Attractions of Kyiv region

Pushcha-Vodytsia is a suburban resort village on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv, the most famous country area near the capital. Even in the 11th century, the princes of Kyiv loved to hunt in the forests of Pushcha-Vodytsia ("Pushcha" means a dense forest, Vodytsia is the name of a small river).

In 1724, state forestry was created, and in the 1890s, the city council, on the initiative of entrepreneur and public figure Mykola Chokolov, founded the country village of Pushcha-Vodytsia.

In 1904, anti-tuberculosis sanatoriums were built, and later general health sanatoriums, a tram line and a telephone connection were laid. In the pre-revolutionary years, maivkas were held here. The sanatorium-resort profile was preserved in the village even in Soviet times. More than 60,000 people were treated here during the year. He received elite status thanks to the departmental "Tsekiv" sanatorium "Pushcha-Ozerna". By the mid-1990s, most of the sanatoriums had closed, many areas with forest areas fell into private ownership, but some examples of summer cottages from the beginning of the 20th century were preserved.

The neo-Gothic building under the mountain Uzdyhalnytsia on the Andriyivsky descent bears the romantic name "Castle of Richard the Lionheart", built on the order of the merchant Dmytro Orlov as a profitable house.

According to legend, the builders, dissatisfied with the payment, specially planned the ventilation in such a way that the wind would howl in the pipes, which led to rumors of ghosts in the house.

During Soviet times, bohemians lived here. In 1992, Richard's Castle was purchased by an American investor for a hotel, but due to problems with local authorities, the reconstruction was suspended.

The chapel in honor of Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle, who, according to legend, foretold the foundation of Kyiv, was built on the slopes of the Dnipro near Askold's grave.

The construction was carried out at the expense of the Public Fund of Saint Andrew the First-Called, the project was developed by the architect Mykola Zharikov. The temple facing upwards is made in the style of a modern interpretation of the Ukrainian Baroque. According to the peculiarities of style and territorial affiliation, the Saint Andrew chapel was included in the Lavra complex.

A commemorative sign in honor of the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ has been installed nearby. Across the road from the church, a monument to Andrew the First-Called (architect Mykola Zharikov) was opened in 2000. The monument is made of a solid block of granite. The pedestal in the upper part is stylized as clouds, which emphasizes the holiness of the apostle.

The Saint Dimitry Church on Podil in Kyiv was founded in the 17th century as the church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Kostyantyn and Olena.

The beginning was wooden. In 1742-1750, according to the project of the famous architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi, the stone Kostyantyn and Olena temple with a bell tower and a refectory of the Saint Dimitry church was built.

In the 1930s, the main church was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, but the refectory building, which housed the school gym for a long time, was preserved.

Currently, the Church of Saint Dimitry belongs to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, reconstruction is planned with the restoration of the lost dome.

The architectural ensemble of the Saint Michael's Monastery is located on the territory of the Episcopal Court of the Pereyaslav Dytynets (Citadel). 

This fortification at the confluence of the Alta River and the Trubizh River was the historical core of medieval Pereyaslav in princely times. It is a part of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Pereyaslav".

Saint Michael's Cathedral of the XI century, built on the initiative of the Bishop of Pereyaslav, the Reverend Yefrem Pechersky, under Prince Volodymyr Monomakh was the largest church in the city. Many Pereyaslav princes were buried there (the tomb has not survived).

The cathedral was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars during the storming of Pereyaslav in 1237. Now you can see the later Saint Michael's Church, revived on ancient foundations by Pereyaslav Colonel Fedir Loboda in the middle of the XVII century. as a small wooden temple, and a century later rebuilt in stone in its present form. At the same time, a defensive bell tower with an entrance gate was erected. As a result of secularization in 1876, the church became a parish, received the status of a city council.

Under Soviet rule, Saint Michael's Church was closed and the dome torn down. Until recently, it housed the Museum of Folk Costume of the Dnipro region. The interior has preserved paintings of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Since 2010, the monastery complex has been in use by the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, the men's monastery of Archstrateg Michael was opened in it. Instead of the authentic dome recorded in Taras Shevchenko's painting, the religious community erected a dome-model of a 12th-century church above the church.

