Attractions of Ivano-Frankivsk district

The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin is better known to residents of Ivano-Frankivsk as the "Armenian Church" or "Blue Church".

A tall building with two towers in the mature Baroque style next to the market square was erected in the 18th century on the site of a wooden church in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God (crowned in 1937, now located in Poland). Construction began after the Armenian community of the then Stanislaviv received the right to self-government. Since the Armenians did not have enough funds for construction, the owner of the city, Yuzef Potoski, obliged the Jewish community, which competed with the Armenian community in trade, to help with financing.

Two restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries significantly changed the appearance of the building.

Wooden sculpture, most likely the work of master Matviy Poleyovskyi, was used in the interior design. On the walls are frescoes made by Yan Soletskyi. The interiors were completely preserved during the Soviet times due to the fact that the museum of the history of religion and atheism was located here.

In 1990, the church was returned to believers. Today it is the Holy Intercession Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krylos was built in 1586 from the materials of the destroyed Assumption Cathedral - the main shrine of Ancient Halych (the foundation of the cathedral was discovered next to the church, restoration is planned).

Ancient Rus reliefs and graffiti were found on some of the stone blocks that make up the church. In the 17th century, the temple complex was surrounded by defensive stone walls with four corner towers (fragments have been restored).

The church, badly damaged during the Turkish invasion, was restored at the beginning of the 18th century by Bishop Yosyp Shumlyanskyi. Great artistic value is represented by the western portal with a pediment, decorated with a stone-carved composition "The Assumption of the Virgin".

The Basilian monastery, which was abolished in 1783, operated near the cathedral.

Today, the Church of the Assumption in Krylos belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. It is part of the National Reserve "Ancient Halych".

"Stanislaviv Sea" - this is what the current city lake of Ivano-Frankivsk was called when it appeared in 1955.

The history of the construction of the city lake is as follows: on the territory of the former Potocki menagerie, where the Polish nobility and local residents used to love to hunt, a number of ponds were dug back in Stalin's times, which were connected by locks to the Bystrytsia-Solotvynska river. One day, the floodgates were opened, water filled the reservoirs, and as a result, a "sea" was formed.

Currently, the city lake is one of the main recreation areas of Ivano-Frankivsk. The most romantic place is the bridge leading to the "Island of Love". There is a boat station.

The Catholic church was founded in Bohorodchany in 1691 at the expense of Countess Konstantsiya Potoska.

The first temple was wooden. In 1742-1762, a new stone church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in the Baroque style, as well as a Dominican monastery complex with clergy chambers, a fence and a gate.

The complex was heavily damaged during the First World War. The miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was taken to Poland in 1944, was kept in the Bohorodchany church.

In the 1990s, the local authorities handed over the UOC temple to the Moscow Pariarchate, thus causing a conflict with the city's Roman Catholic community. The Orthodox Church of Peter and Paul operated in the church building, and a music school was housed in the wards.

In 2020, the church was finally returned to the Roman Catholic Church.

The museum of ethnography and life of the Carpathian village of Bohrivka was founded in 2021 by the teacher of the Bohrivka gymnasium, Halyna Hotsanyuk.

The ethnographic exposition presents ancient household items, samples of folk embroidery, relics, antiquities of the village, products of folk craftsmen.

In particular, a working loom is exhibited, on which visitors can try to work.

"Tysmenytsia" factory is the largest fur enterprise in Ukraine. "Tysmenytsia" fur coats are known far beyond the borders of the country.

The secret of fur production was brought here by Armenian settlers in the 16th century. Gradually, fur craft, production of fur, saffian and suede passed to local craftsmen and became famous throughout Europe.

In 1970, the Tysmenytsia factory was built - one of the largest fur factories in the former Soviet Union. The skins of rabbits, muskrats, martens, minks, pizh and others are processed here. It has its own school of modern design, up to 300 new models of ready-made clothes and fur hats are put into serial production every year. "Tysmenytsia" mink fur coats are especially popular.

Products can be purchased at the company store on the territory of the "Tysmenytsia" factory.

The private museum of family professions was created in Ivano-Frankivsk in 2005 by journalist Roman Fabryka.

The exposition tells about 150 different professions that the collector's family has been engaged in over the past 200 years. Among them were beekeepers, architects, blacksmiths, doctors, builders, geologists, miners, musicians, agronomists, zootechnicians, teachers, gardeners and others.

A variety of professional tools, devices, mechanisms and devices are presented - from a plow to a computer.

The Galician Transversal Railway Museum was opened in 2022 in the building of the sports and educational center "Kamenyar" in the village of Nyzhniv on the initiative of a local enthusiast for reviving the memory of the railway, Dmytro Romanyshyn.

The construction of the 768-kilometer-long Galician Transversal Railway began in 1871. On November 15, 1884, the first train set off on the newly constructed Stanislaviv – Husyatyn branch, in particular the bridge over the Dniester in Nyzhniv. During the Second World War, the railway was destroyed by the Nazis and has not been rebuilt since then, but its remains have been preserved in some places.

