Attractions of Samar

The huge and majestic Holy Trinity Cathedral in Samar is the only nine-bay wooden church in Ukraine.

It was built in 1775-1778 by the order of the last basket chieftain of the Zaporizhzhia Sich, Petro Kalnyshevsky, under the leadership of Colonel Antin Holovaty of Samar, at the expense of the Zaporizhzhia Army.

The complex 9-log structure was assembled from 559 logs without a single nail by Yakym Pohrebnyak, a self-taught craftsman from Nizhny Vodolaha, Kharkiv province, having first made a model. Colonel Antin Holovaty of Samar Palanka supervised the construction. The foundation of the temple took place a few days before the liquidation of Zaporizhzhia Sich.

After the fire of 1855, the Trinity Cathedral was restored in its former form. Collection of funds for the restoration was conducted by the outstanding historian Dmytro Yavornytskyi. At the beginning of the 20th century, oil painting in the domes was added to the original handmade wooden friezes.

In 1930, the temple was closed and was used as a grain warehouse. The services were restored in the period from 1942 to 1963, then the Historical and Local Lore Museum was placed in the premises.

In 1988, the Trinity Cathedral was returned to believers, although until now the architectural monument was used by the Dnipro Art Museum for the exposition of the department of decorative and applied arts. The list of the icon of the Mother of God of Samar, the original of which disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century, is stored here. Restoration has been underway since 2012.

The Samar Museum of History and Local Lore named after Petro Kalnyshevsky was founded in 1963.

Initially, the museum was located in the building of the Trinity Cathedral. In 1983, the exposition was moved to a building in the style of Ukrainian Art Nouveau, built in 1901.

The collection includes 5 Polovtsian idols, ancient weapons and household items, pottery, embroidery.

The Kozachchyna Hall is dedicated to the events of the XV-XVIII centuries, in particular the history of the first Cossack monastery, stories about the priest Kyrylo Tarlovsky, known as the "wild peep", as well as about the last Cossack chieftain of Zaporizhzhia Sich, Petro Kalnyshevsky.

Saint Nicholas Desert Samar Men's Monastery - the main shrine of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks.

The first church with a hospital and a school was built by the Zaporizhzhians on the island between the Samara River and its bend Samarchyk back in 1576. Since 1602, the shrine has been transformed into a monastery with a shelter for retired elderly Cossacks, but the official date of foundation is 1672.

Fortifications were built during the Turkish war. Saint Nicholas Church in Baroque style was built in 1782-1787.

In the 1930s, the Samar monastery was closed, a home for the elderly was placed in it, then a boarding school for the mentally retarded.

In 1993, it was returned to the Orthodox Church. The main shrine is the Okhtyrska icon of the Mother of God, called "Samara".