Attractions of Korosten district

The Luhyny People's Museum of Local Lore was opened in 1980 on the initiative of local teacher Zoya Sulska.

The museum is located next to the House of culture and has 8 exhibition halls. The exposition tells about the ancient history of the region, about the foundation and development of the town of Luhyny, about the traditional life of local residents, as well as about the nature of Polissya.

In particular, stone tools, axes and a sword from the times of Ancient Rus, household items of Polishuks from the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, embroidered towels, women's and men's clothing, and carpets are presented.

A table with hollow bowls attracts special attention.

The Ovruch historical and local history museum "Drevlyans Sources" has been operating since 2006 at the Center for Children's and Youth Creativity of the Ovruch City Council.

In the ethnographic hall, items from the traditional life of Polishchuks are presented, including unique towels-curtains with Drevlyans patterns. A prominent place is occupied by icons, one of which was made in 1904 in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

The next exposition introduces the ancient Polissya crafts - needlework and linen weaving. In particular, a real shipboard and shipboard equipment, as well as an ancient loom, are presented.

The last museum room contains materials about schooling in Ovruch region from the time of Kyivan Rus to the present day, as well as about prominent people of the region. The interiors of the classroom and pioneer room are reproduced here, old textbooks are presented, including the 1861 primer by Taras Shevchenko.

The only monument in Ukraine to the scientist and traveler Mykola Myklukho-Maklay was erected in Malyn, where his mother's estate was and where he himself lived for some time.

A descendant of an ancient Cossack family, Myklukho-Maklay is known in the world as an outstanding ethnographer, researcher of the peoples of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania. He spent many years traveling the world, but at the end of his life he returned to Malyn - he studied the life and traditions of the Polischuks here, and was interested in the origin of the Drevlyans.

Monuments to the scientist were also erected in Australia, New Guinea and Russia.

The monument in the center of Malyn was opened in 1986 in honor of the celebration of the 140th anniversary of the birth of Myklukho-Maklay. The author of the monument is the sculptor Petro Stepakov.

The People's Museum of Local Lore in the urban-type village of Narodychi was founded in 1990. The exposition in three rooms tells about the history of Narodychi region from the most ancient times to the present day.

The archaeological section presents the tools of primitive people. The ethnographic collection includes many household items of the Polishchuks, as well as icons, embroidered towels, etc.

Products of folk craftsmen are demonstrated.

A separate exposition is devoted to liquidation of the accident at the Chornobyl NPP.

The Stavropygian Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary was founded in Lugyny at the beginning of the 19th century.

It is one of the most interesting examples of the classical style in the monumental wooden architecture of Polissya.

It belongs to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Olevsk Museum of Local Lore opened in 1995.

Initially, it had only two halls: military glory and nature. Later, a hall of antiquities was opened, which tells about the ancient crafts and trades of Polishchuks, as well as a hall of history of Olevsk region. In particular, there are archeological finds from the Middle Ages, made during excavations on the territory of Olevsk settlement in the tract Babyna Hill: sword guard, lead seal of the King of Prussia, a necklace of glass of different colors and amber, bronze jewelry.

The exposition "Republic of Olevsk" on five stands highlights basic information about the activities of the Polissya Sich and Taras Bulba-Borovets.

Stands "Jewish Community in Olevsk" and "Local Interest" were developed, a new exhibition "Amber-succinite" was created.

The museum offers sightseeing tours of the city of Olevsk and field trips to the "Stone Village".

The Ovruchchyna History Museum was founded in 1975 at the Ovruch House of Culture. Currently, the museum is located in a historic two-story building next to the City Park.

The exhibition in three halls reveals the culture and history of the region, starting from the Paleolithic period. Among the unique exhibits are tools of primitive people, an medieval Drevlyan sword  of the XII-XIII centuries, a Cossack pistol and a powder magazine of the end of the XVIII century.

Documents of repressed compatriots, letters of Ostarbeiters deported to Germany during the Second World War, personal belongings of people who left their homes after the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, photos of Ovruchans who participated in the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian-Ukrainian war are preserved.

In the ethnographic department, the everyday objects of Polishchuks are exhibited, in particular, traditional clothes and shoes, woven and embroidered towels, wooden products of folk craftsmen. The interior of the 19th century village house "Polissya room" has been recreated.

The Museum of Partisan Glory of Polissya was founded in 1961 in the village of Slovechne, which during the Second World War was the center of the partisan movement and the location of large partisan units.

The Slovechne Museum was created by enthusiasts by the "folk" method, and in 1962 the exhibition was opened to visitors. One of the halls is decorated in the form of a guerrilla dugout.

Guerrilla weapons, radio equipment, guerrilla press, instruments of the medical service of the "forest front", materials about punitive expeditions in the Ovruch region are presented.

In 1995, the Burned Villages Memorial Complex was opened, where the tragic events of 1942-1943 were recorded.

Polissya nature reserve in the upper reaches of the river. Ubort protects more than 20,000 hectares of marshy forests, typical for the nature of Polissya.

