Attractions of Chernihiv district

The Ascension Church in Kozelets is considered a unique example of a cross-shaped five-bay church in the general features of Baroque with signs of architectural historicism. The side tops resemble defensive towers.

Since Soviet times, the Kozelet Museum of the History of Weaving of Chernihiv Region has been housed in the church.

In 2017 the church was returned to the Orthodox Church, currently owned by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Cathedral of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine solemnly greets everyone who enters Chernihiv from the Kyiv side, it is considered a symbol of the city.

It is located on the opposite hill from Dytynets, on the Alley of Heroes. The temple in the Ukrainian Baroque style was built on the site of an ancient temple from the period of Kyivan Rus at the expense of the brothers Semen and Yakiv Lyzohub, according to the will of their father Yukhym Lyzohub in memory of the heroism of their grandfather Yakiv Lyzohub and the Cossacks of the Chernihiv regiment, shown by them during the storming of the Turkish fortress of Azov.

During Soviet times, the Catherine Church was closed. In 1975-1980, the church was restored, and an exhibition of the Museum of Folk and Decorative Art of Chernihiv Region was placed inside.

In 2004-2005, the temple was restored. In 2006, the Catherine Church was handed over to the Cossack Orthodox community. In 2008, the church became the Cossack cathedral of the Chernihiv Diocese. Currently, it is an active church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In 2009, the monument "Fighters for freedom and independence of Ukraine" was opened near the Catherine's Church.

The Chernihiv Literary and Memorial Museum-Reserve of Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky was opened in 1934 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the writer's birthday at the initiative of his family - the younger brother of Mykhaylo Khoma Kotsyubynsky became the first director of the institution.

The memorial part of the exposition is located in the one-story wooden house in which Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky lived from 1898 to 1913. Here he wrote the stories "Fata morgana", "Intermezzo", "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" and others, hosted many famous representatives of the creative intelligentsia, including composer Mykola Lysenko and writer Borys Hrynchenko.

In the house, the environment that existed during the writer's life is recreated, including a desk with writing utensils and other furniture. The writer's memorial library has more than 1,500 books, including the first editions of his works. Photographs, manuscripts, notebooks, and letters are also presented.

The literary part of the exposition is located in a separate three-story building designed by the outstanding Ukrainian monumentalist artist Anatoly Haydamaka. The decoration of the exposition is the wooden composition "Tree of Life" or "Krynytsia Kotsyubynsky", which permeates all three floors of the building. It has the appearance of a four-sided pillar, on each face of which are carved illustrations of Kotsyubynskyi's works.

Part of the manor is the memorial garden of the Kotsyubynsky family, where more than 200 types of plants are grown, including trees that the writer personally planted. The garden beds are decorated with the writer's favorite flowers: roses, mallows, and poppies. There are also exotic subtropical plants - agaves, which the writer admired in Italy. In the summer, tea parties are held on the veranda of the Kotsyubynsky family's house overlooking the garden.

During the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the Chernihiv Literary Memorial Museum-Reserve of Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky was hit by shelling. The memorial building and 36 museum exhibits were damaged, including Kotsyubynsky's chess pieces, a grand piano, and some furniture. Restoration has been carried out.

Chernihiv Regional Art Museum named after Hryhoriy Galagan is located in the building of the former women's gymnasium (XIX century) on Val.

The collection includes about 8,000 works of fine and decorative arts, from the XVI century to the present. It was based on a unique collection of Ukrainian noble family Galagans, represented by works of Western European and domestic art of XVII-XIX centuries, folk paintings, including the famous Cossacks Mamay, portraits of eight generations of this famous Cossack family and their relatives - Rozumovskyi, Lamsdorf, Darahan, Markevych. 

The museum has a collection of works by the outstanding Ukrainian folk artist Mariya Prymachenko. Works of decorative and applied art of Ukraine, a folk toy are also presented.

During the Russian invasion of 2022, when the city of Chernihiv was under fire, the Chernihiv Art Museum named after Hryhoriy Galagan was damaged, in particular, some exhibits were damaged.

According to legend, the "Pokorshchyna" estate of the Darahan family in Kozelets was named so in memory of the times when Empress Elizaveta Petrivna "submitted" to the shepherd Oleksiy Rozum (according to another version, the empress bowed her head (submitted) to her future mother-in-law, Nataliya Rozumykha).

Rozumiha bought the estate specially before the arrival of the empress. Probably, the secret wedding of Elizaveta and Oleksiy took place here. Later, the estate belonged to the sister of the Rozumovsky brothers, Vera, who married Colonel Darahan. The last owners were the Galagans.

