Attractions of Chernihiv region

Trostianets Arboretum is one of the most beautiful landscape parks of Ukraine. It was created in the 19th century by a representative of the ancient Hetman family, Ivan Skoropadskyi (grandson of Hetman Ivan Skoropadskyi, grandfather of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi).

The Trostianets Park project was developed by gardener Karl Schlinhlof. Artificial mountains (up to 30 meters high) reminiscent of the Alps were piled on a flat piece of land. The pits formed during the removal of soil for the mountains have been turned into ponds. At first, trees of local species were planted: pine, spruce, birch, oak. Then exotic species were planted in the artificially created landscape: Weymouth pine, Siberian spruce, Siberian cedar, black pine, hemlock, juniper and others. In total - 623 species.

Work continued until Skoropadsky's death in 1887. He is buried in the grounds of the park, the words are carved on the monument: "Any passer-by! The garden in which you walk was planted by me; it served me as a comfort in my life. If you see a disorder that leads to its destruction, then say about this to the master of the garden: you will do a good deed."

Currently, the Trostianets Arboretum is subordinate to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and tours are held.

Two outbuildings have been preserved from the complex of manor buildings, which are currently being restored to create a museum and a hotel.

The Museum of Ukrainian-Czech-Slovak Friendship in Svitanok was opened in 1973, in Soviet times it was called the Museum of Soviet-Czechoslovak Friendship.

This place was chosen for the museum in connection with the events of 1943, when an echelon with Czechoslovak soldiers moving to the Soviet-German front was hit by a German airstrike near the Yakhnivka station. As a result, 54 soldiers died - stele and marble slabs with the names of the dead were installed on their mass grave.

The exposition of the museum is placed in 4 halls. The first hall tells about the history of the region from the times of Kyivan Rus. In the center of the exposition about the Second World War is a diorama that shows the events at the Yakhnivka station. There are documents about the participation of the Czechoslovak hero Ludvik Svoboda, who took part in the territory of Chernihiv region, first in the Soviet-Ukrainian war against the Bolshevik Red Army, then in battles against the Germans during the Second World War. The "Friendship" hall tells about friendly relations with the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Every year on Victory Day over Nazism in the Second World War and on October 14, military attachés of the Czech Republic come here to honor the memory of the fallen.

"Uzruyivski Springs" - a hydrological monument of nature since 1964. Numerous non-freezing springs flow from the bottom of the lake in the middle of the swamp massif along the Smyach River.

According to the legend, previously the springs that beat the fountain were connected by an underground river with a large dyke on the Desna, which once threatened shipping in the area of the village of Lenkiv.

In 2004, a recreation area of the Novhorod-Siverskyi forest farm with gazebos and a banquet house with a fireplace was equipped here. The presidents of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus rested here in nature during the meeting in Novhorod-Siverskyi in 2004.

The Varva Historical and Local Lore Museum was founded in 1990.

Today, the museum has more than 1,000 exhibits. The exposition in seven halls tells about the history of the village from the first chronicle mention of Varva in 1079 to the present.

Materials about the outstanding Ukrainian Slavik philologist, historian, folklorist Osyp Bodyansky, who was born in Varva and was well acquainted with Taras Shevchenko, are exhibited.

The exposition "Not to be Forgotten", dedicated to the Holodomor of 1932-1933, continues to be replenished with eyewitness accounts.

The museum regularly holds exhibitions of works by folk craftsmen of the Varva region.

The manor of Chernihiv colonel Vasyl Dunin-Borkovsky, general of the Hetmanshyna, was located on the outskirts of Chernihiv, in the village of Bobrovytsia (now a microdistrict of the city).

On the basements of the one-story colonel's house, built in the 1680s and 1690s, there is now a two-story house built later in the classicism style.

The facility is located on the territory of a military unit, access is limited.

The house in the pseudo-Gothic style was built at the end of the 19th century on the then northeastern outskirts of Chernihiv as a craft class of an orphanage.

