Attractions of Kherson region

The Oleshky sands are the largest sand massif in Europe, which is sometimes incorrectly called the largest European desert.

The sand arena, about 15 kilometers in diameter (161,000 hectares), consists of barkhans (kuchuguri) about 5 meters high, covered with rare vegetation. The name Oleshky sands comes from the nearby town of Oleshky.

Semi-deserts were formed in the lower reaches of the Dnipro in the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of massive uncontrolled livestock grazing, which destroyed the vegetation that bound the sands, and also as a result of almost complete deforestation. All this time, sand consolidation works were carried out. Currently, the spread of the desert has been stopped with the help of large areas of pine forest around the entire perimeter.

In Soviet times, the Oleshky sands were used as a military airfield for bombing. Due to the fact that many unexploded ammunition remained in the sands, formally the access of civilians to the territory was prohibited, but practically there were no obstacles to visiting until recently. In 2010, the Oleshky Sands National Park was created here.

Near the village of Chelburda, there is a convenient viewing platform, the coordinates of which are given below.

Since 2016, the Oleshky sands have again been used as a military training ground, access to the territory is closed.

The age-old oak in Shevchenkivskyi Park is one of the symbols of Kherson. The oldest park in the city was laid out by order of Prince Potomkin Tavriysky in 1785, but in the 19th century the trees were cut down, turning this place into a parade ground, where horse races were held.

In 1869, the park was revived on the initiative of the vice-governor Denys Karnovych. Before the revolution, the park was called Denysovsky in his honor.

The compositional center of the park is a huge petioled oak, according to legend, planted by Emperor Oleksandr II, although the tree was planted by Karnovych. The rays of eight shady alleys diverge from the tree in different directions, one of which leads to the church of Saint Fedir Ushakov.

The house-museum of the self-taught artist Polina Rayko was opened in her native Oleshky in 2004, after her death.

Polina Rayko, a master of naïve art, a poorly educated village woman, began to create at the age of 69 after a series of life tragedies - the loss of her husband and daughter, the imprisonment of her son. In order not to feel alone in an empty house, she began to paint the walls with murals. By the end of her life, she managed to paint all five rooms: the walls, ceilings, doors of the house, as well as the porch and gate of her yard. In her works secular, Christian and pagan symbols are intertwined.

The house-museum of Polina Rayko is cared for by the Polina Rayko Charitable Foundation.

On the night of June 6, 2023, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian troops blew up the dam of the Kakhovka HPP, which caused a catastrophic flooding of the lower Dnipro. As a result, the house-museum of Polina Rayko was completely flooded by the waters of the Dnipro.

The monument to Prince Hrihoriy Potomkin Tavriyskyi was erected by the will of Empress Catherine II in Kherson, the city where he was buried in 1791.

However, the construction of the monument began only under Oleksandr I, Catherine's grandson. The sculpture by Ivan Martos was installed in the Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi (formerly Potomkin`s) Square in 1836. During the Soviet rule, the monument was removed from the pedestal (a monument to Karl Marx was erected in its place), and then it disappeared.

Restored in 2003 to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the founding of the city.

In 2022, during the occupation of Kherson by Russian troops during the Russian-Ukrainian war, on the eve of the retreat from the city as a result of a successful counteroffensive operation by the Ukrainian army, the Russian occupiers dismantled the monument and took it out of the city.

Prince Trubetskoi Winery, which is also called "Prince Trubetskoi Chateau", is an ancient winery that produces wines according to classical technology. It is located in the village of Vesele near the urban-type village of Kozatske in the Kherson region.

Wine production in the lower reaches of the Dnipro was started by Prince Petro Trubetskoi, who owned these lands at the end of the 19th century. His relative, the chief winemaker of Crimea Lev Holitsyn, convinced the prince to engage in winemaking. In 1898, Trubetsky planted vineyards on the Dnipro slopes, built wine cellars for 180,000 buckets, and built a winery not far from his palace in Kozatske. Rhine Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon were chosen as the main grape varieties. White (rainwine, riesling, saber), red (lafite and cabernet), dry (sautern and claret), strong (port wine), and dessert (dried riesling and others) wines were produced here. The best varieties received the "Grand Prix" at the world exhibition in Paris in 1900, in 1902 - the first All-Russian prize.