The estate consists of a small one-story house with columns and a two-story tenement house, which was used to store weapons and treasury. A park was built around. Currently, the Kozeletsk Technical College of Veterinary Medicine is located near the manor.

The buildings are in very poor condition and need immediate restoration.

Lyzohub Kamyanytsya in Sedniv is called a defensive-type building with a two-story crenellated tower and buttresses that give the structure a romantic look.

Kamyanytsya (stone house) was built in the 17th century by Colonel Yakiv Lyzohub from Chernihiv on the high bank of the Snov River, on the territory of the main estate, which for a long time belonged to this ancient Cossack family. The building is one-story, with large basements. In plan, it resembles a traditional Ukrainian house with halls to which two small rooms adjoin from different sides.

Initially, the Lyzohub Kamyanytsya was residential, simultaneously performing defensive functions. Then it began to be used as a utility room, when in the 19th century the brothers Andriy and Illya Lyzohub reconstructed the manor and built a new residential manor house. At the same time, a pseudo-Gothic crenellated tower was built above the tenement house, which turned the building into a decorative architectural element of the manor park.

Currently, Lyzohub Kamyanytsya belongs to Chernihivoblenergo OJSC. Restoration has been carried out, but there is no access inside.

The environmental and local history organization "Mizhrichynska Pushcha" is the main center for the development of ecotourism in the territory of the Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park with a center in the village of Otrokhy. It was created in 2013 by the famous ecologist Andriy Sahaydak, who headed the Mizhrichynsky Regional Landscape Park for a long time.

The central estate of the organization is located on the southern outskirts of the village, on the edge of the forest next to the Bondarivske Swamp. Here you can visit the Polissya Forestry Museum, which introduces the traditional life of the Polishchuk people and their occupations: bird breeding, wickerwork, hunting, fishing. The exposition also tells about the history of forest protection.

From the central estate "Mizhrichynska Pushcha" eco-trails begin, laid through the territory of the Mizhrichynsky Regional Landscape Park. One of them leads to the Holy Lake - a swampy reservoir, where a rare snow-white water lily blooms at the end of May. On the ecological trail "Zhuravlyna" you can meet a beaver hut, a partisan hideout, a pagan temple, see traces of wild animals, etc.

In addition to educational excursions, master classes on survival in natural conditions are offered, organization of recreation by the fire on the shore of a forest swamp, etc.

The Pyatnytska Church in Chernihiv is a classic monument of ancient Rus architecture.

The church in honor of Saint Paraskeva Pyatnytsa, the patroness of trade, was built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries on the main market square of the city. Until 1786, it was the main building of the Pyatnytsky Monastery. By that time, it had already been rebuilt several times and was a seven-bath temple in the Baroque style.

During the Second World War, the Friday Church was destroyed. In 1962, it was completely restored in the original ancient Rus style according to the project of architects Petro Baranovskyi and Mykola Kholostenko.

From the outside, the building has the appearance of a slender tower, almost square in plan, topped by a slender bathhouse, which, thanks to the original transition from the rectangle of the base to the dome, creates a characteristic feature of dynamic upward striving and pyramidal completion.

The church is active and belongs to the Chernihiv Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It is part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv".

On August 19, 2023, in the course of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as a result of a Russian missile attack on the center of Chernihiv, the Pyatnytska Church suffered significant damage. The explosive wave from the impact of the Iskander missile in the premises of the theater, located nearby, hit the church when the festive service was ending. The blast wave knocked out the windows, pieces of the rocket flew into the church, and damaged icons (including the icon of the patron saint of the church, which was lying on the altar).

The building of the Chernihiv Regimental Office, also known as "Mazepa House" or "Lyzohub Stone House", is located on Val in Chernihiv.

The building on the territory of the Chernihiv Fortress was built by Colonel Yakiv Lyzohub, then it belonged to Hetman Ivan Mazepa, then it served as a regimental office, a city hall, and an archive. The only monument of residential architecture of the 17th century in Chernihiv with well-preserved rich decorative decoration of the facades.

Currently, the building houses the funds of the Chernihiv Historical Museum.

The legend about the ghost of Motrya Kochubey, who was cursed by her mother for having a sinful relationship with Hetman Mazepa, is connected with the "Mazepa House".

Saint Anthony's Caves - the oldest shrine of Chernihiv is a part of the Trinity-Illinsky Monastery on the Boldyny Hills.