The monastery shares the territory with the Museum of Architecture of Ancient Rus Pereyaslav, which was opened in 1982 on the initiative of the founder of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Pereyaslav" Mykhaylo Sikorskyi. The outline of the temple destroyed by the Mongols is lined with stone around the perimeter of the church, and the original masonry and mosaics are available for viewing in the covered pavilion in the courtyard of Saint Michael's Monastery. There is also a model of an ancient Rus cathedral.

The remains of other structures of the baby are hidden underground. There is a memorial sign in honor of the ancient Rus chronicler Sylvester, one of the authors of the "Tale of Bygone Years", and several other sculptures.

In 2023, the Economic Court of the Kyiv region made a decision based on the lawsuit of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Pereyaslav", according to which the oldest shrine of Pereyaslav should return to the use of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve and obliged the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate to vacate the premises of the Saint Michael's Church.

Private landscape park "Sakura Island" in Volodarka, Kyiv region, was created in 2019 by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Mykola Kaplun according to his own project. On the outskirts of the village, he landscaped an area of ​​1.6 hectares, where he dug a 350-meter-long canal, threw three bridges across the Ros River onto the island, and planted about 200 trees of various species, as well as 3,500 species of flowering shrubs.

"Sakura Island" is decorated in the Japanese style and has many interesting photo zones. In the center stands a pagoda with an observation deck, from which a panorama of the entire complex opens. The oriental theme is supported by a torii gate and a stone garden. There is also a grotto with a waterfall and a fountain, a colonnade in the ancient Greek style, a model of the ship "Santa Maria", on which Christopher Columbus discovered America, stylized remains of the sea monster Leviathan, and a large number of various sculptures.

For younger visitors in Sakura Island Park there is a mini-zoo and a large playground. There is a café and a restaurant on the territory, as well as holiday houses with all the amenities.

The Sakura Island park hosts an annual autumn gastronomic festival, OctoberFest.

The gloomy Neo-Renaissance building of the Zemska Administration, built on the order of the provincial authorities, in Soviet times was transferred to the NKVD department, then the KGB. During the German occupation, it served as the premises of the CD.

The entire block around the building is equipped for the needs of the secret police, including temporary detention cells.

The building still retains its profile - the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) is located here.

The caisson of the Stalinist metro is a huge reinforced concrete structure in the Natalka Park in Obolon, which is popularly nicknamed the "Concrete Ship" for its characteristic shape, reminiscent of a submarine with a cockpit.

This is "Title No. 12" - one of the objects of the so-called "Construction No. 1", as mentioned in secret documents, a project of an underground transport system duplicating railway bridges across the Dnipro in the Kyiv region. Currently, the object is known as "Stalin Metro". Two railway tunnels to the south and north of Kyiv (now within the city limits) were intended to ensure reliable, safe and secret transfer of troops and cargo between the right and left banks of the Dnipro.

The construction of the Northern tunnel in the area of present-day Obolon began later than the construction of the Southern tunnel in the area of Zhukiv Island. At the beginning of the Second World War, in 1941, underground work had not yet begun.

A reinforced concrete tunnel and caisson section remained on the surface of the earth near the bank of the Dnipro, designed to sink into the soil and create an underground working chamber for the work of walkers in water-saturated soils.

Since the information about "Construction No. 1" remained secret until recently, the history and purpose of the "Concrete Ship" - a caisson on Obolon was overgrown with many urban legends. The further fate of the building has not yet been determined.

A small recreation area on the Dnipro embankment near the new high-rise buildings near the Pivnichny Bridge on Obolon is called the "Garden of Stones" in Kyiv.

A miniature park with an area of ​​0.35 hectares with cobbled paths is decorated with many sculptures. 24 high basalt stone columns and 5 artificial, several bronze sculptures, 16 benches for rest, 24 decorative lanterns were installed in the park. All stones were brought for the park from different parts of Ukraine.

