Attractions of Kyiv region

Mountain Krasukha rises 189 meters above sea level in the northeastern part of the Vytachiv village. Archaeological studies indicate that the top of the mountain is an artificial mound of the 2nd-4th centuries, probably from the times of the Ant kingdom.

There is a popular version that the barrow was built in 375 at the place of death of the famous Gothic king Ermanaric by order of his successor Vithimiris, which gave rise to the village of Vytachiv.

Archeological research discovered objects of the Chernyakhiv culture of the 2nd-3rd centuries, artifacts from the time of the Huns (5th century) and the remains of a pagan temple from the 6th-8th centuries on the mountain. The mountain was probably used as a burial place at all times.

Now there is also a village cemetery on Krasukha Mountain, so it is considered the oldest active necropolis in Kyiv region. Adherents of esoteric teachings consider the mountain a "place of power".

To the west of the mountain is the historical area of Okip, where there is a settlement of the ancient Rus city of Vytychiv of the 10th-13th centuries. Remains of ramparts and ditches can still be seen among private estates there.

The famous naval engineer, lieutenant general, designer of the famous cruiser "Aurora" Ksaveriy Ratnik was born in Mykolaiv. After the defeat of the Russian fleet in 1905 in the Battle of Tsushima, in which the "Aurora" participated, Ratnik was accused of corruption by the leadership of the Russian Empire's navy, retired and began to live permanently on the outskirts of the then Borova farm and Motovyliv dachas, on the hills of the right high bank of the Stuhna River, where he purchased a plot of land and in 1907 built a three-story manor house in the shape of a ship. The rooms were considered cabins, and the large balcony was called the captain's bridge.

After the death of the owner in 1924, the manor house was given over to a sanatorium, then the office of the Kyiv Vegetable and Potato Research Station was located in Ratnik's former house.

Currently, the house-ship is abandoned and is slowly collapsing. Through the efforts of enthusiasts and Ksaveriy Ratnik's great-grandson, Oleh Ratnik, a memorial plaque to Ksaveriy Ratnik was installed on it in the early 2010s, and the designer's grave was also discovered and arranged. The plans include the creation of a Cultural and Historical Center based on the house-museum.

The former building of the order's consistory, the only surviving building of the monastery of the Catholic order of the Trinitarians, is called the "Ksyondz's house" in Rzhyshchiv.

The Trinitarian monastery-fortress was founded in Rzhyshchiv in 1740 to resist Tatar raids and anti-Polish uprisings of the local residents, which became more frequent. It was a powerful fortification structure with two-meter-thick walls, watchtowers and loopholes, which served as Rzhyshchiv's citadel. The main building and architectural dominant of the entire city was the Church of the Holy Trinity. Three underground passages connected the basement of the church with the cells of the Trinitarian monastery inside the fortress, the Horyanshchyna area outside the fortress and the Polish cemetery nearby. The monastery housed the consistory of the order, as well as the Polish customs and border administrations.

During Soviet times, the monastery was closed, the church was destroyed by an explosion in 1984. The two-story building of the consistory ("Ksyondz's house") now houses the secondary school No. 2.

The Kyiv Municipal Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet for Children and Youth "Kyiv Opera" on Podil in Kyiv is better known as the Music Theater.

It is this name that is still preserved on the facade of the building, erected in 1933 in the style of Soviet constructivism according to the project of the famous architect Mykola Shekhonin as the "Kharchovyk" workers' club of the trade union of workers of the meat-canning industry.

For some time, the building was called "Slavutych" Palace of Culture.

Today, the auditorium of the Kyiv Opera has 436 seats, including the balcony. In 2016, a chamber stage was opened in the Round Hall for performances and concerts.

Currently, the repertoire of the theater includes about 60 plays. The most popular children's show is the musical "The Adventures of Buratino" by Oleksandr Bilash. The comic opera "Les mamelles de Tirésias" by Francis Poulenc and the modern production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Traviata" received high marks from the audience and critics.

Availability information:
- the entrance to the theater is equipped with a ramp, the width of the doorway at the entrance allows unobstructed access for people in wheelchairs
- men's and women's restrooms located on the first floor of the theater, equipped with cabins for people with disabilities
- the ground floor of the theater is accessible to people in wheelchairs: the entrance to the hall has no stairs, wide aisles between the rows.

The Kyiv Regional Archaeological Museum in Trypillia is mainly dedicated to the Trypillia archeological culture, which was named after this village in the Kyiv region, where the first archeological excavations were carried out.

The dark constructivist building of cubic shape is located on Posadova Hill, on the site of the ancient settlement of Trepol. According to architect Anatoliy Ihnashchenko, the chest building symbolizes the wealth of Ukraine, and located around the stone - a piece of land.

