Attractions of Nizhyn district

A monument to the famous Ukrainian painter Mykola Ge was erected in 1981 on the grave of the artist, who lived the last years of his life in Ivankivskyi farm (now the village of Shevchenka) near Fastivtsi.

Mykola Ge graduated from the 1st Kyiv gymnasium, studied at Kyiv and St. Petersburg universities, the Academy of Arts. He was one of the founders of the Association of Peredvishniks. In 1876, he moved to Ukraine, where he bought a small Ivankivskyi farm. A number of sketches of the Ukrainian peasantry and the nature of Ukraine belong to his brush.

Illya Repin, Lev Tolstoy, and Pavlo Tretyakov visited Mykola Ge's farm. Later, Mykhaylo Vrubel lived and worked on the farm (he was married to the artist's relative).

Mykola Ge died in Ivankivskyi in 1894, buried in the eastern part of the farm.

The monument was erected for the 150th anniversary of the birth of the artist and his wife, who is buried nearby. The current state of the monument raises serious concerns, because in the absence of care, it gradually decays.

The world's first monument to the outstanding writer Mykola Hohol was erected in Nizhyn in 1881.

It was here that the future writer received his education, graduating in 1828 from Prince Bezborodko's Gymnasium of Higher Sciences.

The author of the monument to Mykola Hohol was the famous sculptor Parmen Zabila, who himself was from Nizhyn. It is believed that the sculptor immortalized his profile in the folds of Hohol's cloak on the section of the bust, leaving his autograph in this unusual way.

Separate buildings that were part of the citadel complex of the Nizhyn fortress in the 17th-19th centuries have survived on the territory of the current central city market.

The fortress in Nizhyn was built during Polish rule on the site of early fortifications, reconstructed in 1749 according to the Western European model. The citadel was surrounded by an earth rampart with 4 gates, 11 wooden towers and bastions. However, after a great fire at the beginning of the 19th century, the ramparts were torn down, and the territory was set aside for a bazaar.

The castle Church of the Epiphany (1721), a powder cellar (13th century), as well as a two-story ostrog (prison) building, which now houses an ambulance station (Bazarna Street, 18), have been preserved. The remains of the northern rampart of the fortress are visible from the river side.

Currently, the territory of the fortress is occupied by the Nizhyn Market with 19th-century shophouses. In particular, you can buy the famous homemade Nizhny cucumbers here.

Nizhyn Museum of Local Lore named after Ivan  Spasky is located in an old house that belonged to the merchant Dyachenko in the XIX century.

The funds have 30,000 exhibits that tell the history of the city from ancient times to 1945. An interesting collection of archaeological finds obtained during excavations in the old part of the city, things of the Cossack era (cold steel and firearms, hetman's universals), exhibits characterizing the multinational nature of Nizhyn (including the history of the Greek community).

Of particular interest is the numismatic collection, the collection of orders and medals, the philatelic collection.

The first Soviet HTZ tractor was installed in the yard of the Nizhyn Museum of Local Lore.

The "Post Office" department of the Nizhyn Museum of Local Lore named after Ivan Spasky was opened in 1986 in a complex of buildings of the post office of the XVIII century, which is almost completely preserved.

Post offices in Kyiv, Nizhyn and Baturyn were established after the decree of Moscow Tsar Oleksiy Mykhaylovych on regular postal services between Moscow and Kyiv in 1669.

In 1787, a private estate built in the center of Nizhyn in the second half of the 18th century was converted into a post office. The complex consisted of a two-story post office building with the apartment of the Nizhyn postmaster and hotel rooms, two symmetrical outbuildings, a stable and a carriage.

At the beginning of the XIX century Nizhyn post office was one of the largest in the Left Bank of Ukraine. Mykhaylo Lomonosov, Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Oleksandr Pushkin, Mykola Hohol, Taras Shevchenko, Marko Vovchok and others stayed at the local hotel.

The exposition of the museum "Post Station" is located in the preserved wing of the station supervisor. The interior of the waiting room has been restored, where you can see a map of the postal tracts of the Russian Empire in 1793, copies of "travelers" by Mykola Hohol (1851) and Taras Shevchenko (1859).

The exhibition also presents a collection of historical postage stamps of Ukraine and Russia, 30 old postcards with photos of Nizhyn streets, a layout of the post office in its original form.

Obyrok Art Island is an eco-settlement near Baturyn, open for cultural and health events, master classes, schools, retreats, exhibitions, camps and meetings.

The art village was founded by director and traveler Leonid Kanter in 2007 on the site of the abandoned Obyrok farm. In 2018, Leonid Kanter committed suicide. His wife Diana announced the continuation of the village's artistic activities.

The settlement consists of three tiny hamlets with 30 houses, which are located at a fairly large distance from each other. "House of the Sun" is a restored hundred-year-old mud house with an earthen floor. The dining room has several tables and benches under a canopy and a sink. Nearby is the "Kinosaray", where film screenings, discussions and presentations are held. There is also an old club for 100 people on "Obyrok Island".

