Attractions of Lutsk

In the 17th century, the Church of the Ascension of the Cross was part of the complex of buildings of the Lutsk Brotherhood of the Ascension of the Cross, which included a monastery, a hospital and a school.

The Lutsk brotherhood was founded by a group of Volyn noblemen, among whom was the celebrated Ukrainian patroness Halshka Hulevychivna, the founder of the Kyiv brotherhood. The Church of the Ascension of the Cross, built on a donation by a patron, has a pronounced defensive character. In its current form, the temple was rebuilt after the fire of 1888.

Crypts were preserved under the altar of the church, in which brothers, famous noblemen, public, cultural and state figures were buried. Danylo Bratkovskyi, Halshka Hulevychivna, and Lavrentiy Drevinskyi are buried here.

The dungeons are open for visitors. A museum of the history of the Lutsk brotherhood has been opened in the premises of the monastery.

The Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lutsk is one of the most valuable architectural monuments of the city, which is one of the most important Catholic shrines in Volyn.

It was built in the 17th century at the same time as the Jesuit monastery, designed by architects Dzhakomo Briano and Benedetto Molli. The nearby bell tower has been preserved since the 16th century, when the Catholic bishopric was founded in Lutsk and the first Latin cathedral appeared, which has not survived to this day.

The interior is lavishly decorated with moldings, sculptures, pilasters, as well as paintings by many artists: Mykola Klymkovych, Pavlo Vyshynskyi, Tadeush Konych (Kuntse), Yan Prekhtl, Vilyani, Frantsysk Smuhlevych, Voytsekh Herson and others.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the largest religious school in Volyn operated at the monastery. Currently, the building of the Jesuit monastery houses a technical school of food technology.

Peter and Paul Church is the cathedral of the Lutsk Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine.

There are three-level dungeons under the building (entrance to the right of the cathedral, tours are available).

The Korsaks Museum of Ukrainian Modern Art (KMUMA) was opened in 2018 by Volyn businessman and philanthropist Viktor Korsak.

The 3,000-square-meter museum exposition is located on three floors of the Adrenaline City Cultural and Entertainment Center on the northeastern outskirts of Lutsk.

It is the largest museum of contemporary national art in Ukraine, which presents paintings, graphics, sculptures, video art, installations and other works by more than 100 leading Ukrainian artists from the early twentieth century to the present. In total, more than 800 art objects are presented in several exhibition halls.

The pearl of the collection is the early work of the founder of cubism in sculpture, the world-famous Ukrainian sculptor Oleksandr Arkhypenko "Naked" (1907), which became the prototype of many future works of the artist. The museum is also proud of the works of the luminaries of Lviv modernism: Olena Kulchytska, Roman Selsky, Leopold Levytsky and Yaroslava Muzyka.

Nonconformism of the Soviet times is represented by three schools: north-western - Lviv, Transcarpathia; central and eastern - Kyiv, Kharkiv; southern - Odesa. In particular, the works of Mykola Malyshko, Petro Honchar and others are exhibited. Postmodernism is represented by the works of Vlodko Kaufman, Yuriy Izdryk, Petro Bevza, Petro Antyp and others.

The structural subdivision of KMUMA is the Mykola Kumanovsky Art Memorial Museum, where the artist's memorial items are presented: etching machine, brushes, spatula, old easel, on which is his last unfinished canvas.

The museum also has a variable exposition, which presents the work of the best domestic and foreign artists. Nearby is the street gallery "Polychrome A", which is a platform for the development of modern urban art.

A 19th-century building in the center of Lutsk, next to Lubart's Castle, where the Kosach literary family lived in 1890-1891.

This was the last period of her stay in the city of Lesya Ukrayinka, who was already seriously ill at that time. The office apartment of Petro Kosach (Lesya's father) was located on the second floor.

In 2007, the Lesyna Living Room Museum was opened here. You can get to the museum by prior arrangement with the administration.

Here is the office of the Historical and Cultural Reserve "Old Town".

Lutsk Castle of Prince Lubart is one of the most powerful fortresses in Volyn, a business card of Lutsk.

The upper castle existed on top of the hill since the time of the Ryurykovychi.

In its present form, a typical European medieval feudal castle was built in 1340-1385 by the Lithuanian-Rus prince Lubart. It became the residence of the Volyn princes, and for some time - the capital of the Galicia-Volyn state. Fortified in 1430-1542 during the reign of Prince Svydryhaylo.

The Lutsk Castle complex includes the Entrance, Styrova and Vladycha Towers, surrounded by walls. Inside are the noble and episcopal houses. The foundations and dungeons of the Cathedral of Saint John the Theologian of the 12th century, in which Prince Lubart and many other Volyn rulers were buried, have been preserved.

Several museums have been opened on the territory of Lutsk Castle: paintings, bells, building ceramics, printing, weapons. The castle is constantly being restored, archeological excavations are being carried out on the territory.

The Lutheran church was built on the site of a burned Carmelite church in 1905-1907 as a Protestant church for German colonists who moved to Lutsk at the end of the 19th century.

The church was built in the neo-Gothic style by the architect Khrystyan Boytelspakher at the expense of the German community.

After the Second World War, the damaged church was rebuilt for the needs of the city archive.

In 1991, the restoration began, and since 1994, the Baptist church "House of the Gospel" has held services here. A Sunday school was opened there.

The Lutsk Brotherhood History Museum is one of the youngest museums in Lutsk. It opened in 2011 in the former premises of the Orthodox monastery of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross of the Lord next to the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross.

