Attractions of Khmelnytskyi region

The palace and park complex in Maliivtsy was built in 1788 by Count Yan Orlovsky, who bought the estate from Yuriy Svirsky. Now the Orlovsky palace is a historical and cultural museum.

The palace in the style of early classicism was built according to the project of the architect Domenico Merlini. A huge library, paintings by Polish artists, a rare numismatic collection, and an archive containing correspondence between Polish kings and Roman popes were stored in luxuriously decorated rooms. Peacocks were walking in the yard between the marble sculptural groups.

The palace was surrounded by an English romantic park, planned by the famous park builder Dionysius Mickler (Mackler) and the gardener Kliger. In the park, located on the slopes of a picturesque stream, 84 types of trees grow: Weymouth pine, beech, 300-year-old ash, etc. A water tower, a bridge, a spring, and two ponds have been preserved in the park. A special historical value is an 18-meter limestone rock with a two-tiered grotto and an artificial waterfall.

Until recently, the Maliivtsi regional children's tuberculosis sanatorium "Svitanok" was located on the territory. On September 30, 2021, by decision of the regional state administration in Maliivtsi, the Maliivtsi Regional Historical and Cultural Museum was created instead of the liquidated sanatorium and the palace of Count Orlovsky was opened for visits.

The castle in Panivtsi was founded in 1590 by Jan Potoski, the elder of Kamyanets, on the basis of older fortifications.

The stone fortifications were surrounded by a deep moat (now filled in). A two-story palace was attached to the defensive wall between the northern towers, a chapel was arranged in the southwestern tower, and a two-story collegium building and a gate tower were located between the southern towers. On the first floor of the palace was the Calvinist printing house, which worked from 1608 to 1611.

During the Liberation War, the Panivtsi Castle was destroyed by the Cossacks, and in 1769-1770 it was partially restored.

In 1840, Count Karol Starzhynskyi built a luxurious two-story palace with arcades (now in ruins) between the two northern towers above Smotrych.

The southern castle wall with a gate tower and a collegium attached to it on both sides is well preserved. Adjacent to the collegium is a church built in 1907 on the basis of the south-western tower-chapel (now the building of culture and village council).

The stables and farm buildings of the count's estate were converted into a village school during Soviet times.

Despite the many reconstructions and the general poor condition, the Panivtsi Castle reflects the evolution of a regular wall castle to a tower castle.

The first museum of the famous Jewish poet Perets Markish in Ukraine was opened in Polonne in 1998.

Markish was born in Polonne in 1895, and spent his childhood there. He became famous in the world as one of the leading Jewish writers, was widely published abroad, was a member of the leadership of the Union of Writers of the USSR, and was awarded the Order of Lenin. In 1949, he was repressed for his participation in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and in 1952 he was shot.

The exposition of the Polonne museum tells about the life and creative path of the poet. The museum exhibit includes 23 books by the writer in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Russian, English, and even Chuvash. A special place in the exposition is occupied by the jubilee Israeli edition of three books by Perets Markish. They were issued in 1998 on the initiative of the mayor's office of the city of Beer Sheva. One of the three books contains 24 poems and excerpts from the poem in Yiddish, the other two are translated into Russian and Hebrew. The museum received these books as a gift from David Bonfeld, the mayor of Beer Sheva.

The museum exhibits a lot of photographs from different periods of Perets Markish's life, including his childhood and youth spent in Polonne. Also in the museum exposition is a gift from the poet's daughter, the famous artist and sculptor Olha Rapay-Markish - original ceramic products. The exhibition also includes books by Perets Markish's sons - Shimon and David.

The Perets Markish Jewish Cultural Society operates on the basis of the museum.

In 2007, the museum was awarded the honorary title "People's Museum".

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is one of the oldest in Kamyanets-Podilskyi.

The exact date of its construction is unknown. In 1834, during the reconstruction, the date 1580 was discovered on one of its elements. The first documentary evidence of the already existing Peter and Paul Church dates back to 1591 and 1593. Some historians believe that the church is older and attribute it to the period of the reign of the Rus-Lithuanian princes Koriatovych (Koryatovych), who ruled in Podillya until the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century.

The bell tower in the Empire style was built on the ruins of the old bell tower, which was destroyed during the Turkish occupation of the city. The architecture of the temple is characteristic of Podillya. In the harsh border conditions (throughout its medieval history, Kamianets was an outpost of Christianity and blocked the way for the spread of Islam to Europe), religious buildings lost their external decoration and often performed defensive functions.

