Attractions of Dnistrovskyi district

The Cave Saint Nicholas Men`s Monastery in Halytsia arose on the high bank of the Dniester, probably in the 13th century, on the basis of an early Slavic temple complex.

The monastery is located in natural caves formed in the wall of a vertical limestone rock on the slope of the Halytsky ravine. In the 18th century, Halytsia was mentioned as a hermitage. It was destroyed several times, revived in recent years.

The main complex includes 20 rock-hewn rooms with attached exterior walls that resemble fairy-tale houses with beautiful wooden windows and doors. The buildings are located on stepped terraces with staircases and arches. Some distance away is the hermit's cave.

A wonderful panorama of the Dniester opens from the terrace.

The building of the city theater named after Oleksandr Khyzhdeu (Aleksandru Hyzhdeu) was built in Khotyn in the Romanian period. It is made in the neo-Romanian style of Bryncovian.

In Soviet times, the two-story building with a tiled roof became a house of culture. Today it is a home for children and school youth. Exhibitions are held in the lobby.

Dniester HPP is one of the most modern hydroelectric power plants of Ukraine, unique in its complex purpose and design features.

The construction of the hydroelectric station on the Dniester began in 1973. Nearby, on the right bank of the river, the city of energy workers was under construction. In 1981, the first two hydro units were put into operation, and in 1983 the station reached the installed capacity of 702 MW.

In 2008, the first hydro unit of the Dniester hydro-accumulating power plant, which became the most powerful in Europe, was launched. The 194-kilometer-long reservoir allows to regulate the seasonal flow of the Dniester.

The Holy Intercession Cathedral is located in Khotyn City Park. It was built in 1867-1868 in the diocesan style.

Nearby is the former priest's house, which now houses a local Khotyn Historical Museum.

The ancient building of the customs house is the oldest stone building preserved in the city of Khotyn after the Khotyn fortress.

It was built in the 17th-18th centuries, when Khotyn was owned by the Turks. The walls are made of natural stone and decorated with red brick ornaments. The main facade is plastered.

Khotyn Fortress is a remarkable example of medieval defense architecture of Ukraine, one of the most significant architectural monuments of Bukovyna.

It was built in the 13th century by order of Prince Danylo Halytsky on the site of early Slavic fortifications. The castle (citadel) consists of four defensive towers, the commandant's palace, officers' barracks, a church with fragments of a 16th century painting.

For a long time Khotyn Fortress was an outpost of the Galicia-Volyn principality, an important defensive point of Transnistria. In the 16th century it was strengthened by the Moldavian King Stefan III.

In 1621, near Khotyn, united Polish-Ukrainian troops under the command of Hetman Yan Karol Khodkevych defeated a 150,000-strong Turkish army that was considered invincible. The decisive role in the Battle of Khotyn was played by the 40,000-strong Cossack army of Hetman Petro Sahaydachnyi.

However, Khotyn remained under the rule of the Turks, who in the 18th century, with the help of French engineers, built a new fortress near the castle with earthen ditches, bastions and four gates. Inside could accommodate a 20,000-strong garrison.

After the annexation of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire in the 19th century, the fortress was rebuilt, the castle mosque was transformed into the garrison church of Oleksandr Nevsky, and the mosque on the territory of the New Fortress became the Church of Saint Nicholas.

After the Crimean War, the Khotyn Fortress lost its significance as a military facility, but it survived well. Its powerful walls served as scenery in such famous films as "Zahar Berkut", "The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe", "D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers", "Robin Hood's Arrows", "Taras Bulba".

Restoration was carried out to the 1000th anniversary of Khotyn Fortress. Museum expositions have been opened in the barracks: the history of artillery, siege weapons, numismatics, art gallery.

There is a souvenir shop on site. Parking is paid.

Khotyn Historical Museum is a department of the Chernivtsi Regional Museum of Local Lore.

It is located in the former house of the priest of the Holy Intercession Cathedral.

In five halls there are expositions that cover the history of the region: "Khotyn region - Slavic land", "Khotyn region in the period X-XVII centuries.", "Russian-Turkish war", ethnography of Khotyn region of the late XIX - early XX centuries. and other.

Of particular interest is the model of Khotyn fortress and Cossack jewels.

The Kobolchyn Pottery Museum was opened in 2008. Its founder was the honored worker of culture Ivan Honchar.

The museum is designed in the form of a pottery estate.

The museum presents about a thousand ceramic products, as well as exhibits that tell about the history of the village of Kobolchyn. A large arsenal of Ukrainian household items of the last century is presented: a large pottery oven, old carpets, pillows, old windows and doors, shutters and benches, as well as the invariable attributes of those times - towels and embroidered cloths.

In the pottery museum, you can get acquainted with the secrets of the pottery craft in practice.

National Nature Park "Khotynskyi" was created in 2011 with the aim of preserving natural and historical-cultural complexes and objects in the Dniester River basin on the territory of the Dnistrovskyi district of the Chernivtsi region.

The park covers an area of ​​9,432 hectares. Its relief is mainly formed by the Dniester canyon. There are 520 species of plants in the park. Among the rare animals and birds are the forest cat, the black stork.

Near the village of Hryniachka is the highest waterfall in Bukovyna (30 meters), which originates from a powerful karst spring.

Romankovetsky Park was established at the beginning of the 19th century by the landowner Vasyl Balanesku (Balonetskyi) on the basis of a natural forest park in which oak, hornbeam, sycamore, ash, aspen, birch, nectar-bearing linden, willow, acacia and other plants grew.

The development of the park based on the examples of classical European horticultural culture began in 1838 under the Krupensky landowners. They gathered here a unique collection of trees and shrubs from Europe, Asia and America, laid out promenades, and built an underground greenhouse.

A tunnel with a length of more than a kilometer leading to the local church has been preserved, as well as the remains of residential and commercial buildings.

The Historical Museum of the Sokyriany City Council of the Chernivtsi Region was opened in 2015.

The exposition in four halls tells about the history of Sokyrianshchyna and the whole Bessarabian-Bukovynian region from ancient times to the present day.

Among the exhibits are archeological artifacts and finds, icons, books and photographs, household items, utensils, clothes, household items. In particular, an adult mammoth tusk 1.6 m long and weighing 60 kg, found in 2008 on the banks of the Dniester near the village of Voloshkove, is presented. You can also see the flint products of primitive people from excavations of a Paleolithic site on the outskirts of the village of Molodove.