The museum is devoted to the history of the Khrestovozdvizhensky Orthodox brotherhood of laymen and clergy, which operated in Lutsk in the 17th-18th and 19th-20th centuries. Among its founders and patrons was, in particular, the founder of the Kyiv Fraternal School Halshka Hulevychivna, and among the prominent brothers - Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. The purpose of the activity of the brotherhood was the revival of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which fell into disrepair after the Union of Brest in 1596.

The exposition of the museum consists of 12 thematic sections, which present monastery furniture, original items of church use, old prints of the 17th-19th centuries from the library of the Lutsk brotherhood, documents on the financial activities of the brothers, metric books of the Ascension of Cross fraternal Church.

The Museum of the History of the Lutsk Brotherhood is a department of the Volyn Local History Museum. The church has been restored and is used by the Volyn Regional Brotherhood of Andriy the First-Called, which is the successor of the Lutsk Brotherhood of the Holy Cross. Temple crypts are available for inspection.

The Volyn Icon Museum in Lutsk represents the regional school of Volyn icon painting.

The creation of the collection is associated with the name of art critic Pavlo Zholtovsky, who led the scientific expeditions of the Volyn Museum of Local Lore in the 1980s to study and collect historical and cultural material in the temples of Volyn.

The exhibition presents more than 1.5 thousand works of sacred art, including about 600 icons of the Volyn art school of the XVI-XVIII centuries, works of metal, decorative carvings and sculptures.

One of the most valuable exhibits is the Byzantine icon of the Kholm Mother of God (XI-XII centuries). According to legend, it was written in Jerusalem by the apostle-evangelist Luke. It was the ancestral shrine of Prince Danylo Halytsky.

The defense tower of Chortoriysky and a fragment of the fortress wall are the remains of the fortifications of the Okolny Castle, which in the Middle Ages strengthened the Upper Castle from the south and west.

It was surrounded by a stone wall with four towers on the eastern, southern and western sides. The entrance to the territory was carried out with the help of a bridge thrown over a moat that was filled with water (it ran along the current Mykhayla Drahomanova Street).

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the fortifications were gradually dismantled, and the ditches were filled in. Only one tower has survived, named after the Chortoriysky princes who owned Lutsk in the XV-XVI centuries. Currently, the tower is adjacent to the building of the Jesuit monastery by a wall, it can be viewed only from the inner courtyards on the side of Drahomanova Street.

Also, the system of fortifications of the Okolny Castle included a defensive synagogue (33 Danyla Halytskoho Street), nicknamed the "Small Castle". Built in 1622-1629. A square five-level tower with loopholes adjoins it from the southwest. Currently, the building is occupied by the children's sports school "Young Dinamo".

In July 2023, a museum space was opened on the territory of the Okolny Castle, which includes the tower of the Chortoriysky princes, the dungeons of the Jesuit collegium, and a fragment of the defensive wall.

The Lutsk "House with chimeras" is the most colorful residential building in the city. Belongs to the family of the modern sculptor Mykola Holovan.

Built on the banks of the Styr River according to the project of the architect Rostislav Metelnytskyi, the workshop building is decorated with many stone sculptures in different styles, which creates an impression of complete eclecticism. Here you can find figures of fairy-tale heroes and mythical creatures along with sculptures of saints.

During his lifetime, the owner of the building personally conducted tours with an inspection of the interiors decorated with sculptures with antique motifs. Mykola Holovan died in early 2022, after which his wife Tamara announced plans to open a museum in the house. Since July 2022, the sculptor's widow has opened not only the courtyard, but also the inner rooms of the house to tourists.

The center of traditional culture "Honey House" (Medova Khata) was opened in Lutsk on the initiative of the Volyn brotherhood of beekeepers "Swarm condition" (Royovyy stan).

The center tells about the ancient culture of beekeeping, production and use of honey and honey cosmetics. Two halls for 50 seats.

There are tours with tastings.

Beekeeping products are offered: honey of different grades, honey drinks (mead, drinking honey), cosmetics, apitherapy products.

The residential building next to Lesya Ukrainka pedestrian street, where the Russian Tsar Peter I stayed during his visit to Lutsk in 1709.

A rare example of a stone residential building that repeats the layout of folk housing - "houses for two halves".

The monastery of the Brigids in Lutsk was located in the palace that occupied the southern part of the territory of the Okolny castle and was one of the links of the defense system of the city in the XV-XVI centuries.

In the 1940s, the building was used as a prison.

Today, the Castle Holy Archangels Monastery of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is located here. The opening of the museum of totalitarianism "Lutsk Calvary" is planned.

The defensive Great Synagogue, nicknamed the "Small Castle", was part of the system of fortifications of the Okolny Castle of ancient Lutsk.

The synagogue was built in 1622-1629. From the southwest, a five-tiered square tower with loopholes adjoins it.

Currently, the building is occupied by the children's sports school "Young Dinamovets".

Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the oldest active Orthodox church in Lutsk, which, moreover, has never stopped its activities.

The temple was probably founded in the 13th century by the grandsons of Prince Volodymyr the Great of Kyiv. Restored on ancient Rus foundations in the 15th-16th centuries, during the reign of Grand Duke Vitovt of Lithuania. After 1625, the church was dismantled and a new stone Intercession Church was built in its place, which was then reconstructed several times until the end of the 19th century.

In recent years, the wall paintings and the iconostasis have been restored. The main relic is the icon of the Mother of God of Volyn, a masterpiece of Ukrainian painting of the XIII-XIV centuries.

Used by the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.