Of the defense-type Orthodox churches in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, only the three-conch (which resembles a shamrock in plan) church of Saints Peter and Paul has survived to this day.

The Museum of Podillya Embroidery and Life opened in 2021 in the Manykivtsi House of Culture in the village of Manykivtsi.

In two halls there are more than 500 exhibits of the late XIX - early XX centuries, including ceremonial towels, embroidered shirts, pillows, icons, chests, nights.

It is planned to open two more halls, where, in particular, an old loom will be installed in working order.

The Polish Gate is a unique hydrotechnical fortification structure in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, which served simultaneously as a city gate, a defense tower, and a dam.

The well-known military engineer Jov Pretvych, who at that time was reconstructing the Kamyanets-Podilskyi fortress, took part in the construction. The Polish Gate complex consisted of five towers on both sides of the Smotrych River and a dam wall that crossed the canyon. In normal times, the dam kept the high water level on the river above the city. In case of danger, water was launched through the locks into the canyon, which was closed by the Rusky Gate located downstream, and the river level rose, creating a water obstacle for the attackers.

By the end of the 17th century, frequent floods destroyed the dam, but the Nadvrantna, Naskalna, Priberezhna towers and the Barbican have survived to this day. In the 19th century, they were handed over to blacksmiths, and since then they have been called the Blacksmith Towers. On the other side of the river, you can see the Wall Tower, which is now on private property.

From the Polish Gate, you can go up to the Peter and Paul Church by the Farenholtz Stairs.

The People's Museum of the History of Polonne is located in the building of the city's cultural center.

The museum was founded on October 25, 1964. The exhibition presents a collection of antiquities found on the territory of the region, which gives an idea of the ancient way of life, traditions, and customs of the inhabitants of Polonne region.

Currently, the historical museum of Polonne preserves a unique collection of 4,735 pieces of products of defunct, at the time, world-famous porcelain and art ceramics factories. The products were transferred to the balance of the museum by the keeper of this unique collection, in the past the chief artist of the Polonne Porcelain Factory, Mykola Kozak.

The Potter's (Honcharska) Tower is a distinctive fortification structure above the Smotrych Canyon, which is well visible from the Novoplanivsky Bridge in Kamyanets-Podilskyi.

The tower was built in the 16th century at the expense of a potter's workshop.

The Potter's Tower is open for visitors. Inside the tower, it is fashionable to walk through the restored galleries, to view the panorama from the loopholes. Exposition tablets with information about the monument and its restoration are also installed in the tower.

The "Stara fortetsya" restaurant has opened in the building adjacent to the Potter's Tower.

Propaganda Museum was opened in Shepetivka as a memorial museum of Mykola Ostrovsky - one of the four museums of the writer on the territory of Ukraine.

Renamed by the decision of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council in 2020.

It was founded in 1946, and the current building of the museum was built in 1974-1979 according to the individual project of architects Mykola Husyeyev and Viktor Suslov. A three-story building of round shape, built of stone and metal, covered with red and black enamel. According to UNESCO, the Museum of Propaganda in Shepetivka is included in the international catalog "Museums of the World" as a unique architectural monument.

The artistic and monumental decoration of the exposition was developed by the artist Anatoliy Haydamaka. In the vestibule, there is a bust of Mykola Ostrovsky by the sculptor Volodymyr Kornev. The main exhibition is on the third floor. The exhibits are in black cubes fixed on rails. Above the cubes are placed spatial compositions of various things corresponding to the era and the theme of the stands. Submitted photos, documents, memorabilia, editions of the writer's works and illustrations to them.

The museum is located on a hill, all the approaches to it are beautifully paved with stone, which, in addition to the original design, unfortunately creates serious inconvenience for people with disabilities.

Here, on the square, stands a monumental monument to Mykola Ostrovsky.

The Literary and Local History Museum of the poet-biker Leonid Hlibov is located in one of the buildings of the former estate of Counts Pshezdetsky in Chornyi Ostriv.

The palace in the style of classicism was built at the end of the XVIII century by Mikhal Pshezdetsky on the site of the castle of the Vyshnevetsky princes. The interiors of the palace have been partially preserved. Oak stairs lead to the second floor, stucco and tiled stoves have been preserved.

