Attractions of Kharkiv region

The Homilsha Forests are a reserve massif of deciduous forest on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets River 40 kilometers south of Kharkiv, between the villages of Velyka Homilsha and Korobiv Khutir.

The national nature park "Homilsha Forests" was created in 2004, but as early as the 18th century, Peter I drew attention to the natural value of local landscapes, issuing a decree on the allocation of protected ship groves near Homilsha. In the 1970s, the "Homilsha Forest Dacha" reserve was created, recreation centers began to appear around it.

The list of rare plants in the forest is 132 species. One of the areas is called a "branch of the taiga" because very tall silver fir trees grow here. About 500 hectares of 130-150-year-old oak forest have been preserved to this day, and there are some 300-year-old oaks.

Rare birds are found here, including the white-tailed eagle, the burying eagle, the blue kingfisher, the bee-eater, the white-tailed eagle, the vulture, and others. Waterfowl liked the picturesque Kosach Bay.

Archaeological monuments of the Stone and Bronze Age, hillforts and burial grounds of Scythian, Alanic and Slavic antiquity have been preserved.

The Parkhomivka Art Museum named after Panas Lunov is a unique art gallery, nicknamed the "rural Hermitage".

The gallery was created in 1955 by village teacher Panas Lunov as a branch of the school museum. The exhibition was based on paintings bought by Lunov at a post-war Kharkiv flea market, as well as donated by Kharkiv artists. Later, the collection was replenished with canvases donated to the village gallery by many museums of the USSR.

At the request of Lunov, the unique exposition was placed in the former palace of Count Pidhorichani, which previously housed the office of the sugar factory.

Today, the Parkhomivka Art Museum collection includes about 6,000 exhibits: paintings by Rembrandt, Gauguin, Van Dyck, Benoit, Manet, Bryullov, Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Levitan, Repin, Vasnetsov, Roerich, Malevich, drawings by Shevchenko, posters by Mayakovsky and others.

The pearl of the collection are four works by Pablo Picasso, donated to the museum by Illya Erenburh, including the famous painting "Dove of the World", which became a symbol of the anti-war movement.

Terraced Pokrovsky Square (architects Heorhiy Vehman, Ihor Zhylkin, Mykhaylo Lutsky, Hanna Mayak, 1951-1952), located on Sobornyi descent, adjacent to University Street.

Previously, the buildings of the Old Passage, which belonged to the merchant Pashchenko-Tryapkin, were located on this place, but were destroyed during the occupation of Kharkiv by German-fascist troops. In 1951, on the site of the ruins, a terraced square with stairs, a fountain and a cascade was built using the method of folk construction. From the upper terrace, you can admire a wonderful panorama of the Zalopanska part of the city, Serhiyiyivsky Maidan and the Annunciation Cathedral.

A monument to Hryhoriy Skovoroda (architect Yuriy Shkodovsky, sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze) was installed on the site of the square. The territory of the former Kharkiv fortress begins a few tens of meters from the monument.

In 2009, the square was reconstructed and handed over to the Holy Intercession Men's Monastery. An Orthodox cross is placed at the top of the fountain, the water in the fountain is consecrated.

The Scientific and Educational Museum of Sex and Sexual Cultures of the World was established in Kharkiv in 1999 by the staff of the Department of Sexology and Medical Psychology of the Kharkiv Medical Academy.

The first museum of its kind in the post-Soviet space covers the sexual cultures of 12 countries. The exhibition presents paintings by ancient Egyptian artists, ancient Chinese drawings, ancient statuettes, reproductions of paintings by Picasso, Manet and other artists, modern drawings and photographs.

Part of the exhibition is devoted to the sexual education of children and adolescents. Particular attention is paid to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS.

The materials of the Sex and Sexual Cultures of the World Museum are selected in accordance with the requirements of the programs of educational institutions. There is a sex shop at the museum.

Sharivka Palace and Park Complex, known as "Koenig Castle", is one of the best aristocratic estates of Slobozhanshchyna, a monument of cultural heritage of national importance.

Retired second major Sava Olkhovsky (according to other sources, his son, court councilor Petro Olkhovsky) slaughtered the manor house in Sharivka on the banks of the Merchyk River in 1836, building a manor house and breaking up a large park on the slope of a two-kilometer beam. Later, the estate in Sharivka passed to the Goebenstein brothers, who enriched the park with many exotic plants, built a church and a school.

At the end of the 19th century, the new owner, a German sugar confectioner Leopold Koenig, overhauled the Sharivka Palace, giving it a neo-Gothic feature with Renaissance elements. Two stylized defensive towers give the building the look of a medieval castle. The main entrance is made in the same style: a gate with fortress teeth, a guard house with arrow windows, a pointed watchtower.

