Attractions of Boiarka

The Boiarka Local Lore Museum was opened in 1974 as the Mykola Ostrovsky Literary Memorial Museum in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet writer-propagandist. Its collection includes more than 15,000 objects that constitute the historical and cultural heritage of the region..

The museum is located in a separate building on the territory of the local school, in the building of which Ostrovsky lived in 1921 among the Komsomol brigade of boyar narrow gauge construction workers.

Although in 1992 the museum was repurposed as a museum of local history, the basis of its exposition is still made up of things related to Ostrovsky's work: documents, photographs, personal belongings, first editions of his book "How Steel Was Tempered", etc.

A significant place in the exposition is occupied by the works of artists Poliakova and Hryhoryev. The museum holds more than a thousand original works by these artists.

The wooden church of Saint Archangel Michael in Boiarka was built in 1901 on the ramparts of the Slavic settlement "Transformation", which is also called the Budayivka settlement after the old name of Boiarka - Budayivka.

From 1756 to 1894, the churches of Saint Joan the Myrrh-bearing, Resurrection of Christ, and Archangel Michael were located on this site, which were later destroyed. After the opening of the railway station "Boiarka" and with the growth of the village, the project of the wooden church by the architect Mykola Hordenin was approved.

With the advent of Soviet power, the Saint Michael's Church was closed, but remained intact, and during the Second World War it became active again.

The church houses the icon of the Savior, which is associated with a miracle - in 2005, an imprint of its outline appeared on the glass covering the icon.

Near Saint Michael's Church, there is an ancient church cemetery where the Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Samiylenko is buried.

The building of the Boiarka Secondary School No. 2 was built in 1911 as an orphanage at the expense of patron Flavian Vasylevskyi. It was one of the first brick buildings in the then country village of Boiarka.

The red brick building is made in the Art Nouveau style according to the project of the architect Dorohanevskyi. Thanks to its decoration and high tower, the building looks like a fairy-tale terem, a medieval castle, and a majestic cathedral at the same time.

In November-December 1918, the headquarters of the Ukrainian snipers under the command of Yevhen Konovalets was located in the school (a memorial plaque was installed).

In 1921, when the railway school was located in the building, it was home to a brigade of Komsomol members building the boyar narrow-gauge railway, and among them was the future writer Mykola Ostrovskyi, who later described these events in the novel "How Steel Was Tempered". In this connection, Soviet propaganda positioned Boyarka as a "city of Komsomol glory", a monument to Pavka Korchagin, the hero of the novel, was erected in front of the school building. In 2018, the monument was moved to the neighboring territory of the Boiarka Museum of Local Lore. and in 2024 it was dismantled.

The unique steam locomotive K-15776 Cuckoo ("Zozulya"), which is permanently parked at the "Boiarka" railway station, is considered a symbol of the city.

This is one of the monuments to the boyar narrow-gauge railway, thanks to which Kyiv was saved from freezing in the cold winter of 1921-1922. Such steam locomotives transported firewood harvested in nearby forests.

The "Cuckoo" steam locomotive in Boyarka is considered the only representative of this series that has survived in Ukraine.