Attractions of Kherson region

The ancient Cossack Holy Introduction Church in Beryslav is the only wooden church in the Kherson region, an architectural monument of the 18th century.

It was built of oak in 1725 in the Zaporizhzhia fortress of Perevalochna (now the village of Svitlohirske near the confluence of the Vorskla River with the Dnipro), and was originally called Holy Resurrection Church. In 1784, the temple was transported by rafts down the Dnipro River to Beryslav.

During the Soviet rule, the Holy Introduction Church was closed for a short period from 1939 to 1941. The Gospel of 1695 is kept here.

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in the style of classicism was built over 30 years, from 1804 to 1836.

The temple has two side altars - in honor of Archangel Michael and in memory of the Holy Martyrs of Chersonese.

Here is a list of the miraculous Kasperivska icon of the Mother of God, which protected the inhabitants of Tavria province during the Crimean War.

The thermal source of therapeutic mineral water is located at the exit from Shchaslyvtseve in the direction of Strilkove, next to the Pillbox (DOT) "Dnipro", on the territory of the unfinished Inter Medical Eco City complex.

Water with a temperature of up to 70 degrees gushes out of the well, then successively flows through three shallow pools, gradually cooling down.

Water is indicated for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, central nervous system, musculoskeletal system, chronic inflammatory diseases of women, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, endocrine and metabolic disorders, as well as skin diseases. Taking mineral baths also helps to heal wounds.

There are no medical personnel and official procedures, but people are attracted by the possibility of free self-treatment.

Kakhovka Historical Museum is a branch of the Kherson Museum of Local Lore.

Opened in 1957. Located in a spacious room in the center of Kakhovka. There are more than 7,000 exhibits in the funds.

The museum's expositions tell about the main stages of the history of the city and the region, about the events of the Soviet-Ukrainian and World War II, about the creation of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and the Kakhovka irrigation system, etc.

The most interesting are materials about the Cossack campaigns on Islam-Kermen and the storming of Kizi-Kermen, samples of weapons of Zaporozhian Cossacks and Russian soldiers (flintlock rifles, pistols, sabers, daggers), trophy sabers, guns, nuclei of XVI-XVII centuries, photocopy Borys Sheremetyev to Emperor Peter I about the storming of the fortress and so on.

During the Russian occupation of Kakhovka in 2022, the Russian invaders looted the Kakhovka Historical Museum.

Тational importance мonument of history Kamianska Sich is the remains of one of the most preserved of several Zaporizhzhia Sichs that existed in Ukraine from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Sich was a defensive fortress that served as the administrative and military center of the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks.

Kamyanska Sich was founded by the Cossacks near the confluence of the Kamyanka River with the Dnipro in 1709, after the destruction of Chortomlytska Sich by the tsarist troops. In 1711, it was also destroyed by order of Tsar Peter I, and the Cossacks were forced to retreat down the Dnipro to the possession of the Crimean Khanate.

In 1728, Kamyanska Sich was revived and lasted until 1734, after which the Zaporozhzhians moved to the Pidpilna River, where they founded Nova Sich. Later, a landlord economy was located on the site of the Cossack fortress, but some fragments of the fortress buildings of the 18th century have also been preserved. They are currently being studied by historians and archaeologists.

The grave of Kost Hordiyenko, the chieftain of Kosh, with a stone cross, has been preserved, and a monument to the chieftain has been erected.

Since 2009, the Kamianska Sich historical and cultural monument has been under the protection of the Khortytsia National Reserve, a branch of the reserve operates here. A symbolic entry gate to the sich was installed and a lapidarium was set up, where stone monuments (grain graters, harmonicas, etc.) are collected. You can also see the grotto and the remains of the former estate of the landowner Agarkov. Ukrainian Cossacks and patriotic circles of the Kherson region celebrate public holidays and hold solemn events on the territory of the monument.

Kamyanska Sich National Nature Park was created in 2019 on an area of about 12,000 hectares on the basis of 2 large streams - Kamyanska and Mylivska. It also included the terrace of the Dnipro River between the villages of Chervony Mayak and Kachkarivka, the areas of the plakor adjacent to the beams and terraces, the water area of the Kakhovka Reservoir and the beams flooded by it below.

The territory and objects of the reserve were damaged as a result of the Russian bombing at the beginning of February 2024.

The complex of buildings and the remains of defense structures of the Kherson Fortress, which founded the city of Kherson, are located on the territory and in the vicinity of the Kherson Fortress Park.

The fortress at the mouth of the Dnipro was founded by Prince Hrihory Potemkin in 1778, along with the earlier fortification Oleksandr-Shants (1737). The construction was carried out by the troops of the local garrison under the leadership of General Ivan Hannibal.

On the territory of the Kherson Fortress Park on Perekopska Street, the arched Ochakivsky (western) and Moskovsky (northern) gates of the end of the 18th century, a powder cellar (converted into a restaurant), fragments of shafts and ravelins have been preserved.

On the opposite side of Perekopska Street is the Arsenal with a monumental colonnade, built in 1784 - one of the earliest buildings of the Kherson Fortress (now the city prison).

Kherson Regional Art Museum named after Oleksiy Shovkunenko was opened in 1977 in the former building of the City Duma.

His prototype was the pre-revolutionary Kherson Museum of Fine Arts, whose collection included works of painting, graphics, sculpture, decorative and applied arts, donated by the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, the St. Petersburg Porcelain Factory and the Glass Factory. The reason for the creation of the current museum was the city's receipt of a private collection of paintings by collector Maria Kornilovska. 