The Kyiv Regional Archaeological Museum was established to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Trypillia culture by Vikentiy Khvoyka on the basis of the former Museum of Komsomol Glory. The exposition presents 34 thousand exhibits. The most interesting of them are exhibited in the Trypillya hall, which is stylized as a church of Trypillia: ceramics, jewelry, models of Trypillya residents, etc. In total, about 200 products of various shapes, sizes, applications and ornaments.

In two more halls there are exhibits of other epochs, starting from the Stone Age and ending with the XVIII century. Souvenirs imitating Trypillia ceramics are for sale. The most popular is the original binocular ritual utensils of Trypillya.

A bronze bust of Vikentiy Khvoyka, the first archeological monument in Ukraine, has been erected on a pedestal next to the museum building. In front of the monument there is a "Table of Harmony", in the center of which is a metal cylinder - the axis of the earth with the inscription "Dialogue of Cultures" in Ukrainian and English, symbolizing the intertwining of cultures on this land, the transition from one to another. Around the "Table of Harmony" placed historical exhibits of stone, created by ancient man. In front of the facade of the museum there are large blocks of sandstone, which are over 70 million years old - a gift from the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve Pereyaslav.

The branches of the Kyiv Regional Archaeological Museum are the Archaeological and Local Lore Museum in the village of Kopachiv, the Historical and Local Lore Museum in the village of Sosnova, the Anatoliy Solovyanenko Museum in the village of Kozyn, the Military History Museum in the village of Trypillia, the Vikentiy Khvoyka Museum and the Ivan Franko Museum in the village of Halepya, the Cossack Era Museum and Picture Gallery in the village of Hermanivka.

Kyiv City Art Gallery "Lavra" is one of the leading exhibition venues in the capital of Ukraine.

The gallery opened in 1996 in the historical building of the provision store of the Kyiv-Pechersk fortress, built in 1843-1844, next to the preserved fragment of the fortress rampart.

The exhibition space with an area of 650 square meters is used for presentations of Ukrainian artists, photo exhibitions, musical evenings, fashion shows, educational lectures and meetings with famous creative personalities.

Festivals, fairs and open-air concerts take place in the courtyard of the Lavra Art Gallery.

The monument to actor Leonid Bykov on the slopes of the Dnipro in Kyiv is dedicated to military pilots of the Second World War who died during the liberation of Ukraine.

The famous Ukrainian actor, theater and film director, People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR Leonid Bykov starred in many popular films, but the most memorable for the audience was his portrayal of the squadron commander Captain Oleksiy Tytarenko nicknamed "Maestro" from the movie "Only Old Men Go to Battle". In this stage image, he is depicted in the sculpture, which is installed in Glory Park near the Eternal Glory Memorial on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (between Slavy Square and Askold's Grave).

The sculptors are Volodymyr Shchur and Vitaliy Sivko.

A monument to Les Kurbas in Kyiv was erected in 2002 on Prorizna Street - near the building of the "Young Theater" founded by him.

The outstanding Ukrainian actor and theater director Les Kurbas devoted his whole life to reforming the Ukrainian theater. In 1922, he founded the "Berezil" theater in Kyiv, where he focused on finding new stage means and avant-garde forms of representation of revolutionary ideas, which was accepted by the authorities. Kurbas was accused of bourgeois nationalism and mischief, repressed, and only in 1953 was he rehabilitated.

The authors of the monument to Les Kurbas are sculptor Mykola Rapay and architect Vyacheslav Dormydontov.

The House of Writers of Ukraine, known as the "Liberman's Mansion", is located in the government quarters of Kyiv, next to the Office of the President of Ukraine. The neo-Renaissance building is a monument of architecture of local significance.

The mansion at Bankova Street, 2 was built in 1879 by architect Volodymyr Nikolayev on the order of Adjutant General Fedir Trepov. In mid-1898 it was rebuilt in the neo-Renaissance style for the new owner, the Kyiv merchant and sugar producer Symha Liberman. Inside the house, unique interiors have been preserved - stucco ceilings and cornices, carved doors, tiled stoves, marble window sills, inlaid parquet.

Since 1953, the Liberman estate has housed the National Writers' Union of Ukraine. Famous classics of Ukrainian literature have worked here, including Ivan Drach, Lina Kostenko, Ivan Svitlychny. In 1989, the 
People's Movement of Ukraine for Perestroika (Narodnyi Rukh of Ukraine) was founded here.

During Soviet times, the legendary cafe "Enei" was located in the basement of the Writers' House, where there were named tables for Maksym Rylsky, Pavlo Zahrebelny, Yevhen Hutsalo and other artists. Its walls were decorated with masterpiece illustrations by Anatolii Bazylevych for "Aeneid". Later, the restaurant "Sad" opened in its premises.

The local history museum of the city of Slavutych and Chornobyl NPP presents expositions dedicated to the nature, history and culture of the Polissya region.