Sharivka Park was reconstructed by the famous park builder Georg Kufaldt, who decorated it with terraces, stairs, a swimming pool, fountains and a stone bridge. The main element of the park was a wide lime alley.

From 1925 until recently, the estate housed a tuberculosis sanatorium, visits were limited.

Currently, it is the Palace and Park Complex "Sadyba" run by the regional utility company "Znakhidka". In recent years, some restoration and conservation work has been carried out. The rich interiors of the two-story Library with a balcony and massive cabinets, the Blue Hall with a painted ceiling and choirs for the orchestra, some other rooms with coffered ceilings, marble fireplaces, tiled stoves, stucco and paintings have been preserved.

Entrance to the territory is paid, excursions are conducted.

Kharkiv Passenger Railway Station (South Railway Station) is the main passenger station of the Kharkiv Railway .

The first Kharkiv railway station was laid in 1868 on the Arkhiyereyska Levada near Kholodna Hill. In addition to this building, designed by the architect Andriy Ton, a house for the road manager and other residential and commercial buildings were built on Pryvokzalna Square.

The first train arrived in Kharkiv on May 22, 1869, and regular traffic on the Kursk-Kharkiv-Azov railway was soon opened. By the end of the 19th century, the intensity of freight and passenger traffic had increased significantly, and therefore the station building had to be expanded: a new building was added to it on the south side, and then the old premises were reconstructed according to the project of architect Serhiy Zahoskin. The Kharkiv railway station became one of the largest in the Russian Empire. One of the largest buildings of pre-revolutionary Kharkiv was built nearby - the building of the Administration of Southern Railways.

In 1952, the construction of a new building in the style of the "Stalin empire" was completed on the site of the station destroyed during the Second World War. Ten massive columns of white Inkerman stone support the portico, flanked by two towers. On the portico - sculptural groups, stucco decorations. The height of the central hall is 26 meters. All platforms are connected to the station by underground tunnels.

In 2003, the last reconstruction was completed, as a result of which the station received modern equipment.

A monument to father Fedir from "12 chairs" is installed on platform No. 1.

The monument to Taras Shevchenko in Kharkiv is considered the best of all the existing monuments to the poet.

The project was developed by the sculptor Matviy Manizer. According to the author's plan, the multi-figure sculptural group personifies the struggle of the people for freedom sung by Kobzar. Actors of Kharkiv theater "Berezil" posed for the sculptor.

The grand opening took place on March 24, 1935. At that time, it was the largest bronze composition in the USSR (total height - 16 meters, height of the poet's figure - 5.5 meters).

Some student traditions of students of Kharkiv University are connected with the monument.

The church in honor of the Three Saints - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom was built in Kharkiv in 1915 on the initiative of the head of the City Merchant Society, merchant of the first guild Hryhoriy Holdberh, who had brothers Vasyl and Ivan (probably the choice of the name of the church is connected with this).

The project of the church in the form of a Moscow pentacle with a tent bell tower was developed by the authoritative Kharkiv architect, professor of the Institute of Technology, Mykhaylo Lovtsov, taking as a basis the volume-planning and constructive decision of the church in the St. Petersburg yard of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The foundation of the church took place in 1906, the construction took 9 years.

Highly artistic interiors are of particular value. The painting was done by St. Petersburg artist Oleksiy Sokol. The original iconostasis was made in Italy according to the drawings of Volodymyr Pokrovsky.

After 1917, the Three Saints Church was turned into a warehouse, but it was reopened in 1925.

The Botanical Garden of the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University was founded simultaneously with Kharkiv University in 1804 on the initiative of Count Seweryn Potocki. It is the oldest botanical garden in Ukraine. It is an object of the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine of national importance.

The first collection was based on a small plot directly on the territory of the university. Currently, the total area of ​​the Kharkiv Botanical Garden reaches about 42 hectares.

The botanical garden has valuable collections of woody and herbaceous plants: more than seven thousand species of local and world flora are presented in the expositions of the departments of dendrology, natural flora, flower and ornamental plants of open ground and tropical and subtropical plants. The botanical garden has over one thousand species and forms of woody and shrubby plants, over one thousand species of herbaceous plants of natural flora, over two thousand species and varieties of flower and ornamental plants, three thousand taxa of tropical and subtropical plants.

Relict species and endemics are of particular value. 15 species are listed in the European Red List, 95 - in the Red Book of Ukraine. About one and a half thousand species and varieties of woody and herbaceous plants were first introduced in the north-east of Ukraine.

The arboretum of the garden is laid out according to the botanical-geographical principle with elements of phytocenoses: expositions "Europe", "Mediterranean", "Siberia", "Far East", "Central Asia", "North America", "China and Japan". Aboriginal flora is presented in the exposition "Northeast of Ukraine".

