Attractions of Ternopil region

Ternopil Regional Museum of Local Lore was founded in 1913 as the Podillya Museum with four departments: ethnographic, historical and numismatic, natural history and archeology.

Today, the museum of local lore is housed in an unusual building from Soviet times. The exposition has more than 150 thousand exhibits and reflects the history of Ternopil since the X century. In particular, a collection of ceramics found during archeological excavations in the region is presented.

The most valuable exhibits of the Ternopil Regional Museum of Local Lore are 4 allegorical sculptures from the side altar of the Buchach Holy Intercession Church by the world-famous sculptor Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel.

The Kopychyntsi Theater Museum of Ternopil region was founded in 1968 on the initiative of Orest Savka, the director of the Bohdan Lepky Kopychynsky People's Amateur Drama Theater.

His collection of materials about the history of the theater life of the region became the basis of the exposition, which is located in 7 halls of the House of Culture. The exhibition tells about the origins of the birth of Ukrainian theater from the depths of the centuries, about the "Rus Conversation" theater society in Galicia from 1864-1924, about "Ternopil Theater Evenings" - the first professional stationary Ukrainian theater in Ternopil from 1915-1917, about the Kopychyna People's Drama Theater named after Bohdan Lepky.

Photographs, pictorial and graphic paintings, dolls, posters, sketches of scenery and costumes, models of scenery, theatrical costumes, furniture, etc. are presented.

There is a theater cafe at the museum.

The ruins of the Toky (Ozhyhovetskyi) castle are located on a peninsula surrounded by the waters of a large pond.

The castle in Toky was built at the end of the 16th century by the Bratslav voivode, Yanush Zbarazky. Subsequently, the castle belonged to the Vyshnevetskyi, Charnetskyi, and Matkovskyi.

In 1648 it was captured by the Cossacks, and in 1675 it was destroyed by the Turks. In the 19th century, most of the towers and walls were dismantled for building materials.

The ruins of one pentagonal tower and a section of the wall have survived to this day. The upper part of the walls is destroyed, and the courtyard of the fortress is located level with the edge of the wall.

The People's Local Lore Museum of the History of the Tovste Village is located in the building of the People's House, built at the beginning of the 20th century by the "Prosvita" society.

The founder of the Ukrainian theater, Sadovskyi, as well as the founder of the Hutsul theater, Khotkevych, performed on the stage of its assembly hall.

In 1990, a local lore museum was opened here.

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is the oldest church in Zbarazh. It is located on Chernecha Hill, on the southwestern outskirts of the city in the village of Zaluzhzhia, in the area of Stary Zbarazh.

Erected on the site of the ancient monastery of Saint Onufry at the expense of Yan Zbarazky. Walled loopholes in the thick walls testify to the defensive purpose of the structure.

Today it is the parish church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the village of Zaluzhzhia, which has been restored in recent years.

There is a sundial on the wall. A monument in honor of the 400th anniversary of the temple was erected nearby.

The Ulas Samchuk Museum is located in Kremenets in the main building of the Ulas Samchuk Lyceum. It was opened in 2005 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the writer's birth as the cabinet-museum "Ulas Samchuk's Svitlytsya". It acquired the status of a literary museum in 2010.

The museum's exposition highlights the life and creative path of Ulas Samchuk, honoring the memory of the writer. Among the exhibits are student lists, pages of class magazines, a statement, pages of the student almanac "Youth" of Ulas Samchuk's gymnasium period; photographs, documents from the writer's stay in Rivne in 1941-1943. Among the valuable exhibits are photographs of the writer from different years, his family, friends; books published by the artist in Munich, Toronto; photo documents, press materials from past years, current publications, memoirs about Ulas Samchuk, works of the writer published in independent Ukraine, works of his contemporaries. A significant number of books of the writer's creative output came from the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada and the USA.

The museum's exposition has sections: "Childhood and Youth of Ulas Samchuk (1905-1921), "Study at the Kremenets Gymnasium (1921-1927)", "First Emigration (1928-1941)", "Return to the Homeland (1941-1943)", "Stay in camps for the displacement of persons (1943-1948)", "Second Emigration (1948-1987)", "Honoring the Memory of Ulas Samchuk in Ukraine", "Havrylo Chernykhivskyi - a Researcher of Ulas Samchuk's Creativity", "Honoring the Memory of Ulas Samchuk in the Lyceum".