In Soviet times, the winery in Vesely became famous for the wines "Oksamyt Ukrayiny", "Naddnipryanske" and "Perlyna stepu". For some time, Prince Trubetsky's winery specialized in the production of wine materials for champagne wine factories. In 2005, reconstruction was carried out, a new workshop was built, and modern production was established.

Now the Chateau of Prince Trubetskoi has a developed tourist infrastructure, which includes a museum, a derustation hall, a restaurant, and a hotel. Before the large-scale Russian invasion, tours were conducted to Prince Trubetskoi's estate, the company's production workshops and wine cellars (constant temperature +14 degrees). Wine tastings were offered.

During the Russian occupation in 2022, Prince Trubetskoi winery was looted by the invaders. The winery building was damaged by shelling.

The ruins of the palace of Prince Petro Trubetsky in Kozatske are one of the few surviving noble estates of the Kherson region.

The palace was built in the style of the French Renaissance on the high bank of the Dnipro. The main entrance with a stone gate and a corner fortress tower faces the river. Retaining walls with archbutanes support the general style of defensive architecture. One of the wings is made in pseudo-Gothic style.

The palace complex is located on the territory of a large, but extremely neglected park. Most of the buildings are in ruins. Currently, the palace is owned by Prince Trubetsky OJSC, restoration is planned.

The building of the Central RAGS was erected in 1896 for the Kherson Public Library. The construction was carried out on donations from the people of Kherson, part of the funds was allocated by the city administration.

The building was designed in the neoclassical style by the architect Mykola Tolvinsky. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kherson public library was often visited by Borys Serhyeyev, the future writer Lavrenyev.

The first exhibition of the Kherson Museum of Antiquities was located here. The library served its purpose until 1987, when it was decided to house the city registry office in the building.

The church of the righteous Petro Kalnyshevskyi in Heroiske (former Prohnoyi) was built in 1898 at the expense of a descendant of the Cossack-elder family, Hryhoriy Kapusta, as a church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

The church, half-destroyed during the years of Soviet power, is currently being restored by the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In 2016, at the request of the local religious community. the name of the church was changed from the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God to the righteous Petro Kalnyshevskyi.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was founded on the initiative of Prince Hrihoriy Potomkin to attract foreigners to Kherson.

The first Catholic church in the name of the Savior, built in 1787, was adobe. A stone church was built on this site in the 1820s, later a spire was built above the bell tower. A Roman Catholic church school and a society for helping poor Catholics operated here.

In 1918, the first service was held in Ukrainian. In 1931, the church was closed, workshops were placed in it, then a children's cinema was opened.

In 1994, the temple was returned to believers and reconstructed. Today it is the Roman Catholic church of the parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Saint Catherine Cathedral in Kherson - a landmark of the 18th century. The style of early classicism with the use of motifs of the Balkan medieval architecture.

The cathedral with a monumental bell tower was built in 1782-1787 on the site of the wooden Saint Michael's Church on the territory of the former Kherson fortress. Named after Saint Catherine and Empress Catherine II, who visited the temple in 1786. A chair made especially for the empress has been preserved. In the interior, there are paintings attributed to Volodymyr Borovykovskyi and Dmytro Levytskyi.

The "Pantheon of the Kherson Fortress" is located on the territory of Saint Catherine Cathedral - the burial place of officers who died in the Russian-Turkish war.

In 1791, Prince Hryhoriy Potemkin-Tavriyskyi was buried in the crypt under the cathedral. At the end of October 2022, during the occupation of Kherson by Russian troops during the Russo-Ukrainian War, on the eve of the retreat from the city as a result of a successful counter-offensive operation by the Ukrainian army, the Russian occupiers dug up the ashes of Prince Potemkin from under the floor of Saint Catherine's Cathedral and removed it from Kherson.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Saint Catherine Cathedral was repeatedly damaged. In August 2023, the roof of the cathedral caught fire during a Russian artillery strike. On the night of December 27, 2023, Saint Catherine Cathedral was damaged during shelling by the Russians, as a result of which the facade and roof were damaged, and the windows were broken. On December 20, 2024, a Russian shell hit the light drum under the dome, as a result of which the facade and interior of the cathedral suffered significant damage.

