Attractions of Kharkiv region

The Museum of Local Self-Government of the Kharkiv Region was opened in Kharkiv in 2015 on the occasion of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the 150th anniversary of the introduction of Zemstvos - the first elected local self-government bodies in the Slobozhanshchyna.

The museum is located in the city center, in the premises of the Derzhprom Building (5th entrance). Is a subdivision of the Kharkiv Historical Museum is named after Mykola Sumtsov.

The museum's exposition tells about the historical past of self-government since its inception, about the spread of the regimental-hundred system, about the formation of zemstvo self-government and the introduction of the position of mayor. Original documents, reproduced clothing of officials of different eras, original weapons are presented.

The Lozova branch of the Kharkiv Fire and Technical Exhibition was founded in 1990. The exposition consists of six halls and one hall for showing films and holding lectures.

Among the exhibits in the "History of Fire Protection" hall are the "Horse and Barrel March" model, the "Burning Bush" icon of the Mother of God, an old fire bell, an "Incendiary Bomb" model, an old copper gun barrel, and a metal fire helmet.

In the "Fire Alarm and Automation" hall, a sprinkler system, a drencher system and their monitoring stands, an ORP-100 fire extinguisher, OPU-2 fire extinguishers, OHVP-10 fire extinguishers, glass stands, "Fire Detectors" models, "Air Duct Protection" model, a "Firefighter" sculpture, mannequins, "Storm" combat clothing, and a "Heat-reflective" suit.

The "Firefighting Equipment and Equipment" hall exhibits KIP-8 with a gas mask, a manual pump with a foam-barrel stroke, a gas cutter, a chipping hammer, a hook, a grapple, tongs, an NSh-600 pump, a SV-100 suction net, a helmet liner, a GS-2000 foam generator, a fire column, a carriage barrel, a holster, a fire belt, a fire axe, a D-75 suction hose, D-60 and D-51 fire hoses, an assault ladder, a stick ladder, a group lantern, an individual lantern, a RSA barrel, a KRB barrel, in glass display cases a turbine-type sprayer, dielectric scissors, seals and boots, a radio station, etc.

The Lozova Museum of Local Lore has been operating since 1967 and is now subordinated to the Lozova City Council.

The archeological exposition presents items from the burial of a nomad and stone women of the XII-XIII centuries. Objects of the Cossack era are acquainted with the history of the region: saber, clay flask, fragments of pipes.

The foundation of the town of Lozova in the XIX century is told in photographs, plans and orders, which show the construction of the railway, household items of the first railwaymen, furniture of different segments of the population.

In 2001, the history hall of the Lozova Forging and Mechanical Plant was opened.

The Lyhivka Rural Museum of Local Lore was founded in 1980 on the initiative of biology teacher Anatolii Skochko. The museum is located in the premises of the rural House of Culture. Is a branch of the Sakhnovshchyna Historical and Local Lore Museum.

The main exhibition departments of the museum: "Ethnography", "Plant and Animal World of the Region", "World War II", "Post-war Period of the Village". The museum collects natural exhibits, antique household items, tools, documentary materials and photographs.

A separate exhibition is dedicated to the Ukrainian writer and journalist Mykhailo Chabanivskyi, who was born in Lyhivka. Family photos with his wife Lidia and daughters, as well as the writer's typewriter, are presented.

Pavlivskyi Maidan emerged in 1660-1662, when a fortification (outpost) was built here, adjacent to the Kharkiv Fortress.

After some time, the center of the fortification became a large shopping area called Narodna. At the corner of the square and Universitetska Street in the second half of the 18th century, there was a post office (now on this site is a post office building), next to which a stone verst pillar with inscriptions indicating the distances from Kharkiv to Moscow and neighboring provincial cities was installed. Decrees were read near the pillar and public punishments were carried out, so the square was also called Lobna.

In the middle of the 19th century, the square was called Pavlivska in honor of the merchant Pavlov, who opened the first store with fixed prices for goods. Later, the large building of the insurance company "Russia" (1910-1915, architect Mykola Verovkin) and the City Merchant Bank (1913, architects Mykola Vasylyev and Oleksandr Rzhepishevsky) were built, on the two upper floors of which the Astoria hotel was located.