Before the large-scale Russian invasion, the museum's collection consisted of works of art from the 17th-21st centuries, and its geography spanned several continents. The basis of the collection was more than 150 works of the outstanding Ukrainian painter Oleksiy Shovkunenko. The exhibition also featured canvases by Vasyl Polenov, Oleksiy Savrasov, Ivan Kramsky, Volodymyr Makovsky, Mykhaylo Vrubel, Mykola Pymonenko, Volodymyr Orlovsky and other artists, icon painting of the 17th-20th centuries.

During the Russian occupation of Kherson in 2022, the invaders looted the Kherson Art Museum. Most of the exhibits were taken to the territory of the occupied Crimea. In particular, the Russians stole paintings of the 18th-19th centuries, belonging to the brushes of Western European, Ukrainian and Russian artists, as well as paintings by Soviet artists.

The Museum of Local Lore in Kherson arose on the basis of a collection of antiquities, which began to be collected in 1890 by archaeologist Viktor Рoshkevych, and the entomological office of botanist and ecologist Yosyp Pachosky. In 1963, the exhibitions were merged into a single museum, which since 1978 is housed in the former building of the Kherson District Court (1893).

Before the large-scale Russian invasion, the museum's holdings included about 144,000 museum exhibits. The exposition included natural, archeological and historical departments, as well as the Suvorov Hall.

During the Russian occupation of Kherson in 2022, the invaders looted the Kherson Regional Museum of Local Lore. In particular, the occupiers took away collections of coins, weapons, Sarmatian jewelry of the Soviet era and the Russian Empire, antique furniture of the 18th-19th centuries, a collection of icons, paintings, as well as valuable materials from archaeological excavations at the late Scythian settlement of the Chervonyi Mayak.

The facade of the museum was damaged as a result of Russian shelling of Kherson. Now the building is preserved and awaiting restoration.

The Korsunka Monastery of the Mother of God near Kakhovka was founded in 1785 on the lands of Prince Potemkin Tavriyskyi as a co-religionist (Old Believer) monastery.

According to legend, children found an icon of the Mother of God at this place, and when they tried to take it away, the icon became heavy and did not budge, thus indicating the location of the future abode.

By 1848, when the monastery became Orthodox, the complex already included 5 stone churches, the first of which was consecrated in 1802, a refectory, a dormitory with cells.

Before the Bolshevik coup of 1917, the Korsunka Men's Monastery, along with the Byzyukiv Men's Monastery and the Annunciation Women's Monastery, was one of the three most respected monasteries of the Kherson Diocese. During Soviet times, the monastery was closed, the churches were destroyed. Parts of the walls, the western gate surmounted by a baroque pediment, and the round northeastern tower with a tented finish have survived. The monks returned here only in 1999. Work is underway to revive the monastery.

The Chaplynka museum of local history is located in a park area in the center of the city.

Ivan Maksymov, the director of the Chervonopolyanska School, was the founder and first director. As the basis of the exposition, he put his own collection of rural equipment and household items, which students and other residents of the village helped to collect.

Currently, the exposition is housed in 8 halls, where nature and the distant past of the region, the times of the revolution and the Soviet-Ukrainian war, collectivization, World War II, as well as the interior of a village house with towels and antique objects are reproduced. There is a furnace, a spinning wheel, earthenware, a chest, a baby cradle, icons, and more.

WARNING! On the night of April 1, 2017, a fire broke out in the museum, which destroyed the museum exposition and part of the funds.

The Lutheran Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was built in Zmiivka in 1884 by German immigrants on the high peninsula above the Dnipro.

During the Soviet rule, the kirkh was closed, German settlers were deported to Germany and camps in Siberia.

Today, the former German church of Saints Peter and Paul has been restored. 60 representatives of the German community live in Zmiivka, who conduct services and take care of the church. The service here is conducted mainly in German.

The building of the Second Mariyinsko-Oleksandrivska Women's Zemska Gymnasium in Kherson was built in 1896 in the style of eclecticism with the use of Moorish architectural traditions.

In Soviet times, the building housed a pedagogical institute.

Currently, it is an educational building of the Faculty of Technologies and Service Areas of Kherson State University.

Nearby is the church of Saint Oleksandra.

The "Legendary Tachanka" monument in Kakhovka is a grandiose sculptural composition in honor of the mobile firing point, which was widely used during the Soviet-Ukrainian war.

Tachanka was widely celebrated in Soviet literature and art. The units of Nestor Makhno anarchist army were the first to use the "Maxim" machine gun mounted on a horse-drawn carriage in combat operations, but the tachanka became famous while serving in the ranks of the Red Army.

In 1967, a majestic monument of the work of Leningrad sculptors Lokhovytsin, Mykhaylenko, Rodionov and architect Poltoratskyi was erected in the steppe near Kakhovka.

The bronze monument weighs 120 tons.

The monument "Legendary Tachanka" is subject to dismantling in accordance with the law of Ukraine on decommunization.

The obelisk with a sundial and a bas-relief is erected in honor of the English reformer lawyer, doctor and philanthropist Dzhon Hovard.

In Europe, he built hospitals and homes for the elderly, fought for the rights of convicts. In 1789, an enthusiastic doctor came to Kherson to fight the typhus epidemic that broke out here. Having become infected himself, he died a year later and was buried there.

The "Frigate" memorial sign on the embankment of Kherson is the most famous symbol of the city.

The monument in the form of a sailboat on a high pedestal was erected in 1972 in honor of the first ships of the Black Sea Fleet: the 66-gun battleship "Glory to Kateryna" and the 50-gun frigate "George the Victorious". They were launched from the docks of the Kherson admiralty shipyard in 1783.

The monument is made of sheet copper, concrete and granite. Sculptors Ivan Bilokur, Volodymyr Potrebenko, Vasyl Shkuropad, architect Yuriy Tarasov.