Attractions of Chernihiv region

Mena Zoo is the only one in Ukraine located in a small town.

Founded in 1977 by local nature lover Hennadiy Polosmak. The former police sergeant organized a zoo corner in his house, which later grew into a private zoo, and then into a national zoo.

Today, the Mena Zoo occupies an area of almost 9 hectares. 560 animals of more than 120 species live here. Visitors are most interested in primates (monkeys Vasyl and Nina), tiger, lion, brown bears, bison, Nimogau antelopes, camel, crocodiles, pythons.

The openwork building of the Chernihiv Collegium with a high bell tower is located on the territory of the Dytynets (Chernihiv Rampart). It was once part of the cathedral Saints Borys and Hlib Monastery - the residence of the Chernihiv archbishops.

The construction of the monastery refectory was probably started at the end of the 17th century by Archbishop Lazar Baranovich. In its current form, the building was erected in 1700-1702 by Archbishop Ioann Maksymovych with the support and funding of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, as evidenced by the board of the bell tower with the coat of arms of Mazepa, which is now exhibited in exhibition halls.

Later, the refectory began to be used as one of the premises of the Chernihiv Collegium - the first higher educational institution of the Left Bank of Ukraine, which operated from 1700 to 1786. Latin and other languages were taught here, as well as poetics, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, geography, and so on. The college trained church figures, civil servants, translators, writers, and physicians.

Now the Chernihiv Collegium houses a museum that covers the history of the school. The class of the college has been reconstructed, an exposition of icon painting has been exhibited, and the exhibition "Chernihiv and Chernihiv People 100 Years Ago" is open.

The administration of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" is also located here.

The Kozelets Museum of the History of Weaving of the Chernihiv Region was opened in 1988 in the premises of the Resurrection Church, in 2017 the museum finally got its own premises.

In the exposition, in addition to carpets, embroidered fabrics and towels, you can see photos of old Kozelets and a family tree of the Rozumovskys.

A centuries-old monastery oak in the village of Rykhly, a botanical landmark of nature of local importance, is called "King Oak". Its age is estimated at 800 years.

According to legend, during the Northern War with Sweden (1700-1721), the scouts of Peter I watched the maneuvers of the troops of the Swedish king Charles XII from the top of this huge tree, which towers over the entire forest massif.

The trunk of the monastery oak reaches 1.8 meters in diameter and 24 meters in height. In 2010, at the "National Tree of Ukraine" competition, the Rykhly "King Oak" took 3rd place in the "Aesthetically valuable trees" nomination.

Another long-lived oak tree with a huge hollow in its trunk grows nearby.

The Pryluky Museum of Local Lore named after Vasyl Maslov occupies a restored two-story mansion built in the 19th century for the mayor Mykola Kyslovsky in the very center of the city.

Its history begins with the Museum of Natural History, opened at the end of the 19th century. It reached its peak in the 1930s under the leadership of the famous scientist Vasyl Maslov (a monument has been installed at the entrance to the museum). The collection of masterpieces of world art and Cossack relics of the famous public figure and philanthropist Hryhoriy Galagan became the basis of his collection.

Since then, the museum has formed interesting art collections, a large collection of decorative and applied art, and opened a department of Pryluky history. The most interesting exhibits: the saddle of Hetman Danylo Apostol, a model of the Pryluky fortress, a fragment of the fortress palisade.

Employees of the local lore museum conduct tours of the city and its surroundings.

Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral was built in Chernihiv in the 12th century on the foundation of an older stone building of the 11th century, and was rebuilt several times. Located in the center of the former Dytynets.

Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral is a typical example of the Chernihiv architectural school of the 12th century. It is cross-domed, six-columned, crowned with one dome (height 25 meters). During the restoration in the middle of the 20th century, the building returned to its Old Rus forms.

The interior of Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral has preserved ancient frescoes, an inlaid floor, and other decorative details.

During the restoration in the middle of the XX century the buildings returned to the old Rus forms. The interior of Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral has preserved ancient frescoes, inlaid floor.

A museum of architecture has been opened in the church, which is part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv".

In 2012, a monument to the venerable Prince of Chernihiv and Kyiv, Ihor Olhovych, was erected next to the cathedral.