During the Second World War, the building was destroyed, but then restored in its original form.

On the night of August 27, 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Russians launched a missile attack on Pavlivskyi Maidan in Kharkiv. The historical building of 1912 was damaged, the windows and doors of the building were blown out by the blast wave.

The current Serhiivskyi Maidan below the Universitsky Hill, along the former embankment, was formed at the beginning of the 18th century as a shopping area with benches and taverns, where auctions were held 4 times a week.

It was called the Basarna Square or the Lopansky Bazaar. In the 19th century, a wooden covered market was built at the Lopansky Bazaar. In 1835, all the houses burned down during a great fire. In the middle of the 19th century, the construction of stone commercial buildings began, in particular, Serhiivskyi row, named after the Kharkiv governor (the square was called Serhiivskyi). In 1868, stone stairs were built instead of wooden ones, which were located in the place of the current ones.

In 1875, the construction of Novo-Serhiivskyi row was completed, in which the city museum soon opened. In 1890, a two-story Mykolaivskyi row was built on the site of the burned-out Serhiivskyi row according to the project of the architect Alfred Spiegel. In 1898, stone shops were built on the banks of Lopan according to the project of the academician of architecture Oleksiy Beketov. The "Grand Hotel" was located in the southern part of the square.

In 1932, the square was renamed Proletarska. After the Second World War, the square was reconstructed. Trees have been planted along the banks of Lopan, and a square with flower beds and lawns has been laid out. The Universitsky Hill and its slopes were arranged, and new stairs were built.

In 2016, the historical name of the square was returned - Serhiivskyi Maidan.

The private manor-museum of Slobozhansk life "Ukrainian House" in the village of Nyzhnia Ozeriana was created by the Yelahin family in a restored 300-year-old village house in Mazanka with an authentic interior.

The exhibition presents a variety of rural household items: spindles, chests, stags, cauldrons, pots. Lots of towels and embroidered bedspreads.

Theatrical tours are conducted.

The Kharkiv Maritime Museum illuminates the history of seafaring in models.

The exposition visually tells about how wooden ships were built and launched, how warships of the 17th century were arranged, how tools were used on an old sailing ship, how gold was extracted from sunken galleons.

The exposition presents beautifully executed models of ships created over the course of dozens of years. You can also see navigation devices, facsimile maps, engravings, documents (partly from the archives of the Royal Society of Great Britain), written by brave travelers themselves.

The Museum of History Kharkiv Metro is housed in several halls of the Kharkiv Metro Public Administration building.

On the stands of the metro museum, the history of the construction, formation and development of the enterprise is displayed, various exhibits are presented, which in one way or another belong to the long-term activity of the Kharkiv metro, and the company's awards and commemorative gifts are exhibited.

In particular, you can see models of trains that carry passengers every day, a mock-up of an electrical depot, a jackhammer with which metro builders used the first meters of the Kholodnohirsk-Zavodska Line tunnels, samples of metro workers' uniforms from different periods, a nobleman's lantern, and more.

The Museum of the History of Metrology operates at the National Scientific Center "Institute of Metrology", which dates back to the first verification booth in Ukraine for the verification and branding of trade measures and weights, which was opened in Kharkiv in 1901 by Dmitri Mendeleev.

The museum's exposition presents samples of ancient measuring instruments, including standards: a unique working mass standard - a gilded weight weighing 1 kg, which headed the verification scheme of mass measuring instruments in Ukraine from the first months of the verification booth's operation (from 1901 to 1939); a Riefler pendulum clock with an accuracy of 0.01 seconds per day, which was used in the time and frequency service from 1925 to 1941; a linear measure of length - a meter, which was used in metrological practice until 1973.

The samples of metrological equipment presented in the museum were created in different years. Since 1993, the institute has created and approved by the State Standard of Ukraine 47 state primary standards (out of 57 available in Ukraine) and 15 secondary standards. In addition to standards that exist in a single copy, the institute develops and produces measuring equipment intended for mass use.

Many of the devices presented in the museum were exhibited at domestic and international exhibitions.

