Attractions of Donetsk region

The Druzhkivka History and Art Museum was created in 1984 as a branch of the Donetsk Art Museum.

The basis of his collection was the art collection of the Druzhkivka Tretyakivska Gallery, which operated since 1951 at the Fine Arts Studio of the House of Culture of the Machine-Building Plant in Druzhkivka.

Now the Druzhkivka History and Art Museum is located on the second floor of the Lesya Ukrayinka Central City Library. A special place in the exposition is occupied by artistic works of masters of the Druzhkivka porcelain factory.

The historical and local history exhibition presents fragments of Druzhkivka petrified trees, objects of an ethnographic nature, objects of urban life of the XIX-XX centuries.

Separate expositions highlight the events of the Holodomor, the Second World War, the Russian-Ukrainian war, etc.

The natural monument "Druzhkivka petrified trees" is located near the town of Druzhkivka, on the northeastern outskirts of the village of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka.

On an area of 1 hectare, you can find fossilized remains of Araucaria trees 250 million years old. The petrification of these amazing plants lasted thousands of years: for a long time, the salty waters of the ancient Perm Sea washed away organic substances from tree trunks, leaving mineral deposits.

In appearance, petrified trees are similar to freshly cut trees, only much harder. The diameter of the trunks lying on the slopes of the quarry reaches one meter.

The private "Museum of Ethnography of Ukrainian Slobozhanshchyna" was created in the village of Maiaky by local historian Hennadiy Kyrkach.

In this open-air museum (skansen) you can visit three expositions at once: antiques, embroidered shirts and ceramics. In the manor yard of the museum there are various buildings and structures, among which a traditional place is occupied by a traditional Slobozhanshchyna house of the XIX century, which is well preserved, and a chapel in the Ukrainian Baroque style in honor of Archangel Michael.

In addition, visitors can see two signal towers (Maiaky), one of which simulates those from which smoke signals were given, and the other is a reproduction of sound - on such in the old days hung a bell to transmit sound signals.

Other reconstructed buildings and structures - chicken coop, barn, hut, gallery, barn, well, stove.

There is a seating area and a venue for events and festivals. Various master classes of folk crafts are planned.

The Mariupol extreme recreation park is located in the Kalmius district, bordering the park named after Hurov. It is part of the Illicha plant.

In the "Extreme Park" there are 14 attractions, including extreme ones: "Falling Tower", "Wild Train", "Ferris wheel", chain carousel, "Wasp" swing, "Looping", etc. The most popular attraction is "Autodrome".

There is also a children's playground, a cafe, and shopping pavilions.

The park of forged figures and carved sculptures is located in Donetsk in the square behind the City Council building.

The works of the best blacksmiths of Donbas are collected here.

An international festival of blacksmithing is held annually. The best works remain in the park as a gift to the city.

Nearby is the Glade of Fairy Tales with wooden sculptures of fairy-tale heroes.

The Historical Museum of Heorhiy Syedov is dedicated to the outstanding polar explorer, in whose honor the village of Kryva Kosa was renamed to Siedove in 1941.

Heorhiy Syedov was born in 1877 in the family of an Azov sailor from Kryva Kosa. After becoming a hydrographic officer, in 1901 he went on his first hydrographic expedition to the Arctic Ocean. with the study of Nova Zemlya and the Kara Sea. In 1912-1914, he made a desperate attempt to reach the North Pole, equipping the ship "Holy Martyr Foka" for this purpose. On the way to his goal, he died of an illness and was buried at the northern tip of the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

The exhibition of the museum, the halls of which resemble a ship's hold, tells about all stages of the researcher's life path. A map of the polar expedition, copies of invoices for voluntary donations for the purchase of dogs and food, authentic items from the ship "Saint Foka", part of the ship's plating and shoeing, as well as parts of a camera, a razor and brushes that belonged to the artist Mykola Pinehin, a member of the expedition, are presented. A drawing of the schooner "Saint Foka" made by him is presented.

