Attractions of Volyn region

The Shatsky National Natural Park is included in the list of UNESCO biosphere reserves, which is part of the transboundary reserve "Western Polissya" as the Shatsky Biosphere Reserve.

It covers a large protected area in the north-west of Ukraine, on the border with Poland and Belarus. There are more than 30 lakes with a total area of about 70 square kilometers. The largest of them are Svityaz, Pulemetske, Lyutsymer, Krymne. Between them are forests and swamps where rare birds nest. Of the 789 species of plants growing on the territory of the park, 32 are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.

Many boarding houses and recreation centers are located along the shores of the lakes, there are many convenient places for car camping. Popular horseback riding and hiking along ecological routes, fishing on lakes, mushroom hunting.

The administration of the Shatsky National Nature Park is located in the village of Svitiaz, and the visitor center operates.

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 memorial museum of Vyacheslav Lypynsky in Zaturtsi was opened in 2011 in the restored manor house of the ancestral estate of the Lypynsky noble family.

The house was built in 1871, and a park was built around it. In 1882, Vyacheslav Lypynsky, an outstanding Ukrainian historian and public figure, was born here. He spent his childhood and youth here.

A unique collection of personal belongings and documents of Vyacheslav Lypynsky and his family was collected thanks to his relatives living abroad.

First editions of the historian's works, various documents (matriculation certificate, track record, diploma of hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky), portraits of family members are presented. Fragments of the interiors of the building have been reproduced: "Serhiy Lypynsky's Cabinet", "Living Room", "Vyacheslav Lypynsky's Cabinet".

Zymne Assumption Monastery at the Holy Mountain is one of the oldest Orthodox monasteries in Ukraine.

According to legend, the Zymne Monastery was founded in 1073 by the Kyiv-Pechersk monk Varlaam at the winter residence of the Volodymyr princes, founded in 1001 by Prince Volodymyr the Great on Holy Mountain near the city of Volodymyr. The cave church of Varlaam Pecherskyi and "Terem Volodymyr" have been preserved.

The complex is dominated by the majestic Trinity Church (1465-1475), as well as the Assumption Church (1495-1550).

The monastery is surrounded by defensive walls with corner towers under tented roofs, built in the XV-XVI centuries by the patrons of the monastery, the Chartoriysky princes. The 720-kilogram Chartoriysky bell is kept on the territory.

The remains of many Volodymyr bishops, for whom Zymne served as a country residence, rest in underground crypts.

The main shrine of the Monastery at the Holy Mountain is the miraculous Zymne icon of the Mother of God, which, according to legend, was presented to the monastery by Prince Volodymyr the Great. A monument to Saint Volodymyr the Baptist was installed in the yard.

The monastery has a pilgrimage complex with a hotel, a bakery and prosphora, a gold sewing workshop, and an icon bench. Nuns conduct tours.

The only wing of the palace built in Liuboml by Count Frantsysk Ksaveriy Branytsky after he received these lands in 1768 as a reward for his service from the Polish king Stanislav Avhust Ponyatovsky remains.

In 1782, he completed the construction of his residence in Liuboml, next to Castle Hill. It was a large palace complex consisting of the main palace building, a pair of two-story outbuildings, and a one-story gallery with a winter garden. A large garden surrounded by a stone fence was laid to the north of the palace.

At the end of the 18th century, after the Kostyushko uprising, Branytsky and his wife Oleksandra moved to Bila Tserkva, where they built the famous Oleksandria Park.

The last owner of the palace in Liuboml was the family of landowners Kappioni.

During the Soviet rule, the building was in the hands of the military and was partially dismantled. A children's and youth sports school is located in the wing.

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 entrance gate and the landscape park were preserved from the estate founded in Liubeshiv by Mykhaylo Servatsiy Vyshnevetskyi in the 18th century.

Later, the manor belonged to the Zamoyskis, the Mnisheks, until in 1754 it became the property of the Bratslav castellan Yan Antoniy Charnetsky. His descendants owned the manor until the Second World War.

The Charnetsky Palace did not survive the period of Soviet rule. Now you can see only the baroque stone gates and the abandoned park on the banks of the Stohid river, in which 80 species of trees and shrubs grow. The park is part of the protected area of the Prypyat-Stokhid National Nature Park.