The administration of the reserve is located in the adjacent building of the Collegium (1672), which in the XVII century was part of the Saints Borys and Hlib Monastery - the residence of the Chernihiv metropolitans.

The Regional Landscape Park "Mizhrichynsky" is located in the Chernihiv region in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Desna rivers. It is the largest RLP in Ukraine - its area is over 102 thousand hectares.

The park protects various landscapes of Ukrainian Polissia: taiga forests, protected upland and lowland swamps, glacial sand dunes, the floodplain of the Desna River, etc. There are oaks that are about 500 years old. There are dozens of Red Book species of flora and fauna. Glacial relics deserve special attention - low birch, blueberry willow, various types of orchids. In the swamps you can find an interesting insectivorous plant - sundew.

The numerous inhabitants of the park are moose, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, hare, beaver, muskrat, raccoon dog. The pride and decoration of the park is the lynx, which has been living and breeding on the territory for a long time.

Ecological trails "Zhuravlyna", "Polissia", "Bondarivske Swamp", "Sokolynyi Meadow" and others have been laid through the park. They pass through pine-birch forests, wetlands, the Desna floodplain and introduce the local flora and fauna.

In the village of Otrokhy, which can be considered the informal capital of Mizhrichchia, there is the Mizhrichynska Pushcha Nature Center with the Polissya Forestry Museum, created by the famous ecologist Andriy Sahaidak. The center organizes excursions to the territory of the Mizhrichyn regional landscape park and provides other tourist services.

Historical and cultural center-museum "Maclay's Sails" (Vitryla Maklaya) was opened in Baturyn in 2014 for the 168th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding scientist-traveler Mykola Mykluho-Maklay.

This is the third museum created by the descendants of the scientist Oleksandr and Nadiya Mykluho-Maklay.

Mykola Mykluho-Maklay himself was not directly related to Baturyn, but he was a descendant of the Zaporozhzhian Cossacks, and his patron was Count Oleksiy Tolstoy, the great-grandson of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky, who spent his best years in Baturyn.

In the second half of the 19th century, Mykluho-Maklay studied the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania, wrote many works on zoology, zoogeography and physical geography.

The museum presents a gallery of portraits of Maklay and members of his family, a family coat of arms, materials from ethnographic expeditions, models of ships, statuettes of island natives, maps, and more.

In one of the rooms of the museum, there is a corner where you can try on 19th century costumes and take a picture near the ship's helm.

The Maklay Sails Museum in Baturyn is part of the hotel and restaurant complex of the same name.

The All Saints Cathedral is the main church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Nizhyn, the spiritual center of the city's Greek community. Located in the territory of the "Greek Quarter" next to the Greek Church of Saint Michael.

The All Saints Church was built in 1782 by the Nizhyn Greek brotherhood on the site of an earlier wooden Greek church. It was originally made in the archaic Balkan style. At the end of the 19th century, it was partially rebuilt, the facades were supplemented with classical porticos, which gave the church features of classicism.

The Church of All Saints stands on a basement, the vault of which rests on a central pillar. In the interior, you can see a carved linden iconostasis, made by modern Nizhyn masters based on sketches by the artist Oleksandr Koshel.

The oldest religious building in Liubech is an underground temple, excavated in the 11th century by monk Antoniy Pecherskyi.

The founder and first abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery was born in Liubech in 983. According to legend, from here he went to Palestine, received tonsure on Mount Athos, and, returning a few years later to Rus, began to found cave monasteries - in Bukovyna, Kyiv and Chernihiv region.

He went to Chernihiv after a conflict with the Kiev prince, and spent the last years of his life in his homeland - in Lyubech, where he founded his last cave monastery. Antoniy's Monastery existed until 1786, when it was closed by order of Empress Catherine II.

The Far Cave, located in the forest on the southern outskirts of the village, has been preserved in its original form.

Recently, the cave was discovered in the center of the village, next to the Pavlо Polubotko Kamyanytsya (excavations are underway).

A large settlement of ancient people of the Late Paleolithic era was discovered near the village of Mezyn by Fedir Vovk, a Ukrainian scientist and associate professor of the St. Petersburg University in 1908.

