Attractions of Chernihiv

The Cathedral of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine solemnly greets everyone who enters Chernihiv from the Kyiv side, it is considered a symbol of the city.

It is located on the opposite hill from Dytynets, on the Alley of Heroes. The temple in the Ukrainian Baroque style was built on the site of an ancient temple from the period of Kyivan Rus at the expense of the brothers Semen and Yakiv Lyzohub, according to the will of their father Yukhym Lyzohub in memory of the heroism of their grandfather Yakiv Lyzohub and the Cossacks of the Chernihiv regiment, shown by them during the storming of the Turkish fortress of Azov.

During Soviet times, the Catherine Church was closed. In 1975-1980, the church was restored, and an exhibition of the Museum of Folk and Decorative Art of Chernihiv Region was placed inside.

In 2004-2005, the temple was restored. In 2006, the Catherine Church was handed over to the Cossack Orthodox community. In 2008, the church became the Cossack cathedral of the Chernihiv Diocese. Currently, it is an active church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In 2009, the monument "Fighters for freedom and independence of Ukraine" was opened near the Catherine's Church.

The Chernihiv Literary and Memorial Museum-Reserve of Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky was opened in 1934 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the writer's birthday at the initiative of his family - the younger brother of Mykhaylo Khoma Kotsyubynsky became the first director of the institution.

The memorial part of the exposition is located in the one-story wooden house in which Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky lived from 1898 to 1913. Here he wrote the stories "Fata morgana", "Intermezzo", "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" and others, hosted many famous representatives of the creative intelligentsia, including composer Mykola Lysenko and writer Borys Hrynchenko.

In the house, the environment that existed during the writer's life is recreated, including a desk with writing utensils and other furniture. The writer's memorial library has more than 1,500 books, including the first editions of his works. Photographs, manuscripts, notebooks, and letters are also presented.

The literary part of the exposition is located in a separate three-story building designed by the outstanding Ukrainian monumentalist artist Anatoly Haydamaka. The decoration of the exposition is the wooden composition "Tree of Life" or "Krynytsia Kotsyubynsky", which permeates all three floors of the building. It has the appearance of a four-sided pillar, on each face of which are carved illustrations of Kotsyubynskyi's works.

Part of the manor is the memorial garden of the Kotsyubynsky family, where more than 200 types of plants are grown, including trees that the writer personally planted. The garden beds are decorated with the writer's favorite flowers: roses, mallows, and poppies. There are also exotic subtropical plants - agaves, which the writer admired in Italy. In the summer, tea parties are held on the veranda of the Kotsyubynsky family's house overlooking the garden.

During the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the Chernihiv Literary Memorial Museum-Reserve of Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky was hit by shelling. The memorial building and 36 museum exhibits were damaged, including Kotsyubynsky's chess pieces, a grand piano, and some furniture. Restoration has been carried out.

Chernihiv Regional Art Museum named after Hryhoriy Galagan is located in the building of the former women's gymnasium (XIX century) on Val.

The collection includes about 8,000 works of fine and decorative arts, from the XVI century to the present. It was based on a unique collection of Ukrainian noble family Galagans, represented by works of Western European and domestic art of XVII-XIX centuries, folk paintings, including the famous Cossacks Mamay, portraits of eight generations of this famous Cossack family and their relatives - Rozumovskyi, Lamsdorf, Darahan, Markevych. 

The museum has a collection of works by the outstanding Ukrainian folk artist Mariya Prymachenko. Works of decorative and applied art of Ukraine, a folk toy are also presented.

During the Russian invasion of 2022, when the city of Chernihiv was under fire, the Chernihiv Art Museum named after Hryhoriy Galagan was damaged, in particular, some exhibits were damaged.

The Pyatnytska Church in Chernihiv is a classic monument of ancient Rus architecture.

The church in honor of Saint Paraskeva Pyatnytsa, the patroness of trade, was built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries on the main market square of the city. Until 1786, it was the main building of the Pyatnytsky Monastery. By that time, it had already been rebuilt several times and was a seven-bath temple in the Baroque style.

During the Second World War, the Friday Church was destroyed. In 1962, it was completely restored in the original ancient Rus style according to the project of architects Petro Baranovskyi and Mykola Kholostenko.

From the outside, the building has the appearance of a slender tower, almost square in plan, topped by a slender bathhouse, which, thanks to the original transition from the rectangle of the base to the dome, creates a characteristic feature of dynamic upward striving and pyramidal completion.

The church is active and belongs to the Chernihiv Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It is part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv".

On August 19, 2023, in the course of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as a result of a Russian missile attack on the center of Chernihiv, the Pyatnytska Church suffered significant damage. The explosive wave from the impact of the Iskander missile in the premises of the theater, located nearby, hit the church when the festive service was ending. The blast wave knocked out the windows, pieces of the rocket flew into the church, and damaged icons (including the icon of the patron saint of the church, which was lying on the altar).

The building of the Chernihiv Regimental Office, also known as "Mazepa House" or "Lyzohub Stone House", is located on Val in Chernihiv.

The building on the territory of the Chernihiv Fortress was built by Colonel Yakiv Lyzohub, then it belonged to Hetman Ivan Mazepa, then it served as a regimental office, a city hall, and an archive. The only monument of residential architecture of the 17th century in Chernihiv with well-preserved rich decorative decoration of the facades.

Currently, the building houses the funds of the Chernihiv Historical Museum.

The legend about the ghost of Motrya Kochubey, who was cursed by her mother for having a sinful relationship with Hetman Mazepa, is connected with the "Mazepa House".