The grave of scientist-beekeeper Petro Prokopovych is located on the outskirts of the village of Palchyky, where he opened a beekeeping school in 1830, previously founded by him in the neighboring village of Mytchenky.

Prokopovich is considered the founder of rational beekeeping and the inventor of the modern frame beehive.

A monument to Petro Prokopovych was erected on his grave in Palchyky in 2008, but the original sculpture was soon stolen. Two tombstones have been preserved (Prokopovych's successor Stepan Velykdan is buried nearby), a beautiful entrance has been equipped, and two beautiful gazebos have been built.

The Museum of the Foundation of Academician Petro Tronko was opened in the village of Vepryk in the country house of a close friend of the scientist-historian Anatoliy Serykov.

The main sections of the exposition: the magazine "Souvenirs of Ukraine" - a national project of Academician Petro Tronko; the family of the Decembrist Serhiy Volkonsky and the culture of Chernihiv Region; Petro Tronko's memorial room.

The railway station in Bakhmach, built in 1954 according to the project of the architect "Mosgiprotrans" Oleksandr Kulahin, is considered one of the most beautiful on the Konotop railway.

The building is made in a neo-Gothic style unusual for the region.

The steam locomotive Em736-17 is installed at the station.

The Museum of Rare Books named after Hryhoriy Vasylkivskyi has been operating in Nizhyn since 1985 on the basis of the fundamental library of Mykola Hohol Nizhyn State University.

It is located on the second floor of the university library in the ancient building of the Merchants' Assembly in the center of the city of Nizhyn. The museum bears the name of one of its founders, Professor Hryhoriy Vasylkivskyi.

The library is based on 2,500 volumes of the personal book collection of Count Oleksandr Kushelyev-Bezborodko, who was a trustee of the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences, the predecessor of the current university.

The exposition presents many unique European and Slavic editions of the 16th - early 20th centuries, including rare copies of editions of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (Venice, 1513), Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" (1544), "Aeneid" Virgil (1567), classic editions of the works of European thinkers of the 16th-18th centuries.

The special pride of the museum is the Holy Gospel of 1689 from the Nizhyn Annunciation Monastery, a gift of Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky. The huge tome weighs almost 18 kilograms, some pages are painted by hand, the titles are gilded.

The Resurrection Church in Baturyn is the family tomb of the last hetman of Ukraine, Kyrylo Rozumovsky.

The temple in the style of classicism was built at the expense of Rozumovsky in 1803 at the same time as the Hetman's palace. Named in the same way as the wooden church that was located until 1708 on the territory of the Baturyn fortress.

In 1805, over the grave of the hetman, his son Oleksiy Rozumovsky installed a marble tombstone in the shape of a pyramid by the sculptor Ivan Matros. Under the bas-relief with the image of the deceased, the epitaph and family coat of arms of Rozumovsky with the motto: "To multiply glory with deeds" were engraved.

The Resurrection Church was restored and consecrated in 2009.

Sait Michael's Church was built in the village of Bezuhlivka in 1805-1835.

The architecture of the stone temple in the style of classicism is attributed to the provincial empire. A tombstone on the grave of Bezuhlivka landowner Mykhaylo Sydorenko has been preserved on the church circuit.

The Greek Church of Saint Michael the Archangel is the scariest church of the Greek community preserved in Nizhyn.

Built in 1719-1729 in the Greek quarter of Nizhyn. Since then, it has never been rebuilt, thanks to which it has preserved the archaic forms of Balkan architecture.

Currently, Saint Michael's Church is closed, services are not held. The temple does not catch the eye, as it is hidden behind the larger church of All Saints.

Saint Nicholas Cathedral is the main temple of Nizhyn, one of the first examples of Ukrainian Baroque architecture.

The cathedral was built in 1658-1668 by Cossacks of the Nizhyn regiment at the expense of colonels Ivan and Vasyl Zolotarenko on the site of an old wooden temple. It repeats the classic techniques of Ukrainian wooden architecture in stone. A characteristic feature of the architecture of the five-domed temple is "comprehensiveness", that is, it looks the same from all sides. Inside, the carved iconostasis deserves attention.

In 1663, the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Nizhyn became the center of dramatic events associated with the "Black Council" - Ivan Bryukhovetskyi, the basket chieftain of the Zaporizhzhia Sich, was elected hetman of the Left Bank of Ukraine here, which is considered the beginning of the Ruin - the collapse of the hetman state.

According to local legend, in the same temple (still wooden) Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi married Hanna Zolotarenko, the sister of Nizhyn colonels, but in fact their wedding took place in Korsun.

In 1990, the Saint Nicholas Cathedral was restored and handed over to the religious community of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Warm Church of John the Baptist (1842), which was part of the complex, was rebuilt into the House of Culture (Batyuka Streetб 16).

Monuments to Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and Mariya Zankovetska have been installed in the park.

Saint Peter and Paul Church in Petrivka near Novyi Bykiv was built in 1838.

Unique in terms of architecture, the temple with Neo-Gothic elements has original domes. One of them is shaped like a strongly flattened bulb, and the other is a ball.