Attractions of Sumy

The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sumy was built according to the principle of Romanesque basilica churches and Gothic churches.

A small red brick building with a high gable roof faces the street. The end itself is decorated with a central portal and a round rose window above it. The pointed arch on the high pediment is supported by miniature angular pointed turrets. A clear rhythm of arrowed windows and pilasters is visible on the side facades.

In 1945-1953, the building housed a local history museum, in 1953-1972 - the sports hall of the pedagogical institute, in 1972-1994 - the school sports hall. In 1994, the church was returned to the Catholics.

The private antiquities museum "Odyssey Moorage" in Sumy was founded in 2015 by the Sumy photographer, local historian and collector Serhiy Hutsan. His collection began with a selection of old photos and cameras. Over time, personal archaeological finds from different eras, as well as antiquities purchased in antique shops in different countries of the world, were added to them.

In 2022, the official opening of the museum took place in the new premises – the former house of the famous Hryhorievy family from Sumy. The exposition is located in four rooms and in the attic. The first room presents a variety of unsystematic things that characterize the creative search of the collector. The second hall is dedicated to the history of Voskresenska street from Cossack times to the 20th century. In the third room, a typical interior of the beginning of the 20th century is reproduced and an exposition dedicated to the Hryhorievy family is presented. Artifacts transformed by artists into art objects are displayed in the fourth hall. The "Svitlytsya" exhibition space in the attic has a changing exhibition.

Visiting the museum is possible by prior appointment accompanied by the author's tour of the owner (one-hour tour of the exposition or two-hour tour of the exposition and Voskresenska and Soborna streets).

Anton Chekhov's house-museum in Sumy was created in the noble estate of the Lintvarov family (XVIII-XIX centuries), located in the Luka district.

In 1888-1889, the writer lived in the western wing - a one-story white house with six columns and a porch. The writer used his Sumy impressions in the stories "Birthday", "Sad History", plays "Forester" and "Seagull". He wrote about the Lintvarev estate: "The abbey and the Adriatic Sea are wonderful, but Luka and Psel are better."

The Chekhov Museum was opened on the anniversary of the writer's birth in 1960. The memorial exposition tells about Chekhov's life in Lutsk, about his medical care for local residents, about his creative work and trips to Ukraine.

The interiors of the living room and dining room, the guest rooms and the "Antosha's room", which served as Chekhov's bedroom and study, were restored.

Museum staff conducts local history tours.

The large eastern wing of the Lintvarev estate, where the writer's family lived when Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin in 1890, has also been preserved.

Park named after Ivan Asmolov is a monument of garden and park art.

The park with an area of about 3 hectares is located across the street from the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Sumy. In the middle of the 19th century, Ivan Asmolov, a merchant of the 2nd guild, bought a block of land on Troyitska Street to build his residence. A park was laid out around the house, built according to the latest architectural fashion. Asmolov, a passionate traveler and breeder, was brought exotic plants from all over the world, which went well with the local ones.

Currently, about 100 rare species of coniferous and deciduous trees, about 30 varieties of lilac grow in the park. The Sumy regional specialized dispensary for radiation protection of the population is located on the territory of the park. Asmolov's manor house is one of its buildings.

Children's park "Kazka" is located in the central part of the city of Sumy.

On its territory, in addition to children's attractions, there are fairy-tale buildings and figures of fairy-tale characters.

In addition, a mobile zoo and a circus are regularly opened in Kazka Park, as well as city-wide entertainment events.

A romantic palace with a watchtower and pointed windows decorates the former estate of Countess Paraskeva Shterych (Shterychova), born Donets-Zakharzhevska.

The Basy estate is located on the southern outskirts of Sumy (Zarechny district), on the banks of the Psel River. Countess Shterych inherited the estate in Basy from her father Mykhaylo Donets-Zakharzhevsky at the end of the 18th century. For the construction of the palace, she invited the famous Slobojan architect Oleksandr Palytsyn, who developed a project of an unusual in these parts asymmetrical building in the pseudo-Gothic style. The home church of the Ascension was provided for in the palace.

After the death of the countess, the estate passed into the possession of her brother Andriy Donets-Zakharzhevsky, then to his daughter, who sold it to the widow Hamaliy. In the 1890s, the palace was reconstructed in the English Neo-Gothic style according to the project of Karl Sholts. The last owners were Borys Zolotnytskyi and Samuyil Shteyner.

Currently, the sanatorium-prophylaxis of the Sumy State University is located on the territory of the Paraskeva Shterych manor.

The fountain-monument "Sumka" (Bag), installed in 2008 on one of the central pedestrian streets of Sumy, symbolizes the legend of the founding of the city.

According to legend, in the summer of 1655, the first Cossack settlers from the town of Pruda in the Kyiv region, led by Otaman Kondratyev, found three hunting sums with coins at the place where a small river flowed into the Psel. The river was named Sumka, and the city founded here was called Sumy.

Sculptor Oleksiy Shevchenko recreated the legend in stone: a bag with money hangs over a well with water, from which water also flows. A new urban tradition has appeared - to wet the face, bags and wallets with "magical" water from the well.