The flora of the Polissya Reserve includes 604 species of higher plants, 139 species of mosses, many lichens, mushrooms and algae. 17 species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Rhododendron from the heather family is especially valuable.

Elk, red deer, wild boar, roe deer, muskrat, beaver, otter, wolf, fox, ferret, weasel and others are found in the forest. Sometimes a lynx and a bear are spotted.

The central estate of the Polissya Nature Reserve is located in the village of Selezivka. Tourists can visit the reserve's visitor center, where materials related to its activities are presented. A museum of sacred Drevlyan stones has been created on the territory of the manor: Stone-Throne, Ark, Stone-Love, tracer stones, Stone of the Virgin's tears, sacrificial stone.

The water mill was reconstructed (the log was brought from the resettled village of Dalety). The pagan sanctuary of the city of Nore with 12 stones, a dugout, a winter smokehouse has been restored.

In the museum "Drevlyanske selo" an ethnographic exposition is presented on the basis of a wooden Polissya hut.

Visitors are offered to live in a restored house with a real furnace, to learn about iron smelting from bog ore. A number of tourist water, pedestrian and automobile routes have been created on the outskirts of the Polissya Reserve with visits to holy springs, hundred-year-old oaks, Old Believer sanctuaries and ancient burials (stone crosses).

A granite outcrop on the right bank of the Uzh River on the northwestern outskirts of Korosten is known as "Red Hill" or "Mal`s Hillfort".

It is a 30-meter granite rock of a red shade with vertical slopes. In the 7th-13th centuries, the main fortress of ancient Iskorosten was located on the top of the mountain, which served in the 10th century as the residence of Prince Mal of Drevlyany - one of the 4 ancient Rus hillforts near Korosten. In these places, traces of a fire and a great battle were discovered, which scientists believe are traces of the siege of Iskorosten in 946 by the Kyiv army of Princess Olha, who was avenging the death of her husband, Prince Ihor.

During the archaeological research conducted in 2004, Great Moravian silver earrings, an Arab dirham, a gold solidus of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine and other finds were found, testifying to the great trade relations of Iskorosten. They are exhibited in the local lore museum of Korosten.

The Roman Catholic Church of Saint Anna is the oldest preserved Malyn church.

The first wooden Catholic church was built in the city in 1784 at the expense of Stanislav Kordysh. In 1869, the shrine burned down, and in 1884, through the efforts of Princess Tsetsyliya Radzyvill, a new church in the style of classicism was built in its place.

In Soviet times, it was used as one of the premises of a secondary school. In 1992, the church of Saint Anna was returned to the Catholic community of Malyn. In 2013, the major renovation of the temple began, and already in July 2017, the altar was re-consecrated.

The Saint Nicholas Church in Olevsk is an architectural monument of the 16th century.

It was built in 1596 under the Nemyrych nobles, and in 1618 it was reconstructed, as evidenced by the date on the stone cross built into the western wall of the vestibule attached to the church.

The base of the building has a simple squat shape with five helmet-shaped domes, which appeared after the reconstruction in 1864. Narrow slit windows indicate the defensive character of the building. The bell tower has a similar shape.

The iconostasis is modern, the old icons have not survived. Of particular value was the icon "Our Lady of Olevsk", which was removed from the church during the Soviet regime and kept in the Kharkiv Museum.

The Five-Bath Saint Nicholas Church in Mezhyrichka is an example of Polissya wooden architecture.

Built in 1772. Church of the cross in the plan. The central log cabin is covered with an octagonal tent on a big eight. The branches of the cross are covered with plastic tents topped with bulbous heads. Nearby is a square two-story bell tower.

Centuries-old Polissya houses, painted in the traditions of these places, have also been preserved in the village.

The white stone Savior and Transfiguration Cathedral in Ovruch was rebuilt in 1993 on the site of a church destroyed during the Soviet era.

Back in the 17th century, there was a Jesuit church here, which later became a Uniate church, and in the 19th century, it was rebuilt into an Orthodox church.

The Transfiguration Cathedral was restored in a new architectural form.

Part of the relics of Saint Macarius the Wonderworker of Kaniv are preserved in the cathedral.

Slovechansko-Ovrutsky ridge - a height in the north of Zhytomyr region, a remnant of ancient mountain ridges.

The ridge stretches for almost 60 kilometers from west to east from the village of Chervonka to the town of Ovruch. The width of the ridge is from 5 to 14-20 kilometers. The highest point (316 meters) is located east of the village of Horodets. The southern slopes of the ridge are steep, the northern slopes are gentler. The surface is hilly, dissected by ravines up to 20-25 meters deep.

The stone (rare red and pink quartzites and sandstones) quarried here was used in the construction of Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and the Golden Gate in Kyiv.

Many hillforts and barrows were investigated on the territory. Among the vegetation, there are dark-barked birch, rock oak, evergreen ivy, Karelian birch, Pontic azalea, which is considered endemic. Similar species in Ukraine occur only in the Crimea.

A dirt road runs along the entire ridge, sometimes between very deep ravines. The ravines are incredibly picturesque, the road is mostly gravel.