Herbaceous plants of the natural flora are presented in the expositions of medicinal, ground cover, mountain plants and the system of angiosperm plants of Ukraine. Collections of flower and ornamental plants are collected for the exposition in the form of separate monoculture gardens and combined sections "Annuals" and "Perennials".

Plants of humid tropical forests, humid and dry subtropics, deserts and semi-deserts (trees, shrubs, grasses) are grown in the greenhouse complex. These are representatives of Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, Central and South America, Japan and China. The most widely represented collections are bromeliads, aroids and succulents.

The first, and so far the only, Museum of Women's and Gender History (Gendermuseum) in Ukraine was founded in Kharkiv in 2008 with the support of the Ukrainian Women's Fund, the Global Fund for Women, and the Program for Equal Opportunities and Rights of Women in Ukraine.

The mission of the museum is to promote the ideas of gender equality, create new models of social roles for women and men, and strengthen the international feminist movement.

The Gendermuseum collection includes over 4,000 diverse exhibits collected in Ukraine and transferred from different countries of the world. Among them are documents, books, textbooks, children's toys, discs, personal belongings of gender theorists and practitioners, souvenirs, tools of "light" women's labor, and photographs. The museum's exposition provides an opportunity to experience firsthand how gender construction takes place in society.

The highlight of the project are four panoramas of social roles - panoramas showing the social roles of men and women in different historical eras, photo albums "A World Without Violence".

The Kharkiv Museum of Women's and Gender History is a member of the International Association of Women's Museums.

A high-rise apartment building in the center of Kharkiv in the style of the "Stalin Empire" is called "House with a Spire".

It occupies an entire block on the corner of maidan Konstytutsiyi. It was built in 1950-1954 according to the project of the architect Petro Oreshkin for the employees of the Kharkiv Turbine Plant.

The main 7-story part of the building with an 11-story tower is topped by a spire, which gave the building its name.

According to the voting results in 2008, the "House with a Spire" was included in the list of "Seven Wonders of Kharkiv".

Krasnokutsk Arboretum is one of the oldest arboreal parks of Ukraine.

It was founded in 1809 (according to other sources, in 1793) by the biologist Ivan Karazin, brother of the founder of Kharkiv University Vasyl Karazin, in their family estate. The father of the Karazin brothers, Nazar Karazin, a colonel in the Russian army, received these lands from Catherine II. His son Ivan Nazarovych carried out reclamation works on the outskirts of the former military settlement, on the site of the Cossack Peter and Paul Monastery (1664), and established an arboretum here.

While traveling the world, he collected many seedlings and seeds of rare plants, which he then acclimatized. Among them: ginkgo, Canadian poplar, western sycamore, Lowa fir, Weymouth pine, Japanese quince, black walnut and others.

Currently, the Krasnokutsk Arboretum is part of the Krasnokutsk Research Station of Horticulture, free entry. The caves of the Peter and Paul Monastery have been preserved on the territory.

The building of the Land Bank in Vilshany was built in 1912 (according to other data - in 1903).

Architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Currently, the building houses the village council of Vilshany.

Kharkiv Stadium "Metalist" is the home arena of the football club of the same name. Opened after reconstruction in 2009 for the Euro-2012 championship. Accommodates more than 35,000 spectators.

The history of the stadium began in 1925, when the leadership of the city of Kharkiv, which at that time had the status of the capital, decided to use the wasteland near the city center for the stadium, and a year later it was already opened as the main sports arena of Ukraine.

In 1950, the stadium had to be rebuilt after the Second World War. It was not subject to serious reconstruction until 2009. Currently, the "Metalist" stadium in Kharkiv is one of the most modern in Ukraine and has one of the best lawns. It was nicknamed "The Spider" for its characteristic metal supports that resemble spider legs.

Excursions are held, during which you can visit the stadium bowl, premises for football players, official representatives of the teams and the media, visit the children's football academy of FC "Metalist", buy souvenirs in the football paraphernalia shop. Excursions are conducted upon request for groups of at least 10 people. The duration of the tour is 60 minutes.

The rotunda of the "Mirror Stream" fountain in Victory Square opposite the Opera House is considered a hallmark of the Kharkiv.

It was built in 1947 according to the project of the architect Viktor Korzh in honor of the Victory in the Second World War.

Until 1930, the Myronosytska Church (1701) was located on this site, then a wasteland and a trolleybus park. According to legend, the decision to create a square with a fountain was made by the city authorities after Mykyta Khrushchev, who visited Kharkiv, was dissatisfied with the view from the window of the regional committee.

At first, the gazebo-fountain was called "Glass stream". In 2007, for the 60th anniversary of the "Mirror Stream", its reconstruction was carried out. The next reconstruction took place in the fall of 2019.