A small gazebo made of carved wood, built according to the project of the architect Matviy Shchaveliyiv without a single nail, is considered a visiting card of the city.

According to legend, it was built by a burgher, Yosyp Lishchynsky, on the site of a well drilled during an unsuccessful search for oil.

This is the only wooden structure in the city that was not damaged in the slightest during the Second World War.

The Museum of History of Sumy Regiment of the Slobidske Cossacks was created in 2003 at the initiative of the public organization "The Sumy Regiment of the Slobidske Cossacks named after Herasym Kondratyev".

Located in a small office on the 2nd floor of a corner building on Voskresenska. The exposition of the museum reveals the Cossack history of Sumy region of the 17th - early 20th centuries. In particular, a fragment of the wooden palisade of the Sumy fortress, found during the reconstruction of Voskresenska Street, is presented.

You can also see a fragment of forged window bars from the All Saints Church of the Sumy Dormition Monastery, fragments of equipment of the entrance gate of the Sumy Fortress, weapons and equipment of the Sumy Hussar Regiment.

The pride of the museum is a color portrait of the founder of Sumy, Colonel Herasym Kondratyev.

The Holy Resurrection Cathedral is the main Orthodox church of Sumy, the oldest stone building in the city, a wonderful example of Ukrainian Baroque.

The cathedral was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries at the expense of the city's founder Herasym Kondratyev and his son Andriy Kondratyev. According to legend, Kondratyev's sister Mariya, the leader of the band of robbers, was buried in the wall of the temple during its construction.

The architecture of the two-story stone cathedral repeats the traditional forms of Ukrainian wooden temple architecture - it is similar to three-log Cossack churches. Judging by the thickness of the walls (up to 1.5 meters), the characteristic shape of the loophole windows and the location on the line of the former. city fortifications, the Resurrection Cathedral was part of the defense system of Sumy. An underground passage led to the river, which is now filled in.

In Soviet times, the department of decorative and applied arts of the art museum was located here. After 1991, the Resurrection Church was returned to the faithful, and now it is the cathedral of the Sumy Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Sumy is one of the most beautiful churches in the city, similar to St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

It was built in 1901-1914 in the style of classicism with baroque elements according to the project of the architect Karl Sholts at the expense of the industrialist and philanthropist Pavlo Kharytonenko.

The interiors were decorated by the artist Mykhaylo Nesterov (the marble iconostasis has not been preserved). The project of the mosaic floor and the church fence was executed by the famous architect Oleksiy Shchusev. St. Petersburg artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin worked on the Trinity stained glass window.

Until recently, the Trinity Cathedral was used as a house of organ music. In 1996, it was returned to the believers, now it belongs to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Kharytonenko estate in Sumy is located on the bank of the Psel River at the confluence of the Sumka River on the opposite bank from the city center.

The famous sugar factory and philanthropist Ivan Kharytonenko bought this plot in the 1860s. The estate built by him consisted of three buildings: a residential building (a little in the depth of the estate; Kharytonenko's house in Moscow, where the British embassy is now located, was built on the model of this mansion), and two service buildings. In addition, the estate included a fountain in front of the residential building and a park above the Psel. In 1912-1913, the office building of the trading house "Kharytonenko and Son" was built, which housed a polyclinic in Soviet times.

Currently, the Kharytonenka estate belongs to the Ukrainian Academy of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine, which is going to build a Palace of creativity and leisure for students here.

The museum-workshop was founded in Sumy in 2006 by the famous Ukrainian artist Leontiy Kostur. The artist works in a style that he called his own surname - "kosturism". His mainly clay works, kosturs, tell about the everyday life and traditions of Ukraine.

The workshop is located in a house that Leontiy Kostur inherited and converted into a museum-workshop. The museum exhibits more than 300 sculptures ("kosturs") and a significant number of paintings.

Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Sumy is the historical and administrative center of the city.

The city began from this place in the middle of the 17th century, when its founders, Colonel Herasym Kondratyev of the Sumy Slobid Cossack Regiment and Voivode Kyrylo Arsenyev, began to implement their plans for the construction and arrangement of the Sumy Fortress and its post.

In 1694, a wooden Mykolaiv church was built, which has not survived to this day. Already after the death of Colonel Kondratyev in 1702, the construction of the Resurrection Cathedral was completed, which is now the main decoration of the square. Mykolayivska and Voskresenska squares, formed around the churches, later merged into one.

For a long time, the square was called Petrivska because Tsar Peter I visited it on the eve of the Battle of Poltava. After the Second World War, the square was reconstructed, at that time it was named after Lenin. In 1991, it was renamed Maydan Nezalezhnosti.

The buildings are dominated by high-rise buildings of the regional council and the Sumy hotel.

A monument to the entrepreneur Ivan Kharytonenko stands on one of the central squares of Sumy.

A successful sugar factory and philanthropist, one of the richest people of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, Ivan Kharytonenko had a significant impact on the development of the city of Sumy. He and his descendants built hospitals, educational institutions, and other infrastructure facilities in the city.

In 1899, a monument to Ivan Kharytonenko by the sculptor Oleksandr Opekushin was erected on Pokrovska Square. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, but was restored in 1996.