On February 19, 2016, a memorial tablet dedicated to the memory of Ulas Samchuk was unveiled on the facade of the Lyceum.

The castle in the village of Novosilka (old name Novosilka-Kostyukova) was built in the 16th century by representatives of the noble family of Kostyuk-Volodiyevsky (it is believed that someone from this family inspired Henryk Senkevych to create the image of Mr. Volodiyevsky).

The castle was quadrangular in plan, with four towers. It was located on top of a hill and was washed by the waters of the Khromava River on three sides. In 1672, the castle was destroyed during the Turkish invasion and has not been restored since then. It remained in ruins until the middle of the 19th century, after which it was dismantled for building materials for the construction of a church and a road.

Currently, only the ruins of one of the towers remain from the castle, which in some literary sources is called the Volodiyevsky Tower.

The Volodymyr Hnatiuk Ethnographic Memorial Museum was founded in the village of Velesniv in 1969 on the initiative and with the participation of the outstanding Ukrainian local historian, ethnographer, literary critic and public figure Ostap Cheremshynsky.

The museum's exposition is located in eight rooms and a foyer, four of which tell about the life and scientific activities of Volodymyr Hnatiuk - a Ukrainian ethnographer, folklorist, linguist, literary critic, art critic, translator and public figure, academician. In particular, it contains photographs of Volodymyr Hnatiuk, maps of Austria-Hungary for 1895-1902, manuscripts, albums, books and separate collections with the scientist's autographs, books and collections of works of many writers and scientists of Ukraine and other European countries published by him, homespun towels, sackcloths created by the academician's father - Mykhaylo Hnatiuk.

The fifth room is dedicated to the memory of Volodymyr Hnatiuk, where unique publications with reports of his death and obituaries are collected.

The sixth room recreates the interior of the living room of Volodymyr Hnatiuk's family. The seventh room recreates his study - here are personal belongings of the scientist and his family members, manuscripts and letters of Hnatiuk, handwritten folklore collections of Osyp Bodyansky, Frantyshek Hlavachek, Serhii Hrabovsky, Zorian Dolenga-Khodakovsky, Ivan Franko from the archive of Volodymyr Hnatiuk, memoirs about him by Ivan Krypiakevych, editions of the scientist's works, books from his library, albums.

The eighth room is a fund and exhibition room.

In total, the museum's funds have collected over two thousand exhibits, over five hundred of which are presented in the exposition.

In 1971, a bronze bust of the academician was installed in front of the museum (sculptor Luka Bihanych, architect Volodymyr Blyusiuk).

The Museum of Volodyslav Fedorovych was founded in 2007 as the Vikno Village History Museum. Located in the administrative building in the center of the village.

The updated exhibition opened in 2021. It is dedicated to the Ukrainian public and political figure and philanthropist Volodyslav Fedorovych, whose father Ivan Fedorovych was an heir from the village of Vikno in the 19th century. Having inherited the estate in Vikno, Volodyslav Fedorovych collected works of folk art in it, founded a school and carpet production.

In 1873-1874, the Ukrainian painter Kornylo Ustiyanovych lived and worked in the Vikon manor. Ivan Franko came to the estate at Fedorovych's invitation. You can learn more about this in the museum exposition, which is spread over five halls.

The central exhibits of the museum are a part of a carpet and a statuette of a parrot, which the villagers managed to save from a fire in the Fedorovych estate in 1917. Also presented are samples of the pottery school of the village of Tovste and copies of carpets woven in the village of Vikno. Ancient objects of peasant life are exhibited in the ethnographic hall.

The museum offers visitors both traditional tours and audio guides.

The ancient stone water mill on the Hnizna River in Zbarazh is a monument of industrial architecture of local importance. At this place, a dam was built on the river under the Zbarazh Castle.

The water mill building is in a neglected state.

The Ivanna Blazhkevych Memorial Museum-House was created on a non-profit basis in the village of Denysiv in the writer's native estate in 1986 at the initiative of the Ternopil Regional Museum of Local Lore and with the consent of her relatives. Ivanna Blazhkevych's descendants still live in this house, but two rooms and a porch were given over to the museum for exhibition.

The first room, in which the writer spent the last years of her life, contains her personal belongings, antique furniture, a book collection, paintings and photographs. In the boxes are the writer's letters, manuscripts of memoirs, works, speeches, articles, photographs. The room also has stands on which the writer's works published during her lifetime and after her death are exhibited.