The main place is occupied by materials on the history of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and the construction of the city of Prypyat, the accident of 1986 and the liquidation of its consequences at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone, the construction of the "Ukryttya" facility and the new confinement.

The museum's funds include more than 10,000 exhibits. In particular, the exhibition hall "History of the construction of the city of Prypyat and the accident at the Chornobyl NPP" displays documents, photos of the station, stands dedicated to the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, as well as a model of the station's industrial site with the "Ukryttya" facility.

The exhibition "Construction of the city of Slavutych" presents sketches of artistic and architectural solutions, author's projects for the development of neighborhoods and recreation areas, for which a group of architects led by Fedir Borovyk received the State Prize of Ukraine.

In the "Ethnographic Light" hall, ancient Ukrainian towels, embroidered by craftsmen from the villages of Chernihiv and Ripkinsky districts, and other items of traditional life are exhibited. You can also see things that Prypyat residents used before the Chornobyl accident.

The local lore museum of the Kuliabivka village in the Kyiv region is named after the Ukrainian scientist and statesman Petro Neporozhnyi. The main exposition of the museum, which opened in 2012, is dedicated to him.

Petro Neporozhnyi was born in 1910 in the Tuzhyliv farm near Kuliabivka, graduated from the local school and the Pereyaslav Factory Apprenticeship School, and later from the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport Engineers. He was engaged in the construction of hydroelectric power stations. From 1954 he worked in government positions in the Ukrainian SSR, and from 1965 to 1985 he held the position of Minister of Energy and Electrification of the USSR. For more than 30 years, he headed the Department of Energy at the Odesa and Moscow Polytechnic Institutes.

The four exhibition halls of the museum present materials about the life and activities of Petro Neporozhnyi: documents, photographs, portraits, etc. Ethnographic exposition is also presented.

The Luhansk Regional Museum of Local Lore is one of the oldest museums in Donbas.

In March 2015, the museum was moved from Luhansk to the Ukrainian-controlled territory of the city of Starobilsk. The museum is located in the premises of the former craft school, built in 1895 at the expense of the noblewoman Domna Demenkova, and is an architectural monument of the 19th century.

With the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Luhansk Regional Museum of Local Lore found shelter in Lviv and operated for two years on the basis of the Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes "Territory of Terror". Now the museum has moved to Kyiv to the "My Luhansk Region" Humanitarian Hub, where it will be working for the near future. Unfortunately, the museum does not have its own premises and exhibition spaces for the full restoration of museum activities.

The Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is located on the territory of the Holosiyivsky forest, on the southern outskirts of Kyiv.

It was built in 1944-1948 on the initiative of the outstanding Ukrainian astronomer Oleksandr Orlov, who became the first director of the observatory. The construction was carried out according to the project of the famous architect Oleksiy Shchusev.

The first telescopes were Wanschaff's vertical circle and Tepfer-Steingel's double long-focus astrograph. Now the observatory also has a station for laser observation of artificial satellites of the Earth, a horizontal solar telescope АТСУ-5, a reflector AZT-2, a double wide-angle Zeiss astrograph, a meridian axial circle and other instruments.

The Museum of the History of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences is located in the tower of the double long-focus Tepfer-Steingel astrograph. Visitors are greeted by a poster announcing that minor planet No. 15675 was named Goloseevo in honor of this institution.

On the four floors of the tower, numerous photographic materials about the history of the institution, personal belongings of prominent astronomers, the first astrometric instruments and measuring devices are presented. A collection of antique clocks is presented in the time room.

Excursions with amateur astronomical observations are held by prior appointment for organized groups.

The Makariv Historical and Local Lore Museum is located in the Pansky Park on the ramparts of the Makariv Castle in the center of the town of Makariv. It was opened in 1967 on the initiative of local historian and public figure Herman Chereshnyov.

The exposition tells about the history of Makariv since the Middle Ages, about the Haydamak movement in the Kyiv region, about the events of the Ukrainian Revolution and the Second World War, as well as about the post-war life of the town.

A separate exhibition is dedicated to the soldiers of the 14th separate mechanized brigade named after Prince Roman the Great, who in February-March 2022 liberated the Makariv hromada from the Russian invaders in fierce battles.

The Kyiv Literary and Memorial Museum of Maksym Rylsky was opened in 1966 in the building next to the Holosiyivsky Park in Kyiv, where the outstanding Ukrainian poet lived the last 13 years of his life, from 1951 to 1964.

It was here that he wrote his most famous poetry collections "Roses and Grapes", "Winter Notes", "Evening Conversations".

The living room, office and library of Maksym Rylsky have been preserved in the building. In three more halls, there is a biographical exposition that illuminates the life and creative path of the poet.

In total, the museum's funds include more than 10,000 items. It is possible to listen to recordings of the poet's voice.

The house is surrounded by a garden and flower beds, created by the hands of Maksym Rylsky. A monument to the poet has been installed in front of the house.