Attractions of Cherkasy region

At the foot of Tarasova (Chernecha) Mountain in Kanev, in 2007, an avenue of 19 sculptures appeared, dedicated to the characters of Taras Shevchenko's works.

Sculptors from different parts of Ukraine worked for more than a month on their creation from blocks of sandstone and limestone. Initially, the monuments were planned to be built from the Dormition Cathedral to Chernechaya Hill - along the route of Kobzar's last journey. However, the sculptures were collected together, where at the foot of Tarasova Mountain they form a kind of sculpture park called "Shevchenko Alley".

Taras Hill (Tarasova Hora) in Kaniv is a national shrine of the Ukrainian people, a place of worship to the memory of the outstanding poet-prophet Taras Shevchenko. The poet's grave and the surrounding natural landscapes are protected by the Shevchenko National Reserve, founded in 1925.

The reserve is located on Chernecha Hill above the Dnipro, on the southeastern outskirts of Kaniv. According to legend, the mountain got its original name back in the 11th-12th centuries, when the Kaniv cave monastery existed on it. Later, the Cossack Intercession Monastery was founded here.

In the middle of the 19th century, after visiting these places, Taras Shevchenko wanted to buy a plot of land here to build a manor, but his plans were not destined to come true. After his death in St. Petersburg, Shevchenko was first buried at the Smolensk cemetery, however, at the request of the public, on May 10, 1861, the coffin with the poet's ashes was brought to Kaniv.

According to the will, he was buried on a high Dnipro cliff, which has since been called Taras Hill. A mound was placed on the grave and a monumental cast-iron cross monument was installed. In 1939, the largest monument to Shevchenko in Ukraine was erected on the grave. There are 342 steps leading to the monument from the foot of the mountain with the Lily fountain.

The first folk museum of the poet "Tarasova svitlytsia" was opened at the end of the 19th century in the former house of the overseer of the Shevchenko grave, Ivan Yadlovsky. After the construction of the new museum complex, "Tarasova Svitlytsa" was restored in its original form at another place, near Yadlovsky's grave.

In 1939, the literary and memorial museum of Taras Shevchenko was opened near Shevchenko's grave, built according to the project of the outstanding architect Vasyl Krychevskyi, who is considered the founder of Ukrainian architectural modernism. After a long restoration in 2003-2010, the museum has a modernized interactive exposition, which presents memorial items and etchings of Shevchenko, rare editions of his works, works of art on Shevchenko themes, etc.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko, the historic Cossack Church of Intercession of Holy Virgin has been recreated in the Monastirok tract on the slope of Taras Hill. The pavilion of the "Tarasova Hora" passenger pier, where ships from Kyiv sometimes arrive, was also renovated for the anniversary. There is a cafe on the pier, and there is a souvenir shop nearby. The main parking lot of the reserve for tourist buses is located at the foot of the stairs to Taras Hill. You can go directly to the mountain by car, where there is also a small parking lot.

The Shevchenko National Reserve also includes the Kaniv Historical Museum, the Kaniv Museum of Folk Decorative Art, and the Literary Kaniv Region Museum, which are located in the center of the city.

The Ships Models Museum in Uman was opened in 2020 on the renovated embankment of the Ostashivskyi pond. During the opening, the museum received a certificate of record of Ukraine for the largest number of models of historical ships in one location.

Mykola Chystyk, a Uman master-enthusiast and deputy of the city council, makes the models himself. He has been interested in ship modeling since he was 18 years old.

Currently, 12 models of ships from different times are presented in the open-air exhibition. Among them are the Cossack seagull, "Titanic", "Black Pearl", Noah's Ark, "Flying Dutchman", Viking fighter and other models.

It is planned that in the future the collection of ships at Ostashivsk Pond will expand to 20 exhibits.

The complex of shopping premises (shopping rows) was built in 1780 according to the project of the architect Tepinger at the expense of the Potocki family.

The building was square in plan, made of brick, had a spacious courtyard with four entrances. Inside the courtyard there were more than 40 storerooms for the storage of goods by visiting merchants. The east and west wings of the shopping rows had two floors each and towers at each corner of the building. There were underground passages from the basements under the building. The main trade was conducted in the courtyard, in the center of which stone benches were built. This layout of houses for trade refers to the period of construction of courtyards-fortresses of the late 17th and early 18th centuries and is very rare.

In 1838, Fessinger completely rebuilt the building, adapting it to accommodate the city hall, county court, audience seats, treasury, as well as a prison. Later, the four corner towers and the second floors above the northern and southern passages were dismantled.