In 1900-1901, it was rebuilt and expanded to accommodate the historical exposition of the famous patron Vasyl Tarnovsky, Jr., who bequeathed his unique collection of paintings and manuscripts to the city. In 1902, the Chernihiv Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities was opened in the renovated building. More than 700 items were dedicated to Taras Shevchenko.

Until 1979, the Tarnovsky House, as the building was nicknamed, housed the exposition of the Chernihiv Historical Museum, and since 1980, the regional library for youth has been located here.

On March 11, 2022, as a result of the bombing by Russia, the building suffered significant damage. The Russian military aircraft dropped three high-explosive 500-kilogram bombs on the yard of the Tarnovsky House and the nearby stadium. The bomb that fell in the yard destroyed the wall of the Tarnovskyi House, the roof and the interior floors.

The Yeletsky Dormition Monastery in Chernihiv was founded in the 11th century by Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavovych of Chernihiv (1027-1076) as a country princely residence.

Restored in 1445-1495 after the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Caves from the Ancient Rus period have been preserved. After the reconstruction of the 17th century, the architectural ensemble took on the features of the Ukrainian Baroque: Dormition Cathedral (XII century), 36-meter-high belfry above the gate, Peter and Paul Church with a refectory, cells, Lyzohub tomb, wooden house of Archimandrite Theodosius Uhhlytskyi (1688).

In the strict interior of the cathedral, fragments of ancient frescoes have been preserved.

The Yeletsky Dormition Monastery is part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv".

The Yuriy Lysyansky Memorial House-Museum is a department of the Ivan Spassky Nizhyn Museum of Local Lore.

The first Ukrainian traveler around the world, Yuriy Lysyansky, was a navigator, geographer, oceanographer, cartographer and ethnographer, a descendant of the Nizhyn noble Cossack-priestly family. He took part in the first circumnavigation in the history of the Russian Empire, which took place under the command of Ivan Kruzenstern. An island in Hawaii, a peninsula in Alaska, a strait, a river and a mountain in Sakhalyn are named after him.

The Lysyansky Museum is located in the house of the priest of the Church of Saint John the Theologian, in whose family the future sailor was born in 1773. The first exhibition hall with a temporary exhibition "Traveler of the Cossack family" opened in 2021. Here are some household items of the Lysyansky family - utensils, a clay Cossack pipe, etc.

Also in the exhibition you can see items related to the life of naval officers and training in the cadet corps, weapons of the time, a model of the sloop "Neva", on which Lysyansky traveled around the world.

The original one-story building of the Zemska school was built in Varva in 1915 (according to other sources, in 1913) according to the project of the architect Opanas Slastion, who at the beginning of the 20th century designed a number of schools for the Lokhvytsya zemstvo, which then included the modern Varva region.

All of them were made using reinterpreted forms of Ukrainian folk architecture. The artist and ethnographer Opanas Slastion used the architectural details of a number of classic examples of Ukrainian architecture: trapezoidal window openings, box arches, multi-slope tent coverings with ledges in the form of pyramids, central turrets.

The Varva school has an uncharacteristic portico with a triangular pediment on four columns - the result of later reconstruction and expansion.

The building is still used for its intended purpose - Varva Lyceum No. 1 is located here. It is an architectural monument of local importance.

Zemska school in Lemeshi was built in honor of Nataliya Rozumovska (Rozumykha), the mother of the Hetman of the Left Bank of Ukraine.

It was at this place that the parents' house of the famous Rozumovsky brothers - Oleksiy and Kyrylo - was located. Their descendant Kamil Rozumovsky provided the funds for the construction.

The building is one-story, with a 2-column porch. For the first time in Ukraine, reinforced concrete technologies (columns and profiles of window frames) were used during construction. The author of the project was Ivan Yakubovych.

The Zemska school building in Lemesh is a vivid example of Ukrainian folk style architecture of the beginning of the 20th century.

Since the beginning of the 2010s, the building has been closed and abandoned.