The exhibition of the Galician Transversal Railway Museum presents several dozens of authentic exhibits, including a fragment of an Austrian rail, a railway lantern, other instruments and household items of railway workers.

Also on display are weapons from the First World War, old newspapers, currency notes, railway-themed paintings and photographs.

A memorial sign has been installed at the place where the railway runs in Nyzhniv.

According to one of the versions, the powerful castle above the Dniester near the harbor of Halych was built by the Volyn Voivode Lyubart on the site of the ancient Rus citadel, which stood on this site even during the time of Danylo Halytskyi.

Until the 15th century, the castle was one of the largest in Galicia, the garrison numbered a thousand people. In the 17th century, it withstood two Tatar sieges, and in 1649 it was taken by the troops of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

Andzhey Potocki, the Halych headman, took up the reconstruction, turning the wooden fortifications into a stone castle. The works were supervised by the Italian engineer Fransua Korrazini. In 1676, the castle was damaged during the Polish-Turkish war, soon lost its strategic importance and was partially dismantled for building materials.

It is currently part of the National Reserve "Ancient Halych". The south-western tower and part of the defensive wall have been restored, and the restoration of the chapel of Saint Catherine has begun. It is planned to open an exhibition of ancient weapons.

The Museum of Liberation Struggles of Halych District in Burshtyn is located in the premises of the "Prometheus" Palace of Culture. It was started in 1996 by the Brotherhood of the OUN-UPA of Halych district station and the Society of political prisoners and repressed people of Halych district.

The exposition presents materials about the events of the Second World War in the territory of the region, outstanding figures of fighters for the freedom of Ukraine, the work of the local intelligentsia of those times. You can see models of hideouts in which UPA soldiers hid, some types of weapons used in those times, maps of combat operations.

The Museum of the History of Ancient Halych is located in Krylos in the former Metropolitan Chambers - an architectural monument of the 18th century.

After the destruction of ancient Halych by the Tatars in the 13th century and the transfer of the capital of Halych to Kholm, then to Lviv, the former princely child remained the residence of the Galician metropolitans. In particular, it was the summer residence of Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytskyi, with whose assistance in 1937 archaeologist Yaroslav Pasternak founded the first museum of ancient Halych.

Initially, the exhibition of finds from the excavations in the village of Krylos was housed in the chapel of Saint Basil. In the 1990s, the exposition was moved to the renovated premises of the Metropolitan Chambers. Tools of the copper, bronze and iron ages, ancient weapons, in particular the ancient Rus princely sword of the 12th century, are presented here.

The Halych National Nature Park occupies an area of almost 15,000 hectares along the Dniester River and below its tributaries: Limnytsya, Lukvya, Hnyla Lypa.

It includes forest massifs, swamps, forest-steppe areas and various geological formations at the junction of Opillya, Halych basin and Prykarpattya. Among the individual monuments of nature are three oaks aged from 200 to 500 years.

The "Nature of the Galician Land" museum has been opened in the premises of the Halych National Park administration. Collections of stuffed animals of typical and rare representatives of vertebrates, entomological collections, herbarium specimens are presented.

"Halychyna Grave" has long been called a lonely mound on the southwestern edge of the Krylos hillfort, at its highest point, between the outer and inner defensive ramparts.

According to legend, the legendary founder of Halych, Prince Hal (Halytsya), is buried here. The Halychyna Grave is mentioned in the Galician-Volyn Chronicle of the 13th century as a sacred place for the acquisition of princely power.

During excavations in 1991-1993, an ancient Slavic symbolic burial (cenotaph) of a noble warrior was found in the mound. A dagger, arrowheads, three axes, gilding from a shield and other items dating back to the 10th century were discovered in the remains of the burnt boat. There were no remains of the soldier himself in the burial.

The territory behind the Potocki Palace in Ivano-Frankivsk is known as the "Hetman's Ramparts".

It was part of the city fortifications - the Stanislav fortress. In order for the castle of the owners of the city to be higher than other city fortifications, artificial ramparts with two bastions were built. Walls were built on the embankments, which were demolished at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 1876, the "Hetman's Ramparts" square was built on this site.

Today it is a small park in which the Ascension monument is installed, the central element of which is a sculpture of Jesus Christ.

Historical and ethnographic museum "Berehynya" in Burshtyn was founded in 1987 on the initiative of Tamara Husar, a teacher of the Burshtyn Energy College. The exposition is located in the assembly hall of the college dormitory.

The museum collection includes more than 1,500 exhibits - mostly ethnographic and archaeological materials.

The archaeological section presents materials from excavations in the vicinity of Burshtyn: stone axes, bones of extinct animals, etc. The collection of Opillya embroidery includes about 250 towels and 160 shirts. The section "Opillya housing" presents the interior of a village room and storeroom filled with tools, household items, furniture and old clothes. The next section introduces the history of the region from Ancent Rus times to the Second World War.