Attractions of Volyn region

Tobruk is a small surface or underground concrete pillbox (DOT) for circular fire.

The name comes from the Libyan city of Tobruk, where in 1941-1942 there were fierce battles between the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition and the Axis countries. Tobruk was built by the Wehrmacht mainly on the Atlantic Wall and the Siegfried Line.

In Ukraine, similar structures have been preserved mainly in Volyn. One of the Tobruks is located on the outskirts of the village of Zatyshshia on the Shatsky Lakes.

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".

Two museums operate at the Hushcha Lyceum in the Rivne region: historical and ethnographic. Both were created on the initiative of local teachers and were awarded the title of "Exemplary Museum".

The historical exposition was founded in 1983 as the Museum of Border Glory, which was dedicated to the creation and combat path of the 98th Lyuboml Border Detachment during World War II. Later, the museum was supplemented with sections on the activities of the UPA in the region, heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, materials on the history of the village of Hushcha and its prominent residents.

The basis of the exposition of the local history museum is a collection of antiquities, which was collected by the famous local historian Petro Hots. In particular, a large selection of embroidered towels from different regions of Ukraine is presented. The museum contains many original things that were once used by housewives in their everyday lives.

The museum complex of the Hushcha Lyceum functions as an interactive educational space. Schoolchildren are actively involved in the development of its expositions and act as tour guides.

Torchyn People's History Museum bears the name of its founder - historian and local historian Hryhoriy Hurtovy.

This is the oldest museum in Volyn, which began to operate on a public basis - since 1957. The museum's holdings include more than 10,000 showpieces related to the history of Torchyn and the Volyn lands.

The local historian personally collected most of them in the surrounding villages. Among them are flint tools, a coin treasure of the beginning of the 16th century, Cossack weapons (in particular, an original mortar gun), fragments of ammunition of the soldiers of the two world wars, and a large ethnographic collection. A wardrobe and a mirror from the residence of the famous Polish writer Józef Ignacy Krashewski in nearby Horodok deserve special attention.

In 2009, the Torchyn Historical Museum named after Hryhoriy Hurtovyi took first place at the All-Ukrainian Museum Competition in the "History of the Native Territory" category.

The Holocaust Victims Memorial in Kysylyn was opened in 2015 as part of the program of memorializing the places of mass burials of Jews during the Second World War "Protect the Memory".

The memorial was created on the northwestern outskirts of the village, where in 1942, during the occupation, the Nazis executed more than 500 Jews from the local ghetto. Only one managed to survive.

After the war, the mass grave was forgotten, its territory was used for agriculture. After determining the location of the mass burial by means of non-invasive methods of soil research, a memorial site was set up here.

The Orthodox Holy Ascension Church in Horokhiv was built in 1844, when the city was part of the Russian Empire.

During the times of Soviet atheism, the temple remained in operation.

Currently, the Ascension Church belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

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 of the Holy Intercession Cathedral is the icon of the Volyn Mother of God, a masterpiece of Ukrainian painting of the 13th-14th centuries.

Currently, the Intercession Cathedral is in the use of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The wooden church of the Holy Prophet Ilya in Kamin-Kashyrskyi is an architectural monument of national significance.

The temple is three-timbered, single-headed. The belfry, adjacent to the western facade, gives the composition a landmark of the character of Moscow architecture of the 19th century.

The wooden Holy Transfiguration Church in Stara Vyzhivka was built in 1869.

Nearby is a rare for Volyn three-tiered belfry with a pyramidal roof.

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was built in the 18th century as a church of the Bernardine monastery in the new part of the city, which is now the administrative center of Lutsk.

The project of Holy Trinity Cathedral was developed by architect Pavlo Hizhytskyi. Initially, the church had rococo architectural features, but after the Bernardine Order was abolished and the church was handed over to the Orthodox Church, the building was completely rebuilt in the late Baroque style.

The interior decoration of the 19th century with a two-tiered carved and gilded iconostasis made by Ukrainian masters has been preserved in the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Lutsk Holy Trinity Cathedral is the main church of the diocese, the cathedral of the diocesan bishop of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The majestic Holy Trinity Cathedral in Berestechko was founded in 1910 in memory of the Cossacks who died in the Battle of Berestechko in 1651.

The three-level Trinity Church was supposed to be a copy of the Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv. Before the beginning of the First World War, they did not have time to complete the construction. The Polish authorities allowed the completion of only the underground part and the first tier, because after the completion of the upper tier, the Orthodox cathedral would overshadow the neighboring Catholic church.

Only in the 1930s, a temporary roof was built over the unfinished cathedral. In this form, it existed until 1995 (it was closed from 1960 to 1990). Currently, the construction of the Trinity Cathedral has been completed, although the original project has not been found.

The cathedral looks especially impressive from the opposite bank of the river.

The Horokhiv Historical Museum was founded in 1967 as a museum of revolutionary, military and labor glory.

The organizer and first director was local historian Andriy Maksymenko.

The exposition unfolds in a two-story building and has the following main sections: "Formation of Ukrainian statehood", "Horokhiv region in the Second World War", ethnographic.

A number of exhibitions have been opened in the museum, among them: "Rehabilitated by history", a photo exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of Ukraine's Independence "My Native Horokhiv".

Horokhiv Park is a landmark of garden and park art. Founded at the beginning of the 19th century by the owner of the city, Tarnavskyi.

In the park, Tarnavskyi built a palace in the Empire style, in which a rich collection of works of art was collected, in particular. rare antique sculptures.

Currently, more than 80 species of different trees and shrubs grow in the 12-hectare park.

The Ivanychi People's Historical Museum was founded in 1975 by local historian Vasyl Usyk. From 2021, the exhibition is housed in the spacious halls of the Center for Culture, Leisure and Sports of the Ivanychi Settlement Council.

In the museum, you can familiarize yourself with the history of the Ivanychi region from ancient times to the present day. The oldest finds date back to the Paleolithic era: a mammoth tusk, stone tools, etc. Materials from the period of Kyivan Rus: steel knife and shovel, stone graters, brick plinth. Many exhibits highlight the events of the 18th and 19th centuries: old maps, documents, and household items.

Other expositions tell about the period of the First World War, the state revival of Ukraine in 1917-1920, the Polish occupation, the Second World War, the activities of the UPA, the Soviet occupation, the Maidan and the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war. 

The materials that tell about the first founders of the settlement – the Ivanytsky family, as well as the life and activities of the Kyiv voivode, Polish senator Adam Kysil, deserve special attention.

The Museum of Local Lore in the city of Kamin-Kashirskyi was founded in 1980 by the local historian Vasyl Kmetsynsky, and later received the status of a national museum.

The museum exposition is located in the building of the former pedagogical school, built in the 1930s. The museum's funds include more than 4,000 exhibits.

The Kamin-Kashyrskyi Museum of Local Lore is proud of its ethnographic collection, which contains exceptional examples of embroidery of the beginning of the 20th century, objects of daily life and use of Volyn residents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fragments of a carved altar from the first half of the 17th century are a unique sacred monument.

A separate exhibition is dedicated to the Kosach family, who often visited the village of Zaprudya, located between Kamin-Kashyrskyi and Kovel, where the aunt of the writer Lesya Ukrayinka lived. In particular, the exposition presents an icon of Saint Nicholas of the 19th century from the Holy Dormition Church in Zaprudya - a memorial icon of the Kosach family.