The Museum of the History and Ethnography of the Greeks of the Azov region is located in the center of the village of Sartana (a suburb of Mariupol).

The museum has a very rich exposition about the culture and lifestyle of the Greeks from the time of their resettlement from the Crimea in 1778-1780, about the founding of new settlements by them, the development of local lands, and the development of the diaspora.

The exposition is located in 6 halls, on two floors.

Museum employees also pay a lot of attention to the cuisine of the Greeks of the Azov region, collect recipes and publish collections of them.

During the Russian occupation in 2002, the management of the museum went to collaborate with the enemy.

The Sviatohirsk State Historical and Architectural Reserve unites the complex of buildings of the Sviatohirsk Holy Assumption Lavra of the 17th-19th centuries - one of the three most important Orthodox shrines of Ukraine.

According to one version, it was founded in the chalk caves of Sviatohirya on the high bank of the Siversky Donets by Byzantine monks even before the baptism of Rus.

The first written mention of the "Sviati hory" (Holy Mountains) area dates back to 1526, and the monastery was officially founded in 1624, when Tsar Mykhaylo Fedorovych presented the brothers with the land of Sviatohirya and assigned a state salary. At first, monks settled in caves on chalk spurs. The entire mountain is permeated with a labyrinth of passages and cells, which are open to visitors today. The high mountain is crowned by the Saint Nicholas church of the 17th century with a chalk altar carved directly from the rock. At its foot is the Assumption Cathedral (1859-1861, architect Oleksiy Hornostaev), a hotel (1877), the abbot's house (1900), a refectory with the Intercession Church (1847-1851, architect Andriy Ton), the towers of the monastery walls. In the caves there are the underground churches of Anthony and Theodosius (XVII century), Nativity of John the Baptist (XIX century), cave chapel, two tombs, cells. The Lavra was visited by Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Anton Chekhov, and Illia Repin.

The monastery was closed twice, during the Soviet times a rest house was located here. In 1992, it was transferred to the UOC community of the Moscow Patriarchate, in 2004 the monastery was granted the status of a Lavra.

Sviatohirsky state historical and architectural reserve was created in 1980. The historical museum of the reserve is located in Hostinny Dvir (Guest yard). In five exhibition halls, objects of the material and spiritual culture of the tribes and peoples that inhabited Sviatohirya since the Stone Age, models of the architectural ensemble of the Sviatohirsk monastery in different periods of its history, archaeological finds and documents from the history of the monastery from the 17th century, are presented. memorial expositions. The thematic excursion "Sights and memorials of the Sviatohirsk Lavra" also includes a visit to the Upper Lavra with the Saint Nicholas Church, the All Saints Hermitage, the monument to Artem (Fedir Serheev), created in 1927 by the sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze.

Entrance to the territory of the Lavra is free, but visitors are asked to observe a strict dress code - upon entry, women can receive a headscarf and a skirt.

Russian-Ukrainian war

In 2022, during the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Lavra was hit several times by shelling and bombing by Russian troops. People who were hiding on the territory of the Lavra from shelling were injured. Almost all the buildings of the Lavra were damaged - the cell blocks, the dormitory building, the hermitage of John of Shanghai, the Cathedral of the Holy Martyrs, etc. Saint George's Hermitage was destroyed, the church in honor of the "Joy of All Sorrowful" icon of the Virgin Mary Hermitage was destroyed, the main church of the All Saints' Hermitage was burned down.

A monument to the insurance agent was erected in the center of Donetsk for the 10th anniversary of the ASKA insurance company.

The bronze sculpture of the "Derzhstrakh" agent, who is preparing to enter the office to the insured, depicts the popular movie hero Yuriy Detochkin from the movie "Beware of the car", embodied on the screen by the talented actor Inokentiy Smoktunovsky. According to the initiators of the installation of the monument, this film very well shows the specifics of the work of an insurance agent - daily, exhausting, but interesting and necessary for people.