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 entrance Lutsk Gate is the only building of the once powerful external city fortifications of Olyka that has survived.

It was built in the 30s of the 17th century. The fortifications included earth ramparts, walls and two gates. The two-level tower of the Lutsk Gate is characterized by loopholes in the form of an inverted keyhole.

Restoration is in progress.

The picturesque Nechymne tract with a lake in the middle of a protected forest is described by Lesya Ukrayinka in the poem "Forest Song".

There was a forest estate in which the young Lesya spent the summer months visiting Uncle Lev - the prototype of one of the characters in the famous extravaganza drama. It was from him that the future poetess heard many fairy tales about monkeys, mermaids, foresters and other characters of folk folklore.

Today, there is a small "Forest Song" museum, Uncle Lev's well, and a gallery of wooden sculptures on the territory. The lake itself is almost completely overgrown, cleaning work is not carried out.

The Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ is located in the center of Volodymyr.

It was built as a Jesuit church of the Sending of the Apostles within the boundaries of the surrounding town in 1755 by the Slonim elder Hnat Sadovskyi. The construction of the church in the late Baroque style lasted 15 years. In 1762, the Jesuit church acquired the status of the "Heart of Jesus" monastery. After the abolition of the Jesuit Order, the church was transferred to the Basilian Order, and in 1840 the monastery became Orthodox and was the residence of bishops. In 1921, it again came under the control of the Roman Catholic diocese.

Injured during the Second World War. Currently restored, it is the Orthodox Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Peter and Paul Church on the banks of the Svitiaz was founded in 1531 under the Sangushko princes.

From 1596 to 1796, the church was Greek Catholic.

After the fire of 1834, it was decided to build a new stone temple. Count Vladyslav Branytsky allocated the funds for the construction. In 1846, the Peter and Paul Church was consecrated.

The temple is based on a three-part scheme traditional for Ukraine, transformed under the influence of classicism into a central rotunda composition. The developed monumental dome subordinates all parts of the building, forming a silhouette characteristic of Volyn.

To the south of the church is an arched belfry topped by a triangular pediment.

During the Soviet rule, the Svitiaz church was not closed.

In 2001, the Pochaiv Icon of the Mother of God was installed in the church, the number of pilgrims increased, and in 2002, the Svitiaz Saint Peter and Paul Monastery was founded.

Saint George's Church in Holoby is a monument of the transitional type from baroque to classicism with a traditional wooden bell tower in the forms of folk architecture of Volyn.

The church was built as a Greek-Catholic church in 1783 at the expense of magnate Lyudvik Vilha. In 1885, the tiled roof was replaced with an iron one. The church is brick, plastered, single nave, with a pentagonal apse and two towers on the western facade. The towers are two-story, finished with onion domes. Covered with a wooden ceiling in the 19th century, which replaced the original vaults.

To the southwest of Ssint. George's Church, there is a two-story wooden bell tower. The first tier is chopped, the second is frame, in the form of an open circular arcade. Shingle roof. The composition of the belfry is typical of the Volyn wooden architecture of the XVII-XVIII centuries.

The chapel of Saint Tekla is located on a small mound on the western edge of the city of Berestechko.

The mound was built in memory of the tragedies of 1658, when the Tatars destroyed the city and captured 750 of its inhabitants, including 43 nuns of a Catholic monastery with an abbess named Teklya. According to legend, about half a thousand captured girls (Ukrainian and Polish girls) refused to follow the invaders and were executed, and the Tatars used their bodies to make a way for passage through the swamp.

The chapel, built in 1698 on the grave of tortured girls, was named after the first martyr Saint Tekla.

The park of the Vilha tycoons manor in Holoby is located right along the Kovel - Lutsk highway.

In the 18th century, Chernihiv voivode Lyudvik Vilha built his stately residence with a park, a menagerie and a brick fence here. In the depths of the park there is a complex-shaped palace, built at the beginning of the 20th century on the site of a burned-down manor house. Only the manor gate has survived from the original buildings of the manor.

During the reconstruction of the village, the park area was cut through by a street, and the entrance gate lost its direct purpose. The gate is brick, plastered, rectangular in plan, with an archway on the first floor (laid). They are covered with a hipped roof.

Not far from the estate, on the other side of the street, there are two park sculptures of the 18th century, which are a clear example of Volyn's monumental sculpture.