Saint George's Church in Mala Kardashynka was built in 1905-1912 according to the project of the architect Kazymyr Kvinto in the traditions of Moscow temple architecture of the 17th century.

The interior of the temple was painted by the artist Semen Panpushyn from Kherson.

During Soviet times, the temple was closed, the premises were used as a warehouse, then a club.

Currently, the church of Saint George in Mala Kardashynka is active, restoration has been carried out.

Saint Hryhoriy Bizyukiv Men's Monastery, located on the bank of the Dnipro in the village of Chervonyi Maiak, was at one time one of the largest monasteries in the south of Ukraine.

The monastery was founded in 1781 as the Sophroniy hermitage on the site of an old Turkish fortress, which after the expulsion of the Turks was called "Zaporizhzhian town". At first, monks lived in caves. According to legend, these multi-kilometer tunnels, passing under the entire village, existed since the time of the nomads. In 1803, the Bizyukiv monastery was transferred here from the Smolensk province, and from that time the monastery received its current name.

During the Soviet rule, the Saint Hryhoriy Bizyukiv Monastery was closed, the Zaporizhzhian Church of Saint Hryhoriy (1782), the Ascension Cathedral and the bell tower (1894) were destroyed, and part of the fence was dismantled. The walls with towers (XVIII-XIX centuries), the Intercession Church, the bishop's house with the Church of the Three Saints, the Trinity Church, the Refectory, the building of cells, the hotel building, the gate, fountains, cave cells (XVIII century) have been preserved.

Now the monastery is being revived. One of these caves cut out of a steep limestone rock, where a small cave church has been preserved, is a place of pilgrimage for pilgrims.

The monastery belongs to the Kherson Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

On February 10, 2024, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Bizyukiv Monastery was damaged by massive shelling by the Russian army - the roof and facade of the building were destroyed.

The Orthodox Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Zmiivka is located in the premises of the former Protestant Church of the Apostle John. The brick church was built in the 19th century on the site of the wooden church of 1787, from which the establishment of a Swedish village in the Kherson region by Swedish settlers began.

It is shared by the Orthodox and Swedish Protestant communities. The interior combines Protestant and Orthodox motifs.

A memorial sign to the repressed Swedes and Germans who were persecuted by the Soviet authorities in 1937-1938, as well as a memorial sign on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding and settlement of the village of Zmiivka by Swedish colonists, was installed on the territory of the Saint Michael Church.

Belongs to the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In 2008, the Swedish King Carl XVI Hustav and his wife Silviya visited Zmiivka. Before the arrival of the king, the temple was repaired, a new dome was installed on it.

The Saint Nicholas Maritime Cathedral in Kherson was built in 1842 at the expense of a descendant of the Doroshenko hetman family, a collegian assessor Yakiv Doroshenko. It is located in the Zabalkivskyi suburb, which is separated from the city by a deep ravine.

The first wooden church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared here at the beginning of the 19th century, but it quickly fell into disrepair, and then there was a need to build a new church. The stone temple in the style of classicism has a spherical dome and a two-tier bell tower.

During the Crimean War, the defenders of Sevastopol who died in Kherson hospitals were mourned in the Saint Nicholas Church.

In 2007, the Saint Nicholas Church was granted the status of a maritime cathedral.

The sculpture of the Mother of God was opened in Pokrovsky Square in 2009. It is located on the site of the Church of the Holy Virgin, destroyed in the 1940s.

The figure, 2.5 meters high, made of white artificial stone, looks at the sunrise. The territory of the square, located near the city RAGS, which until recently was neglected and unattractive, has now been put in order: benches have been installed along the paths paved with pavement tiles, and flowers and conifers have been planted in the flowerbeds. And in the evening, lanterns burn here.