-kilometer long route starts in the village of Rudnytsia, passes through Bershad, Haivoron and ends in the village of Holovanivsk. The Haivoron narrow-gauge railway is the longest in Europe.

The infrastructure of the railway included a station, a locomotive depot, a locomotive repair plant, and repair workshops. Since then, Haivoron has been the capital of Ukrainian narrow-gauge railways.

The station is located next to the regular railway station, on the other side of the tracks. Regular passenger traffic is carried out along the entire route (TU-2 locomotives). At the request of tourist groups, the old steam locomotive Gr-280 can enter the route.

In order to popularize and preserve the Haivoron narrow-gauge railway, the "GoodoK_Fest" festival was introduced in 2021, which is planned to be held annually.

Historical and memorial reserve "Black Raven" was founded in 2020 in the tract "Chorny Voron" near the village of Rozumivka.

It was here that Mykola Sklyar, better known by the pseudonym Black Raven (Chorny Voron), died here, the legendary rebel leader of the times of the Kholodny Yar Republic, the commander of the shock-reconnaissance detachment of the Steppe Division of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

According to the chronicler of Kholodny Yar, Yuriy Horlis-Horskyi, the Black Raven detachment gave its last battle to the Red Army in October 2020, covering the withdrawal of the Steppe Division to the Kherson region. In a battle with much larger enemy forces, the chieftain himself and all 300 of his Cossacks died.

Residents of the village of Rozumivka buried the rebels at the site of the battle. This is the only precisely known burial place of one of the five insurgent chieftains of the time of the Ukrainian revolution, who had the pseudonym Black Raven (the prototype of the main character of Vasyl Shklyar's book of the same name is another Black Raven – Ivan 'Chorny Voron' Chernousov).

In 2005, a wooden cross was installed on the chieftain's grave. In 2017, a monument to Yuriy Horlis-Horskyi was opened nearby.

Since 2020, the creation of the "Black Raven" Historical Memorial Reserve, which is a branch of the Kirovohrad Regional Museum of Local Lore, has been underway. According to the project, the reserve will include a memorial composition "Crosses", a Cossack-style chapel, reconstruction of a rebel camp, training and tourist camps.

The historical and memorial reserve "Black Raven" is an object of the tourist historical and local history route "Kholodnoyarski stezhki Chornolissya".

The historical museum in the city-type settlement Kompaniivka was founded in 2009. It is located in the premises of the Kompaniivka House of Culture.

The museum's funds include 330 permanent exhibits and more than 200 items of temporary use.

The exhibition presents archaeological finds from different eras, in particular, the Cossack era, fragments of weapons and equipment from the Second World War, materials about prominent countrymen, collections of coins and banknotes from different times.

A separate exposition is devoted to the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The blue church with green domes in honor of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located in Kropyvnytskyi to the west of the headquarters complex of the military town.

It was built on the site of a wooden church in 1787. The money for the construction of the stone building was allocated in 1824 by the merchant Petro Shchedrin. The project was developed by the architect Kostyantyn Ton, the construction was supervised by the city architect Andreev. The temple is made in the neo-Rus style of cult architecture. Details of 17th century architecture are also used.

In the interior of the Intercession Church, the remains of a painting from the second half of the 19th century (Fedir Kozachinsky) have been preserved.

In 1932, the church was closed, although it resumed work for a short time during the Second World War. Returned to believers in 1988.

The Literary and Memorial Museum of Ivan Karpenko-Kary was opened in Kropyvnytskyi in 1995 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the well-known Ukrainian playwright, the luminary of the Ukrainian professional theater Ivan Karpenko-Kary (Tobilevych).

The museum is located in the memorial building where the writer lived in Yelysavethrad (then the name of the city) from 1872 to 1883. Here he began his literary activity, writing the short story "New Recruit" and the first two plays - "Shepherd" and "Not so gentlemen, as mister". Famous cultural figures of the second half of the 19th century visited him, including: Mykola Lysenko, Marko Kropyvnytskyi, Mykola Sadovskyi, Panas Saksahanskyi, Mykola Arkas, Mariya Zankovetska, Mykhaylo Starytskyi and others.

The main exhibition "Ivan Karpenko-Kary: life paths of a luminary" highlights the Yelisavetgrad period of the writer's life, his role on the amateur and professional scene. Lifetime editions of Karpenko-Kary's works, original photographs of luminaries of the Ukrainian theater, theater posters are presented.

In the second and third halls there are temporary exhibitions: "Khutir Nadiya - the theater mecca of Ukraine", "Voices of literary Kirovohrad region" (history of the literary life of the region for 80 years), "A word about the city above Ingul" (references to the city of Kropyvnytskyi in the works of famous writers).

The complex of buildings of the former Junker Cavalry School in Kropyvnytskyi was built in the middle of the 19th century on the territory of the former suburb of Kovalivka.

It was one of the largest military schools in the country. The military town included a three-story palace, headquarters and training buildings, officers' meeting, arena, and stables.

The buildings are located around the current Cavalry Park, on the site of which there used to be a parade ground where military parades and reviews were held. The complex is still in the hands of the military.

The house of the merchant Oleksandr Barsky in Kropyvnytskyi City is a bright example of the "early modern" style.

According to legend, the owner never had to live in it, because he died after completing all the work just on the doorstep of his new home.

Today it houses the Kirovohrad regional museum of local lore, founded in 1883 by the teacher of the Zemstvo real school Volodymyr Yastrebov.

There are 4 stationary expositions that cover the history and nature of Kirovohrad region. The basis of the collection is a collection of private collector Oleksandr Ilyin: archaeological finds, paintings, icons.

Kremenchuk HPP is the third stage of the Dnipro cascade of hydroelectric power plants.

In operation since 1959, when the 1st unit was put into operation. The last, 12th unit, was launched in 1960.

The reservoir of the Kremenchuk HPP is one of the largest in Ukraine (the area of the mirror is 2,250 square kilometers). The power of the station is 700.4 MW, the average annual electricity production is 1506 million kWh.

Excursions to the Kremenchuk HPP are conducted by prior agreement.

The Room-Museum of Levko Matsiyevych in Oleksandrivka was opened in 2003 in the house where this outstanding Ukrainian public figure, designer, aviation pioneer was born in 1877.

Levko Matsiyevych was the author of the world's first aircraft carrier project, the project of one of the world's first seaplanes, and many submarine projects. He was among the founders of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP) - the first political party in Trans-Dnipro Ukraine. He died in a plane crash during the first All-Russian Aviation Festival in 1910 near St. Petersburg.

The exhibition of Levko Matsiyevych's Room-Museum presents some of his personal belongings, photographs and documents, which were donated to the museum by a descendant of the Matsiyevych family, Ukrainian politician and public figure Yuriy Sakhno. A model of the Farman-4 plane, on which the aviator flew and died, was also presented.

A memorial plaque has been installed on the facade of the museum.

The Room-Museum of Levko Matsiyevych is a branch of the Oleksandrivka Museum of Local Lore.

The Malovyskivshchyna History Museum named after Oleksandr Kovtun was opened in 1979 in the premises of the House of Culture of the Mala Vyska city. The founder and first director of the museum was the famous teacher and local historian Oleksandr Kovtun.

The museum exposition includes about 9,000 exhibits of the main and research and auxiliary funds. All of them reveal the history of Malovyskivshchyna from ancient times to the present.

A separate exposition is devoted to the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Its central exhibit is the same ceramic cockerel produced by the Vasylkiv majolica factory, which became a symbol of Ukrainian resilience thanks to photographs of Borodianka, destroyed by the occupiers.