The building of shopping rows is still used for its intended purpose - it is part of the Uman city market.

The hyperboloid water tower in Cherkasy is one of the few works of the outstanding engineer Volodymyr Shukhov that have survived in Ukraine.

The openwork steel Shukhov tower is located on the territory of the communal enterprise "Cherkasyvodokanal". It was built in 1913-1914 to provide drinking water to the city of Cherkasy, which the day before experienced a cholera epidemic.

The engineering structure of the hyperboloid type in the early modern style is one of the highest in Cherkasy. Initially, the construction of the Shukhov Tower was riveted, but after the reconstruction in 1949, some of the fasteners were replaced with welded ones. Restoration is planned.

The Smila Museum of Local Lore is located in the building of the branch of the St. Petersburg Loan Bank, built in 1909 in the style of provincial art nouveau.

The main funds of the museum include more than 3,500 storage units. The exposition presents cartographic materials of the 19th and 20th centuries; exhibits that tell about the family of the former owners of the city, Counts Bobrynsky; archaeological finds made in the Dnipro region.

Among the unique exhibits are a casket made by Italian jewelers of the 18th century, a padlock from the middle of the 19th century, etc.

Until 1923, the main building of the Cherkasy Polytechnic was a State Wine Storage, that is, a liquor and vodka factory.

Such Storage were massively created in the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries as part of the "Wine Monopoly", introduced at the initiative of the Minister of Finance Serhiy Vitte in 1896.

The main building of the complex in the eclectic style was built in 1905 (according to other sources - in 1887). Initially, the facade was unequal in height: it had two- and three-story parts. The decor is made of facing brick. The ceramic floor covering with the stamp "Herenheym Society, Kharkiv", forged metal tanks in the basements, fragments of sewage and ventilation systems have been preserved.

Currently, it is one of the buildings of the Cherkasy Polytechnic College.

The construction of a hydroelectric power station on the rapids of the Ros River in Steblev was launched in 1931 in accordance with the GOELRO plan, which provided for the creation of a whole network of small hydroelectric power stations throughout the country.

As a result of the construction of the dam and the rise of the water level in the river, the landscape changed significantly - two thirds of the picturesque rocks and rapids were under water.

The dam was damaged during World War II. In 1952, it was restored and brought to a capacity of 2.8 thousand kW. It is currently rented from a private company.

The waterfall formed by the station is called one of the most powerful lowland waterfalls in the country.

The Subotiv History Museum is located on the grounds of the ancestral estate of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in Subotiv.

The estate was founded in 1616 by the hetman's father Mykhaylo Khmelnytskyi (Khmil). After the death of his father, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi inherited the estate and built his fortified residence here with a defensive rampart, a fortress tower, and the Illinska Church, which also played the role of a fortification element of the fortress.

In 1648, during the absence of the owner, the Subotiv manor was seized by Danylo Chaplinskyi, the sub-mayor of Chyhyryn, who constipated Khmelnytskyi's young son to death and took possession of his bride Motrona (Helena) by force, which became the impetus for the uprising of the Cossacks under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

Ruling the Cossack state from Chyhyryn, Khmelnytsky often lived in Subotov. A few years after the death of the hetman, the estate was destroyed by the Poles, the fortress was destroyed. The foundation of the fortress tower, above which the pavilion was erected, has been preserved. The wooden watchtower and the entrance gate of the manor have been reconstructed.

The museum complex also includes two estates of the late 19th and early 20th centuries "Ukrainian House", one of which reproduces the interior of a potter's workshop. A Cossack cannon is installed on the castle grounds.

The manor of the Yakhnenko-Symyrenko family on the Platon farm in Mliiv was founded in the middle of the 19th century by the entrepreneur Platon Symyrenko, the son of the rich merchant Fedir Symyrenko, who was originally from Horodyshche.

Platon Symyrenko built a large sugar factory in Mliiv, on land leased from Count Mykhaylo Vorontsov, but later the enterprise was liquidated, its premises were used by the military.

At the end of the 19th century, the land of Platon hamlet was leased from Countess Balashova by the pomologist (fructologist) Levko Symyrenko to create the largest nursery in pre-revolutionary Russia, where the most valuable varieties of fruit and decorative plant species were collected. Here, the scientist discovered the famous Renet Symyrenko apple variety.

His son, Volodymyr Symyrenko, became the first director of the Mliiv horticultural research station during the Soviet regime. Currently, it is the Institute of Pomology named after Levko Symyrenko. A monument to the gardener was installed in front of the main building of the institute (1926).

A small one-story house built by Platon Symyrenko in 1855 has been preserved among the old manor buildings - it houses the memorial museum of the Symyrenko family.