The first cave church and monastery was founded by Saint Anthony Pechersky in 1069, when he left the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which he founded.

Through the Church of Sain Illia (XII century) you can get to the cave part (315 m), where there are underground churches of Saint Anthony, Saint Theodosius and Saint Nicholas Svyatosha.

On the hill above the monastery are the Slavic mounds Bezimenny and Hulbyshche, as well as the tomb of Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky with a monument.

Archeological excavations continue in the Saint Anthony's Caves, and excursions are held.

The wooden Cossack Saint George Church was founded in Sedniv, probably in the pre-Mongol period.

It is located at the height of the Crown Castle tract, in the center of the ancient settlement of Snovsk. In its current form, this richly carved church was rebuilt without a single nail in 1745 and is considered one of the best works of Ukrainian folk architecture.

In this church, dedicated to George the Victorious, the Cossacks of the Sedniv Hundred of the Chernihiv Regiment sanctified their sabers before military campaigns.

At first, George's Church was single-domed. Two additional baths were added in the course of the restoration carried out after the fire.

There is a version that the initial filming of key episodes of the popular Soviet film "Viy" based on the novel of the same name by Mykola Hohol took place in the interior of  George's Church, but the working material was not liked by the management of "Mosfilm", and all interior scenes were later shot in Moscow, in specially constructed scenery. .

Chernihiv Val is the oldest part of the city, a hill on the high bank of the Desna River, where the prince's palace and a complex of city defense structures (Dytynets) were located.

Remains of princely temples and boyar residences were discovered here. Two churches of the XI-XII centuries, the later building of the Collegium (1700), the Regimental Office (XVIII century), known as the "Lyzohub stone house", other buildings of the XVIII-XIX centuries have been perfectly preserved.

After the liquidation of the Chernihiv fortress in the 19th century, the defensive rampart over the river was turned into a park area, and monuments to Taras Shevchenko and Pushkin were erected. There are 12 cast-iron bastion cannons of the 17th century on the rampart, which are considered the hallmark of the city.

The Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Volodymyr Korolenko is located in the former building of the Noble and Peasant Land Bank in Chernihiv.

The building was built by the provincial engineer Dmytro Afanasyev according to the project of the architect Oleksandr Fon-Hohen. A two-story brick house in the Northern Art Nouveau style.

Since 1974, the Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library has been housed in the former premises of the Noble Land Bank. About 30 different clubs operate on the territory of the library, literary evenings, exhibitions, presentations and conferences are constantly held.

On March 30, 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the building was heavily damaged as a result of shelling by Russian troops. The roof was broken, the windows were broken, cracks formed in the walls.

Yuryeva Bozhnytsia in Oster - the eastern part of the Saint Michael's Church, preserved from princely times. It is located on the remains of the settlement of the historic Horodets on Vostri.

The temple was probably founded by Prince Volodymyr Monomakh of Kyiv at the same time as the founding of the city in 1098. It was rebuilt in 1152 under Prince Yuriy Dolhoruky, thanks to which the popular name "Yuryeva Bozhnytsia" took root.

It suffered from Tatar raids, and in 1753 - from a lightning strike, at the beginning of the 19th century, most of the volume was dismantled due to its state of disrepair. Only the altar part - the apse and a fragment of the wall - has been preserved.

At the beginning of the 20th century, restoration and research works were carried out. An ancient fresco "Eucharist" was discovered on the wall, probably made by Kyiv masters in the 11th-12th centuries.

The openwork building of the Chernihiv Collegium with a high bell tower is located on the territory of the Chernihiv Dytynets (Val).

It was once part of the cathedral Saints Borys and Hlib Monastery - the residence of the Chernihiv archbishops.

The construction of the monastery refectory was probably started at the end of the 17th century by Archbishop Lazar Baranovich. In its current form, the building was erected in 1700-1702 by Archbishop Ioann Maksymovych with the support and funding of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, as evidenced by the board of the bell tower with the coat of arms of Mazepa, which is now exhibited in exhibition halls.

Later, the refectory began to be used as one of the premises of the Chernihiv Collegium - the first higher educational institution of the Left Bank of Ukraine, which operated from 1700 to 1786. Latin and other languages were taught here, as well as poetics, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, geography, and so on. The college trained church figures, civil servants, translators, writers, and physicians.

Now the Chernihiv Collegium houses a museum that covers the history of the school. The class of the college has been reconstructed, an exposition of icon painting has been exhibited, and the exhibition "Chernihiv and Chernihiv People 100 Years Ago" is open.

The administration of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" is also located here.