Saint Anthony's Caves - the oldest shrine of Chernihiv is a part of the Trinity-Illinsky Monastery on the Boldyny Hills.

The first cave church and monastery was founded by Saint Anthony Pechersky in 1069, when he left the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which he founded.

Through the Church of Sain Illia (XII century) you can get to the cave part (315 m), where there are underground churches of Saint Anthony, Saint Theodosius and Saint Nicholas Svyatosha.

On the hill above the monastery are the Slavic mounds Bezimenny and Hulbyshche, as well as the tomb of Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky with a monument.

Archeological excavations continue in the Saint Anthony's Caves, and excursions are held.

Chernihiv Val is the oldest part of the city, a hill on the high bank of the Desna River, where the prince's palace and a complex of city defense structures (Dytynets) were located.

Remains of princely temples and boyar residences were discovered here. Two churches of the XI-XII centuries, the later building of the Collegium (1700), the Regimental Office (XVIII century), known as the "Lyzohub stone house", other buildings of the XVIII-XIX centuries have been perfectly preserved.

After the liquidation of the Chernihiv fortress in the 19th century, the defensive rampart over the river was turned into a park area, and monuments to Taras Shevchenko and Pushkin were erected. There are 12 cast-iron bastion cannons of the 17th century on the rampart, which are considered the hallmark of the city.

The Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Volodymyr Korolenko is located in the former building of the Noble and Peasant Land Bank in Chernihiv.

The building was built by the provincial engineer Dmytro Afanasyev according to the project of the architect Oleksandr Fon-Hohen. A two-story brick house in the Northern Art Nouveau style.

Since 1974, the Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library has been housed in the former premises of the Noble Land Bank. About 30 different clubs operate on the territory of the library, literary evenings, exhibitions, presentations and conferences are constantly held.

On March 30, 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the building was heavily damaged as a result of shelling by Russian troops. The roof was broken, the windows were broken, cracks formed in the walls.

The openwork building of the Chernihiv Collegium with a high bell tower is located on the territory of the Chernihiv Dytynets (Val).

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.

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.

During the restoration in the middle of the XX century the buildings returned to the old Rus forms. The interior 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".

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 Chernihiv Historical Museum is named after Vasyl Tarnovsky, a landowner, businessman and philanthropist from Kachanivka, who in 1902 organized the first Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities in the city. The exposition is based on his personal collection of Cossack-Hetman's antiquities and relics.

Today the museum is located in the former governor's house on Val (XIX century).

The collection includes more than 130 thousand exhibits belonging to different periods of Chernihiv region's history from ancient times to the present. The decoration of the exposition is a rich collection of archeological finds, old prints, rare documents, objects of the Cossack era.

Of particular interest is the diorama "Mezyn settlenent", which gives an idea of ​​the life of primitive man in the late Paleolithic era on the basis of archaeological finds in the village of Mezyn in Chernihiv region.

The "Black Grave" mound is located in the park near the Builders PC.

According to legends, the legendary founder of Chernihiv, Prince Chorny (Black), was buried at this place.

According to an ancient legend, the prince's daughter threw herself out of the window of the princely tower in order not to become the wife of the Khazar Khagan, who surrounded the city.

In 1872-1873, archaeologist Dmytro Samokvasov excavated the burial mound, discovering a 10th-century burial with a rich treasure of weapons: two helmets, chain mail, two swords, a saber, more than ten spears, arrowheads, an axe, stirrups, and clubs. 2 gold Byzantine coins from the time of Basil I of Macedonia allowed us to date the burial.

A memorial obelisk has been installed on the "Black Grave" mound.

The historical area, known as the Boldyni Hills (Boldyni Hory), is located 1.5 kilometers from the Chernihiv Val.

This is a chain of hills with a height of 20 to 35 meters, which in ancient times were covered with an oak forest (the ancient Rus word "bold" means "oak"). Since pagan times, the Boldyni Hills had an important sacred significance. One of the largest ancient Rus burial mounds is located here, with more than 200 burial mounds dating back to the 9th-10th centuries. The largest of them are Hulbyshche and Bezimenny.

With the advent of Christianity, Anthony's Caves appeared on the slopes of the mountain, and the Trinity-Illinsky Monastery was founded. During Soviet times, a monument to the Unknown Soldier with the Eternal Flame at its foot was erected on Boldina Hill.

Monuments were installed on the graves of Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsyubynskyi and Ukrainian folklorist and ethnographer Opanas Markovych.

In March 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Boldyni Hills were fired upon by Russian troops. As a result of being hit by a Russian projectile, the gazebo, which was installed at the beginning of the 20th century before the arrival of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II in Chernihiv, was destroyed.

The Central Park of Culture and Recreation of Chernihiv is a popular leisure place for the citizens. Located on the banks of the Desna.

The park is home to an open-air Summer Theater, an amusement park, roller coasters, a circus, fountains, and a botanical monument of nature "Group of centuries-old oaks".

Mass cultural events and festivals are held throughout the year.

The Chernihiv Regional Philharmonic Center of Festivals and Concert Programs is located in the former building of the Nicolas Diocesan Brotherhood.

During construction, the Oleksandr Nevsky Chapel, built in 1870, was included in the general ensemble of the building. From 1932 until the beginning of World War II, the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater of Chernihiv was located in the building.

It was burned in August 1941 during German bombing. Restored in the post-war years with a 3rd floor superstructure over the former chapel.

An example of neo-Rus style architecture, common at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since 1964, the Philharmonic Hall has been located in the building.