Attractions of Kolomyia

Kolomyia Academic Regional Ukrainian Drama Theater named after Ivan Ozarkevych bears the name of the founder of the first Ukrainian drama theater in Galicia.

The fashion for theaters came here with the transition of the region under Austrian rule. In 1848, the chairman of the Kolomyia council Vereshchynskyi, burgomaster Drymalin and local priest Ozarkevych initiated the creation of a Ukrainian amateur theater. It lasted three years.

After a short break, the theater was revived in 1865 as a traveling professional troupe "Ruskyi People's Theater". Since 1939, the theater has acquired state status.

The Catholic Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola in Kolomyia was built on the initiative of the Polish Catholic community of the city, which invited the Jesuit Fathers of the "Society of Jesus" order. In addition to missionary activity, the Jesuits were engaged in education and charity.

The construction of the temple according to the project of the Chernivtsi architect Yosyp Lyaytsner was supervised by the engineer Dioniziy Kzhychkovskyi. The church was called "man's" because most of the parishioners were wealthy people.

In Soviet times, the church premises were used as a shop. In 1990, the church of Saint Ignatius Loyola was returned to the Roman Catholic community of the city.

The majestic church of Saint Yosafat (the former church of the Virgin Mary) rises in the center of Kolomyia, next to the market square.

The parish Roman Catholic church in the baroque style was built according to the project of the famous Italian architect Bernard Meretin in 1775 (according to other sources - in 1762). Rebuilt in 1895 after a fire.

During Soviet times, the church was closed and turned into a Children's World store. In 1991, it resumed its activities as the Greek Catholic Church of the Holy Martyr Yosafat Kuntsevych.

The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the oldest wooden churches in the Carpathians, a fine example of the Hutsul school of folk wooden architecture.

Initially, the temple was part of the monastery complex, which was destroyed by the Tatars. Paintings made in 1648 have been preserved. It is located near the cemetery.

In Soviet times, the exposition of the Museum of Easter Eggs was housed here. In 1990, the Church of the Annunciation was transferred to the church community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 2018, the temple was returned to the Greek Catholics.

The Kolomyia City History Museum occupies the premises of the former county council, where the interiors of the XIX-XX centuries have been restored. During the Western Ukraine, the district military commandant Teodor Primak worked here.

The history of the city's development is presented in 18 exposition halls in documents, memorials and household items. Permanent exhibitions: "German colonies of Kolomyia", "Kolomyia and the Habsburgs", "Formation of Kolomyia at the end of the XIX - first half of the XX century", "Economy and trade of the city in the XIX-XX centuries", "From the history of the Jewish community of the city", " From the history of the Ukrainian ethnic lands of modern Poland until 1944. "

The exposition department of the Kolomyia City History Museum is the Museum of National Liberation Struggle, which opened in 2012 in the basement of the museum building. The exposition consists mainly of old photos of resistance members, which came from private collections. You can also see the clothes of rebels and political prisoners, fragments of weapons.

The world's only museum of Easter egg painting "Pysanka" presents in Kolomyia a unique collection of traditional Ukrainian miniature painting on Easter eggs.

Is a branch of the National Museum of Hutsulshchyna & Pokuttya Folk Art in Kolomyia.

The museum building is made in the form of a huge Easter egg 13 m high (2000). The collection includes 10,000 works representing the traditions of Easter painting in all regions of the country. Works by masters from Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Western Europe and America are also presented. Traditionally, the first persons of the state who visit the museum leave their autographs on Easter eggs.

There are master classes on Easter painting.

A wide selection of original handmade Easter eggs, including an ostrich egg, is presented in the souvenir shop of the Easter egg painting museum "Pysanka".

The building of the Kolomyia City Hall is located in the corner of the market square, facing away from other buildings. The 33-meter-high clock tower of the city hall dominates the low-rise buildings of the central part of the city.

The three-story building of the city magistrate of Kolomyia was built in 1877 on the site of the burned down wooden town hall. Made in the neo-renaissance style. The tower bears the coat of arms of the city and chimes with three dials. In 1880, Ivan Franko spent several hours under arrest in the premises of the city hall, who was detained by the gendarmerie post for violating the passport regime.

As in the old days, the premises are now occupied by the city government - the Kolomyia City Council is located here.

Kolomyia Lyceum named after Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi is located in the former building of the Ursuline sisters' monastery, built in 1907.

In 1892, deputies of the Galician Diet decided to open a Ukrainian gymnasium in Kolomyia. Initially, only the Ukrainian class was created at the Polish gymnasium (the Ukrainian writer Vasyl Stefanyk studied there). The public demanded the separation of Ukrainian classes from Polish classes, and this happened in 1900. At the same time, the gymnasium got its own premises (the northern wing of the Polish gymnasium was completed).

In 1939, the Ukrainian gymnasium was closed, and a secondary school was opened in its premises. In 1990, the regional executive committee decided to revive the Kolomyia humanitarian gymnasium. It was placed in a complex of buildings of the monastery of the Ursuline Sisters, where there was a private female gymnasium before the Second World War.