From January 1, 1992, the Symyrenko Family Manor-Museum became a department of the Cherkasy Regional Museum of Local Lore.

The estate of businessman and philanthropist Vasyl Symyrenko (uncle of gardener Levko Symyrenko) was built in Sydorivka at the end of the 19th century.

It was a neoclassical palace with wings and a ballroom worth about 10 million rubles. In Sydorivka, Symyrenko opened a sugar factory, where he installed machines of his own development and began producing pastille, which was extremely popular in the Russian Empire.

The entrepreneur gave a tenth of his profits to support Ukrainian culture. In his old age, he bequeathed all his fortune to cultural purposes, but the events of the First World War and the Bolshevik coup of 1917 prevented the implementation of his plans.

During Soviet times, the Vasyl Symyrenko Palace housed a school and a hospital. Now the building is in ruins. It is located in the middle of a heavily neglected park.

The national reserve "Batkivshchyna of Taras Shevchenko" unites three villages where the childhood years of the future writer passed: Shevchenkove, Moryntsi, Budyshche.

The reserve was created in 1992 on the basis of the literary and memorial museum of Taras Shevchenko in Shevchenkove. It was here that the manor of Taras' parents was located, in which he spent his childhood years, and which he repeatedly described in his works.

In 1914, the estate was bought by Kyiv cultural figures, and in 1939 a museum was opened here. The parents' house was restored according to Shevchenko's drawings, and the mother's grave was preserved in the garden.

The exposition in the main building of the museum reproduces Kobzar's life path. His personal belongings, first editions of books, documents, portraits and photographs are presented.

The Moryntsi museum complex is a reconstructed country manor in the village of Moryntsi, where the future Kobzar was born in 1814.

His parents, Hryhoriy Shevchenko and Kateryna Boyko, lived for several years in the empty hut of the exiled peasant Kopiy, next to the house of Yakym Boyko, the grandfather of the newborn Taras. Both houses were restored according to the drawings and detailed description of Shevchenko expert Oleksandr Konyskyi in 1989, with careful observance of technology and all the features of folk architecture characteristic of this area. An original wooden external storeroom was moved from the neighboring Kerelivka (Shevchenkove) to the manor.

The modest life of the Shevchenko family is recreated in the interiors of residential buildings. Behind the houses there is a wonderful view of a ravine planted with an orchard. A monument to Kateryna Boyko with little Taras in her arms was installed. A chapel was built.

Taras Shevchenko Museum was opened in 2014 on the territory of the Nahanovsky inn in the village of Moshny, where Shevchenko lived for a few days after his release from arrest in 1859, during his third (and last) trip to Ukraine.

A residential building has been preserved from the inn, where the main exhibition of the museum was located. In 2013, before the opening of the museum, the building underwent major repairs, the roof was covered, and the concrete foundation was poured. But all the walls, thresholds, ceilings and the stove with a couch remained original. The layout of the house has also been preserved. In the rooms, original furniture of the 19th century, household utensils, embroidered towels, icons are displayed.

All buildings in the yard of the former inn are reproduced according to descriptions and drawings.

The Literary Memorial Museum of Taras Shevchenko in Kaniv was opened in 1939. Before that, on Taras Hill, there was a folk museum of the poet "Tarasova Svitlytsia", opened at the end of the 19th century in the former house of the overseer of the Shevchenko grave, Ivan Yadlovskyi.

The new museum was built during 1935-1937 according to the project of the outstanding architect Vasyl Krychevsky, who is considered the founder of Ukrainian architectural modernism. According to the initial plan, the laconic, outwardly classicist building was to be decorated with Ukrainian ornaments in the majolica technique. This idea was never implemented, but the interior decoration was impressive with a folk color: a bright stained glass window in the depth of the lobby, caissons with colored rosettes on the ceiling, ornamental paintings on the walls.

After the reconstruction of 2003-2010, the building acquired a modern minimalist look with elements of constructivism.

Today, the museum collection includes more than 20,000 objects. The main exposition presents individual memorial items of Taras Shevchenko (carved casket, spindle, psalter), originals of some of his drawings and etchings, rare editions of the poet's works, works of art on Shevchenko themes, etc.

In a separate hall, Kobzar's posthumous plaster mask is displayed surrounded by texts from the "Testament" in various languages of the world. The interactive map "The last journey of Taras Shevchenko through Ukraine" shows the route by which the coffin with Kobzar's ashes was taken from St. Petersburg to Kaniv.

The exhibition is equipped with multimedia information kiosks, and various audiovisual programs are available to visitors.