In the second room is a portrait of Ivanna Blazhkevych and other paintings, books, souvenirs donated personally by the writer, as well as to the museum.

In 1997, the museum received the status of "People's Museum". A monument to the poetess is erected in the garden.

The memorial museum-estate of the writer Ivanna Blazhkevych is a branch of the Denysiv Museum of Local Lore.

One of the most powerful castles in Podillya was built in Yahilnytsia in 1630 by Crown Hetman Stanislav Lyantskoronskyi.

In 1655, Yahilnytsia Castle withstood the siege of the Cossack troops of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, and only later as a result of betrayal was captured by the Cossacks of Buturlin.

After the signing of the Buchach Peace Treaty, when Yahilnytsia, along with some other Podillya lands, went to Turkey, the castle housed the garrison of the Turkish Pasha for some time.

By the end of the 18th century, the Yahilnytsia castle lost its strategic importance. The Austrian authorities ordered to fill in the ditches and dismantle part of the fortifications, and the buildings were used as a tobacco and potash factory. The castle kept this purpose until now under the sign of the Yahilnytsia tobacco and fermentation plant. Currently, it belongs to a private company, the plant does not work, access to the territory is closed.

The People's Museum of the History of the Yahilnytsia Village was created in 1979 on the basis of the materials of the school hall-museum and private collections of teachers. It received the status of "People's Museum" in 1990.

The museum's collections include over 3 thousand exhibits, which are presented in 6 halls. The museum's exposition contains information about the historical, ethnographic, and natural features of the village's development from ancient times to the present day.

The Yakiv Hnizdovsky Ethnographic and Art Museum was opened in 1992 in the village of Pylypche, in the homeland of the world-famous American artist of Ukrainian origin Yakiv Hnizdovsky, whose paintings ("Winter Landscape" and "Sunflower") decorated the office of US President John F. Kennedy in the White House.

Yakiv Hnizdovsky worked in various genres of painting and graphics - portrait, landscape, still life, iconography, everyday genre, bookplate, applied graphics. He painted with oil paints and tempera, various solid dyes, engraved on wooden and metal boards, and sometimes engaged in small-scale sculpture. His legacy includes hundreds of paintings, as well as more than 300 engravings (woodcuts, etchings and linocuts).

The museum is located in the premises of the Pylypche comprehensive school. At first, the museum had a small exhibition area, and later it was expanded and became a museum complex that includes: the ethnographic and art museum of Yakiv Hnizdovsky, where the originals of his works and archival materials from his biography are exhibited; the museum of village history; the museum of children's creativity. Currently, the total area of ​​​​the museum is 160 square meters.

Yazlovets Castle, nicknamed the "Key of Podillya", in the 16th and 17th centuries was one of the most important defensive structures in the eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, along with Kamyants-Podilskyi. Now it is one of the objects of the National Reserve "Castles of Ternopil Region".

The castle in Yazlovets was founded by representatives of the magnate family of Buczacki-Jazłowiecki. In the 15th century, Teodoryk Buczacki-Jazłowiecki turned it into a powerful bastion, in 1550-1575 Jerzy Jazłowiecki expanded the castle and later completed a huge four-story tower. Below were casemates, on the third floor was the entrance to the city, on the fourth floor there were living quarters. The gate was led by a bridge on wooden posts, in its final part - hinged.

In 1643, the new owner Hetman Aleksandr Koniecpolski built an outer defensive ring - the Lower Castle. During the Liberation War, the fortress withstood the siege of the Cossack troops, but in 1672 it fell under the pressure of the Turks.

In 1746, Stanisław Poniatowski (father of the Polish king Stanisław August) built a palace on the site of the Lower Castle, which was remodeled and improved by Baron Krzysztof Błażowski.

In 1863, the baron donated the palace with the ruins of the castle and the garden to the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception for the establishment of a convent and a school for girls. Blessed Marcelina Darowska, the founder of the monastery, is buried in the crypt on the territory.

During Soviet times, the monastery was closed, there was a hospital, then a sanatorium. The latter is still functioning, sharing premises with the monastery, which was revived in 1999.

Today it is the Retreat House named after Marcelina Darowska of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The nuns keep the palace and park in good condition and welcome tourists.