Today it is the Mykhaylo Hrushevsky Lyceum in Kolomyia.

National Museum of Hutsulshchyna & Pokuttya Folk Art named after Yosaphat Kobrynskyi is located in the premises of the former People's House, built in 1902 at the expense of the Ukrainian community of the Kolomyia.

The Viennese Neo-Renaissance building was designed by local architects who studied in Krakow.

The creation of the People's House with a theater and museum in 1880 was initiated by the local priest Yosaphat Kobrynsky, who played an important role in the formation of Ukrainian national identity in Pokuttya.

The museum was opened in 1926 by the efforts of his nephew Volodymyr Kobrynskyi, having survived the difficult Polish period, the German occupation, Soviet repression and post-perestroika devastation.

Now the collection includes 50,000 exhibits representing all kinds of traditional folk art of Hutsuls and inhabitants of Pokuttya: wood carving, blacksmithing, pottery, weaving, embroidery, etc. Widely presented samples of traditional clothing of mountaineers, Hutsul jewelry made of non-ferrous and precious metals, weapons opryshki and others.

There is a permanent exhibition of tapestries by Mykhaylo Bilas.

Branches of the National Museum of Hutsulshchyna & Pokuttia Folk Art are the Museum of Easter Painting Museum "Pysanka" in Kolomyia, the Kosiv Museum of Folk Art and Life of Hutsul Region, the Carpathian Region Ethnography and Ecology Museum in Yaremche.

Nicholas Assumption Cathedral in Kolomyia was built according to the project of Kolomyia architect Viktor Mytsay at the end of the 20th century.

The author of the murals is the Ternopil artist Ivan Holoshyn.

On January 13, 2019, the Nicholas Assumption Cathedral changed its subordination from the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

"People's House" in Kolomyia was built in 1892.

Initially, it housed a savings bank. Ukrainian artists often performed in its conference hall: Solomiya Krushelnytska, Mariya Zankovetska, Mykola Lysenko, Vasyl Stefanyk, Nataliya Kobrynska, concerts and cultural evenings of the local intelligentsia were often held.

Nowadays, the "People's House" is the city's cultural and artistic center. It celebrates state and professional holidays, holds thematic evenings, lectures, conferences, concerts, performances of folk groups, exhibitions, and festivals.

The Museum of Sacred Art named after Bishop Mykola Simkaylo opened in Kolomyia on March 22, 2014.

The museum is located in the lower church of the Transfiguration Cathedral. It was created with the blessing of Bishop Vasil Ivasyuk through the efforts of the church's fathers and with the professional help of the staff of the National Museum of Folk Art of Hutsul region and Pokuttya.

The museum exhibits works of sacred art that belonged to the bishop of the Kolomyia-Chernivtsi eparchy of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Mykola Simkaylo (1952-2013). The bishop collected a unique collection of church art all his life.

The collection consists of icons, wooden sculptures, handmade crosses and liturgical books. Many of them are drawn by world-famous artists, and they are written by folk masters of Bukovyna, Galicia, Pokuttia, as well as Volhynia. The temporal dimension of the exhibited works of the 17th - 20th centuries.

The Greek-Catholic Cathedral of Saint Archangel Michael was built in Kolomyia in 1855 on the site of an ancient Dominican monastery and a holy spring.

A bell tower was built in 1871. Since that time, the appearance of the "Ruska Church" (Rus, Ruthenian, that is, Ukrainian) has practically not changed.

The authors of the original iconostasis and images were the famous Ukrainian artist Kornylo Ustiyanovych and the Hungarian artist Miklosh. Interior paintings were done by local artist Valerian Krytsinsky.

Several ecclesiastical brotherhoods were active at the temple of Archangel Michael.

During the Soviet rule, Saint Michael's Church was handed over to the Orthodox community of Kolomyia, but in 1990 it was returned to the Greek Catholics. The restoration was completed in 1996.

Across the road from the back side of the cathedral, a life-giving spring flows, which has preserved the ancient name "Klyashtor" (monastery). Its water is considered healing. Every year on Epiphany, the spring is consecrated.

Souvenir market "Kolomyia" is located on the bypass road of the city.

Brightly decorated shopping area, covered wooden shopping pavilions.

Here you can buy unique products of folk craftsmen from leather, fur, ceramics, wood and metal.

The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Christ in Kolomyia is the largest Greek-Catholic church in Western Ukraine.

Construction was started in 1998 under the direction of architect Viktor Mytsay. The consecration took place in 2012.

The temple is two-story, 50 meters high. 2,000 believers can be accommodated on the first floor, 3,000 on the second floor. Energy-saving technologies are used for heating the temple, in particular, a capillary floor heating system. The cathedral is built of brick, the domes of the cathedral are made of copper, the funds for which were donated by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Ukraine.

Today, the Transfiguration Cathedral is the main Greek Catholic church in Kolomyia. A 60-meter bell tower is planned to be built next to the cathedral.