Attractions of Kremenets

Stone Kremenets Castle on the site of an ancient Rus settlement was built in the 12th century on the top of Castle Hill (Bona). In the 15th century, by order of the Grand Duke Vitovt of Lithuania, it was strengthened with defensive walls.

The prosperity of Kremenets Castle is connected with the name of the Neapolitan princess Bona Sfortsa, the wife of Polish King Syhizmund I, who gave her Kremenets in 1536. A relative of the Roman emperor, Bona strengthened the castle, which at that time had three towers, high walls and a garrison armed with cannons. The castle yard housed barracks, a powder cellar, a siege well (80 meters) and a palace, which Bona turned into a luxurious residence. Although there is no reliable information about the stay of Queen Bona in Kremenets, since those times there have been legends about her beauty, temperament, experience in intrigues, but also about her extreme cruelty.

In 1648, the Kremenets Castle was stormed and completely destroyed by the Cossack detachment of Maksym Kryvonos. A tower with a gate and defensive walls have been preserved.

Excursions are conducted by employees of the Kremenets-Pochaiv state historical and cultural reserve.

A monument to the Cossacks Maksym Kryvonos, who died in 1648 during the storming of Kremenets Castle, as well as graves with stone Cossack crosses of the 17th and 18th centuries are located on the territory of the current Pyatnytskyi cemetery at the foot of Mount Chercha.

More than a hundred stone tombstones with crosses have been preserved, some of which can be read with inscriptions. The monument in the form of a cross was installed in 1995.

The palace of Countess Karolina Dzembovska was built in the neoclassical style by the architect Yuzef Hofman before 1750.

The building is maintained in a romantic style with elements of Moorish color. A park was created around the villa by the English gardener Dionysius Mikler.

At the end of the 19th century, the estate belonged to Count Pavlo Demydov. Now it is secondary school No. 2.

The Kremenets Orthodox Epiphany Monastery, founded in the 17th century, now occupies the premises of the Catholic monastery of the reformers built in 1760 by Stanislav Potocki.

It was at the Epiphany Monastery in 1633 that the first school, printing house and hospital were created in Kremenets. The monastery received the blessing of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla. In 1638, the brother's printing house published one of the first Church Slavonic textbooks - "Kremenetska Grammar". Later, the school was transformed into a Jesuit collegium, and the Epiphany Monastery received its current premises after the liquidation of the Greek-Catholic Union in 1832.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a three-tier bell tower was erected over the Holy Gate. The fraternal Saint Nicholas church-parochial school operated at the monastery. In 1959, the monastery was closed, in 1990 it was revived as a women's UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The majestic complex of buildings of the Jesuit church, monastery and collegium in the baroque style is the architectural dominant of Kremenets.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was one of the largest centers of education in the Podillya and Volyn lands. Jesuit monks were invited to Kremenets by Prince Yanush Vyshnyvetskyi to create a Catholic collegium on the basis of the sister school of the Epiphany Monastery. In 1731-1743, the famous Italian architect Paolo Fontana built the church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Stanislav Kostka (now the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine) with adjacent educational buildings at the expense of the Vyshnyvetskyi.

In 1805, on the initiative of the historian and educator Tadeush Chatskyi, the collegium was transformed first into the Volyn Gymnasium, and then into the Volyn Lyceum. The famous park builder Dionysius Makler (Mickler) laid a botanical garden next to it, which still exists today. In 1832, after the suppression of the Polish uprising, the higher school was closed, and its library funds and teaching staff became the basis for the creation of Kyiv University. A theological seminary was opened instead of a lyceum.

After the return of the Poles at the beginning of the 20th century, the lyceum was restored, and during Soviet times, a pedagogical school was opened on its base. Currently, it is the Taras Shevchenko Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian and Pedagogical Academy.

The Kremenets Botanical Garden at the Kremenets Lyceum was founded in 1806 by the Irish gardener and park builder Dionysius Mackler (Mickler).

On 4.5 hectares, he planted 460 species of local plants and 760 imported from different places. Already by 1809, the number of trees and shrubs reached 12 thousand. Among them: edible chestnut, Canadian pine, Pontic azalea, araucaria, red-leaved beech, ginkgo, white mulberry, fig, white-flowered ash, tulip tree.

After the dissolution of the lyceum in 1832-1834, the most valuable breeds were transported to Kyiv to the garden of Saint Volodymyr University.

Currently, the Kremenets Botanical Garden is a monument of horticultural art. It occupies 200 hectares.

The first museum in Kremenets called Muzeum Ziemi Krzemienieckiej emerged as part of the Kremenets Lyceum.

Currently Kremenets Museum of Local Lore there are 65,000 exhibits. It is located in the building of the former seminary. Archaeological finds, numismatic collections, ancient weapons, household items, handicrafts, the first editions and personal belongings of the Polish poet Yuliush Slovatsky and other famous Kremenets residents are presented in 10 halls.

Saint Nicholas Cathedral in the baroque style was originally built as a church of the Franciscan monastery, founded in 1606 at the expense of the Vyshnevetsky family (according to legend, Queen Bona was the founder of the monastery).

At the monastery there was a fraternal school and a printing house, where the "Kremenetska Grammar" was printed. In 1832, after the defeat of the Polish uprising and the beginning of the Russification of Western Ukrainian lands, the church was transformed into an Orthodox cathedral. During the reconstruction, the temple lost its Gothic-Renaissance look and acquired Baroque features.

Now the temple is active.

The Church of Saint Stanislav in Kremenets was built in the 19th century at the expense of the parishioners after the Russian authorities took the Franciscan monastery from the Catholics and converted it into the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Nicholas.

Saint Catherine's Church in St. Petersburg was taken as a model for the new Catholic church. In 1908, the church was decorated with Czech stained glass windows.

At the entrance to the church of Saint Stanislav, a highly artistic marble bowl with a bas-relief of the Mother of God, made in 1872 by the famous Volyn sculptor Viktor Brodzky, attracts attention. To the left of the entrance is a monument to Yuliush Slovatsky by the Polish sculptor Vatslav Shymanovsky.

An organ with 8 registers has been preserved.

Twin Houses in Kremenets are unusual in terms of architecture, a residential building in the Baroque style.

It consists of two symmetrical parts, which are covered with separate gable roofs and differ slightly from each other in design details.

According to legend, twin brothers once lived here.

Restoration is planned.

The Yuliush Slovatsky Literary Memorial Museum was opened in Kremenets in the estate of Yanushevsky (the poet's grandfather), where he spent his childhood in 1814-1828.

Slowacki is one of the most famous Polish poets of the Romantic period. He was born and lived in Kremenets for many years, and then repeatedly praised his hometown in his works. Many objects in the city are connected with the name of Slovatsky: his native house, the lyceum to which his father taught, his mother's grave in the Tunytsky cemetery.

The museum exposition is located in eight rooms, each of which reflects a certain stage of the poet's creative path. The museum has 1,500 exhibits. Since 2004, the museum has had an extensive exposition "The Hour of Thought of Yuliush Slovatsky".