In 1847, the famous composer Ferents List visited the Pshezdetsky Palace. The estate was visited by the prominent Ukrainian poet Leonid Hlibov, who from 1856 to 1859 taught history at a local school.

The museum has a photo gallery of the owners of the palace in the Black Island. Here you can meet the Vyshnevetsky and Pshezdetsky families and Kateryna Ihnatyeva, who once owned the town.

The former mansion of the Ratsiborovsky family in Derazhnia is now one of the buildings of the local hospital.

The estate in Derazhnia was founded at the end of the 18th century by the banker Petro Tepper, who greatly contributed to the economic development of the town. Near the center of the town, Tepper built a small palace surrounded by a park.

In 1844, Stanislav Ratsiborovsky became the owner of Derazhnia. His descendants reconstructed the palace in the Art Nouveau style in 1902.

In Soviet times, the building was rebuilt as a hospital, as a result of which it almost completely lost its historical appearance.

The house of the Rusky Viyt Kiriak, which in 1658-1670 housed the administration of the Rusky (i.e. Ukrainian) quarter of the city, is now occupied by the administration of the Kamyanets National Historical and Architectural Reserve.

The rights of the Ukrainian community to self-government were approved by the Polish king Yan Kazymyr in 1658. When the Ukrainian community was deprived of the right to self-governance and the Rusky magistrate was disbanded, the premises were used for meetings of the Podillya nobility, later as a theater.

In the years 1805-1865, there was a theological seminary here, where the famous Ukrainian poet Stepan Rudansky and the writer Anatoliy Svydnytsky studied in the 1950s. The building of the Rusky Magistrate is also called the "House with the Dragon" because of the characteristic drain on the facade.

In the eastern buildings of the Rusky Magistrate, there are exhibits "Archaeological ceramics from the funds of NIAZ Kamianets" and "Podillya Lyulka". In the courtyard of the Rusky Magistrate, there is an exposition "Stone lace of the city" (lapidarium).

The ruins of four defense towers in the village of Rykhta are the remains of the ancient castle of Rykhta.

A tablet found during one of the reconstructions proves that the castle over the Zhvanchyk River was built in 1507, when the Polish nobles of Lyantskoronsky owned these lands. Built like regular, rectangular in plan with angular pentagonal towers. From the end of the 16th to the middle of the 18th century, the Rykhta castle was the residence of the Polish family of Humeckyi, whose representatives became famous in battles with the Turks. Thus, one of the owners of the castle, Voytsekh Humeckyi, a Podillya horn player, became one of the heroes of the legendary defense of Kamyanets-Podilskyi in 1672.

In the 19th century, the new owners of the Holovynski-Pidvysotski castle dismantled most of the castle buildings to build a new palace, keeping only the corner towers. The palace, which was used for some time as a hospital, was completely destroyed during the Second World War. Now, only the towers with traces of defensive walls adjacent to them have survived from the castle. All of them are located in private yards and are used as barns at best.

The majestic complex of the Church of Saint Anna has been standing in Polonne on a hill above the Khomora River for more than 400 years.

It was founded in 1583 by Prince Yanush Ostrozky, Voivode of Volyn, who owned Polonne at that time. He was the first in the Ostrozky family to convert to Catholicism. Construction lasted 24 years. The walls of the temple reach a thickness of 2 meters, it is decorated with cornices, stained glass windows and paintings. In 1612, the Jesuit fathers opened a school at the church.

Over the centuries, the church fell into ruin several times, but each time it was restored, and even in Soviet times, thanks to the strong Catholic community of the city, it remained active. Restoration was carried out in 1995-2002.

The modern church of Saint Anna in Derazhnia was built in 2000 on the site of the cemetery chapel, which in Soviet times served as the only Catholic church in the city.

The first wooden Catholic church in Derazhnia existed as early as the 17th century. In 1726, it was rebuilt (again from wood) at the expense of the owner of Derazhnia, Antoniy Lyubomyrskyi. In the 1840s, a new stone church was built on the initiative of one of the last owners of the town, Stanislav Ratsiborovskyi. Unfortunately, it was completely destroyed in the 1930s.

For a long time, local Catholics were forced to use a small chapel in the cemetery on the way out of the city in the direction of Khmelnytskyi for religious services. Today, a new majestic neo-Gothic church of Saint Anna with two pointed towers rises here.