The National Museum of Military History of Slobozhanshchyna was opened in Solonytsivka in 1965 as the National Memorial Complex "Marshal Konev Height". In 2003, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Kharkiv from the German fascist invaders, a complete reconstruction was carried out. In January 2025, during the decommunization of Ukraine, the name was changed from "National Memorial Complex "Marshal Konev Height" to "National Museum of Military History of Slobozhanshchyna".

In 1943, the headquarters of the Steppe Front commander was located here, from where Marshal Konev gave the order for the night assault on Kharkiv, and the next day the city was liberated. About half a million soldiers died in the battle, but this operation initiated the liberation of all of Ukraine.

The complex includes a 17.5-meter-high stele, an exhibition of military equipment, a chapel in honor of John the Warrior, and a museum complex.

The exposition of the National Museum of Military History of Slobozhanshchyna presents artifacts from the times of Soviet and German occupation, models of equipment, tanks and steam locomotives, tools, archival photographs, documents, postcards, books, Ukrainian clothing and towels, uniforms of soldiers of the Soviet, Polish and Nazi armies, weapons of different countries, shells, bombs, bullets, medals and badges, miniatures of rooms with old furniture, maps, paintings and portraits, sailors' uniforms, sea mines, boats, fragments of aircraft shells and equipment, part of the decoration of the Reichstag building, exhibits dedicated to the Holocaust and camps, prisoners' uniforms and clothing.

A separate hall of the museum is devoted to exhibits of the Afghan War: paintings, weapons, military uniforms and clothing of local residents.

There is also a large exhibition dedicated to the modern Russian-Ukrainian war, the defense of Donetsk airport. The halls display uniforms, weapons, shell fragments, medals and awards, models of modern military equipment and flags.

The monument to Father Fedir, a character in the novel "Twelve Chairs" (1928) by Ilya Ilf and Yevhen Petrov, is installed on the 1st platform of the South Railway Station in Kharkiv.

The monument serves as an illustration of an episode of the novel in which Father Fedir writes a letter to his wife to the county town of N from the Kharkiv railway station, as well as a reminder of how Father Fedir was seen on the Donetsk railway: "He fled along the platform with a kettle of boiling water..".

Father Fedir is depicted in the image embodied by the Soviet film actor Mykhaylo Puhovkin in the screen adaptation of "12 Chairs" directed by Leonid Hayday (1971).

On the pedestal is a quote from his letter to his wife: "Kharkiv is a bustling city, the center of the Ukrainian Republic. After the province, it seems as if he has gone abroad."

The monument to Ostap Bender, Ipolyt Matviyovych Vorobyaninov and Ellochka the cannibal - cult characters of the novel "12 Chairs" by Ilya Ilf and Yevhen Petrov - was opened in Kharkiv in 2005 on City Day.

The "Great Combiner", cast in bronze, sat on a bench installed in front of the entrance to one of Kharkiv's cafes. Kisa Vorobyaninov, who was looking for treasures hidden in a furniture set together with the "great combiner", is depicted as begging for alms. Ellochka in a defiant pose seems to invite passers-by to sit on the treasured chair.

In 2024, monuments to the characters of the novel "12 Chairs" in Kharkiv were dismantled as part of decolonization.

National Nature Park "Slobozhanskyi" was created in 2009 with the aim of preserving historical and cultural complexes and valuable natural territories of the forest-steppe zone of the Slobozhanshchyna region.

It is located on an area of ​​5,244 hectares in the territory of the Bohodukhiv district of the Kharkiv region in the valley of the Merla River (Dnipro River basin). Forest coenoses of natural origin are represented by oaks, pines, and in the depressions around the swamps - birches and alders.

The business card of Slobozhanskyi National Nature Park is relict lakes, small swamps and peat bogs - peculiar micro-reserves of boreal vegetation that have survived here since the last ice age.

The visitor center of the National Nature Park "Slobozhanskyi" is located on the territory of the Nataliyivka Estate in the village of Volodymyrivka.

The wooden church of the Nativity of Christ was built in the village of Borova in 1782 at the expense of the parishioners. This is one of the oldest wooden churches of the Kharkiv region, a wonderful example of the wooden church architecture of the Slobozhanshchyna.

The church is one-story, three-log, made of oak logs, decorated with elegant decorative wood carvings.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was reconstructed.