The author of the monument is the sculptor Ihor Makohon.

A monument to the English industrialist John James Hughes, the founder of Yuzivka (now Donetsk), the creator of the Donetsk metallurgical industry, on which the economic power of Donbas is now based.

The monument was opened in 2001 in the heart of the student campus of the Donetsk National Technical University - a local technical educational institution, opposite the new building.

The author of the monument is the sculptor Oleksandr Skorykh. The sculptor decided to place the human-sized figure of John Hughes on a low pedestal, thereby emphasizing the human features of the founding father of the Donetsk industry. The monument was cast in the central repair and mechanical workshops.

Katerynivski hillocks (Granite Hills) is the popular name of a local natural monument.

Very unusual granite formations are located near the village of Katerynivka on both banks of the Kalchyk River (chronological Kalka). The oldest granites, polished over millions of years, have the appearance of frozen waves.

A very beautiful and majestic sight, which is impressive with its scale.

The reserve "Khomutivsky Steppe" is the largest part of the Ukrainian Steppe Reserve (1028 hectares), a preserved fragment of the Wild Field, as it was before the development of these lands.

The reserve was founded in 1926 to preserve and protect steppe vegetation. Today, the area of the reserve is 1,030.4 hectares, and 90 of them are a completely protected area, which has never been touched by a plow and which has not been grazed by cattle or mowed for 70 years.

The reserve is crossed by the Klymushevska, Brandtova, Chervona streams. On its territory, the plants of the group of plain multi-grass - typchakovo - kovilov steppe have been preserved and are protected. 604 species of flowering plants and ferns grow here - grasses, shrubs and trees. Including 19 - endemic, ie. spread over a very limited area.

59 species of mosses, 46 lichens and more than 270 mushrooms are also registered in the reserve. The feathered world of the Khomutivsky Steppe is represented by more than 80 species of birds.

The municipal cultural institution "Kostiantynivka City Museum of Local Lore" was founded in 1967.

The museum is located on the ground floor of a multi-storey residential building of the 1930s. It consists of seven exhibition and exhibition halls. The exposition is presented by the main sections: nature, ancient history, history of society and the city at its various stages, modernity. In the archeological collection: Polovtsian stone sculptures, tools and weapons of ancient times.

A special place is occupied by the collection of glassware of the XIX-XX centuries, when the glass industry began to develop in Kostiantynivka.

Exhibitions, thematic events and excursions are held.

The Kramatorsk City Council Art Museum is based on the art gallery opened in 1959.

Its funds were formed by enthusiasts led by the artist Ivan Parkhomenko. Artists from Kramatorsk, Donetsk and Kyiv donated their works to the museum. Now the museum's funds include more than 2,000 works of painting, graphics, sculpture, decorative and applied art.

In particular, the works of famous Ukrainian artists Mykola Hlushchenko, Kostyantyn Trokhymenko, Tetyana Yablonska and others are presented. The

Museum of the History of the City of Kramatorsk is located in the same building.

The Mariupol Museum of Local Lore is the oldest museum in the Donetsk region.

It was founded in 1920 in a three-story building in the historical part of the city of Mariupol, built at the beginning of the 20th century according to the project of the city architect Viktor Nilsen.

Before the large-scale Russian invasion of 2022, the museum's holdings included more than 53,000 exhibits. The exposition highlighted the nature and history of the southern part of the Donetsk region. In particular, a diorama of the Bilosaraiska Spit was presented. Documents and household objects illustrated the process of the founding of the city of Mariupol in 1778 as a district city of Pavlovsk, the settlement of the region by Greeks and representatives of other nations. The Section of the History of the Soviet Period demonstrated the transformation of Mariupol into an industrial center on various household items, models, and original exhibits. A collection of Polovtsian stone babas was presented in front of the entrance.

During the siege of Mariupol in the spring of 2022, the building of the Mariupol Local History Museum burned down. The occupiers took the surviving exhibits to Donetsk, their further fate is unknown.