Archaeologists have excavated dwellings made of mammoth bones covered with bison hides. The Mezyn settlement lot gained worldwide fame thanks to unique finds, among which were rare examples of ancient art: figures of bird women made of mammoth tusk and decorated with carved ornaments, as well as iconic bracelets. Later, the oldest musical instruments and the lunar calendar were found.

Part of the archaeological materials is stored in the Mezyn Archaeological Museum, created in 1965 on the initiative of the local historian Vasyl Kurylenko.

The museum is located on the site of an archaeological excavation in a wooden house of the 18th century.

The Art Department of the Nizhyn Museum of Local Lore named after Ivan Spasky was opened in 1991, and since 2021 it has been located in the former estate of the Makarov landowners of the 19th century.

A memorial plaque on the facade testifies that it was to this house in 1827 that Mykola Hohol read his first works. Taras Shevchenko, Yevhen Hrebinka, Marko Vovchok, and Mariya Zankovetska were also connected with the Makarov family. That is why the exposition of the museum demonstrates the transformation of the noble estate, its way of life in the period from the end of the XVIII to the beginning of the XX century.

There are plans to build a literary room, an exhibition of outstanding historical figures of Nizhyn.

The museum's art collection includes works by the outstanding Ukrainian artist Serhiy Shyshko, as well as Oleksandr Yakymchenko, Mykola Stratilat, Vadym Dobrolizh and others. Now the museum has an exhibition hall, which hosts exhibitions of contemporary Nizhyn artists.

The art space "Fabrychna, 12" was founded in Chernihiv in 2024 by Yevhen Filatov and the frontman of the ONUKA band Nata Zhyzhchenko in order to popularize and preserve, rethink and modernize the unique cultural heritage of the region.

The modern ethnographic music space was founded in the old family house of Nata Zhyzhchenko, built in 1904, which was carefully restored by her and Yevhen. The house preserved a unique workshop-laboratory, where the singer's grandfather, a famous master of folk instruments, musician and researcher of Ukrainian culture from Chernihiv, Honored People's Master of Ukraine and Moldova Oleksandr Shlonchyk, not only crafted, but also researched the history and technologies of creating musical instruments of different peoples.

The workshop-laboratory "Fabrychna, 12" combines educational, artistic and ethnographic components. Nata Zhyzhchenko plans to organize both virtual and offline events here, meetings with stars, artists, and lecturers on various topics. Other areas of the project include master classes in woodworking and pottery, as well as the preservation and restoration of folk instruments.

The Museum of the Artist Mykola Ge was opened in 19179 in the village of Ivanhorod near Ichnia thanks to the efforts of the history teacher Oleksandr Tsyhanok and the great-niece of the artist Olha Kuznietsova.

For a number of reasons, the museum in the village of Ivangorod later ceased its activities. In order to preserve the collected exhibits, it was decided to move the museum to Ichnya. In 2011, to the 180th anniversary of the birth of Mykola Ge, the museum opened as a department of the Ichnia Local Lore Museum, which is dedicated to the life and work of the outstanding painter of the second half of the 19th century, one of the founders of the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions.

The museum's exposition reflects the artist's life and creative path, presents memorial items from that period, a number of rare exhibits, including the death mask of Mykola Ge, unique photos, photocopies of his most famous paintings, as well as works by contemporary artists and sculptors that highlight the life of Mykola Ge.

The Borzna Memorial Art Museum "Manor of the People's Artist of Ukraine Oleksandr Sayenko" was opened in 1996 in the house of the Sayenko family in the town of Borzna, Chernihiv Region.

The exposition highlights the life and work of the famous Ukrainian decorator, whose name is included in the UNESCO list of outstanding figures of world culture.

Oleksandr Sayenko was born in Borzna in 1899. Due to an illness, he lost his hearing and speech as a child, but thanks to the patronage of the Sayenko neighbor, the writer Hanna Barvinok (wife of Panteleymon Kulish), he entered the St. Petersburg Imperial School for the Deaf and Dumb. He became most famous for his works in the field of monumental and monumental-decorative art in the straw inlay technique.

The exposition of the museum presents such famous works as "Kozak Mamay", "Semen Paliy" and others. Also on display are carpets, tapestries, scraps of Sayenko's work, a collection of Ichnya tiles collected by him, and family memorabilia.