The main decoration of the Stones Garden was a large fountain with a diameter of 11 meters, made of granite. In the center of the fountain there are three female bronze figures under an umbrella. A bronze mermaid sitting on a stone and holding a seashell in her hands attracts special attention. it is believed that love will surely come to those who touch her breasts.

Syretsky Park in Kyiv is a monument of garden and park art of national significance.

It was established at the end of the 19th century by the German Meyer as a demonstration park for ornamental crops in flower farming. The yews, thuja, spruces, maples and lindens planted at that time are still preserved.

Work on expanding the park territory, forming decorative tree-shrub groups, as well as expanding the collection of ornamental plants was continued in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century by the famous dendrologist, a great enthusiast of his work, Mykola Ptitsyn.

Currently, the park covers an area of 6.5 hectares.

The Arboretum does not have its own entrance. To get to its territory, you need to go through the transit agro-firm "Flowers of Ukraine".

The Television Museum of the National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine (NSTU) was opened in 2006, to the 55th anniversary of Ukrainian television broadcasting. It is located in the premises of the Kyiv TV Center "Olivets", opposite the Kyiv Television Tower.

The 24-story building of the TV center in Syrka was erected in 1983-1992 on the site of the old Jewish cemetery. The Kyiv TV Center was planned as a backup for the central television of the USSR, in case of failure of the Moscow TV Center, which explains the excessive scale of the complex, given the needs of Ukrainian television at the time. In addition to the central office building, which resembles a pencil with its contours, there is a powerful equipment and studio complex for 8 television studios, an unfinished movie concert hall and a protected underground storage for broadcasting in conditions of martial law.

The Museum of Television is located on the lower level of the central lobby of the TV Center. The exposition visualizes the history of Ukrainian television with the help of a series of installations. In particular, the interior of the first television studio of the 1950s in the old television center at 26 Khreshchatyk Street has been recreated.

The permanent exhibition includes more than 800 exhibits, including a television with a magnifying lens KVN-49 and other tube televisions, old film and television cameras, video recorders of various periods and standards, editing equipment, etc. A gallery of sketches and mock-ups of scenery for famous TV programs, made by artists of the TV channel, is presented. A separate section is devoted to the participation of Ukrainian television broadcasters in coverage of the Chornobyl disaster.

The museum has an interactive film set, thanks to which you can try yourself as a presenter or cameraman. The permanent exhibition is complemented by an exhibition area in the main lobby.

Excursions introduce visitors to the exposition of the museum, the programs of the "UA: Public Broadcasting" TV channels, the production units of the TV center, the behind-the-scenes kitchen, television professions and interesting people. Pre-registration is required to visit.

The Park of Trypillya sculpture is considered a business card of the city of Rzhyshchiv, which disputes with the village of Trypillia for the informal title of the capital of Trypillya culture.

Trypillya Park was created in the square in front of the building of the Rzhyshchiv City Council and the new cultural center in 2003-2004 at the initiative of the local authorities. The central element of the park is a large sculpture in the form of a Trypillya binocular vessel by the sculptor Anatoliy Haydamaka. This ritual vessel also became the central element of the new coat of arms and the main symbol of Rzhyshchiv.

The park also features female statuettes and other enlarged Trypil figures by sculptors Mykola Bilyk, Mykola Sivak, Volodymyr Sholudko and others.

The water mill on the Ros River in Bila Tserkva is currently not working. A complex of mill buildings and dams blocking the river has been preserved.

The mill offers a picturesque view of the Ros River and the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene.

The Art Nouveau mansion (Weeping Widow House) was built in 1907 by architect Eduard-Ferdinand Bradtman by order of Serhiy Arshavsky, a Poltava merchant of the 2nd guild.

In 1918, the building was nationalized, and to this day it houses government structures.

The facade is decorated with a sad female face, which drips water during the rain, and it seems that the mask is crying. Hence the popular name of the mansion - "Weeping Widow House".

The two-story building, in which the Zemstvo administration of Pereyaslav was located, stands out with features of late classicism. Now it houses school No. 2.

Opposite is the elegant, skillfully decorated building of the former women's gymnasium (now also the building of school No. 2), which is compositionally connected with the building of the Zemstvo administration into a single architectural whole.