Attractions of Cherkasy district

The Patriotic Museum of the Russian-Ukrainian War in Cherkasy was founded in 2018 by a serviceman of the 118th Terrodefense Brigade, volunteer Oleksiy Svyatenko. It is located on the territory of the motor vehicle enterprise.

The museum has collected hundreds of samples of weapons, ammunition and ammunition from the war zone from the beginning of the war in 2014 to the present day. In particular, you can see the tubes from the Javelin, NlAW and Fagot ATGMs, cartridges from the American Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, cartridges for mortars, tanks and guns, various small arms. Fragments of the Russian rocket from the Uragan MLRS, the remains of the Shahed drone shot down over Cherkasy, and samples of Russian military uniforms are also presented.

A separate part of the museum is dedicated to Dmytro Kotsyubaylo "Da Vinchi", who died in March 2023.

Near the entrance to the museum stands an evacuation vehicle, which was used by the fighters of the "Right Sector" military unit during the battles for the Donetsk airport in 2014 and in other hot spots.

The state historical and cultural reserve "Trakhtemyriv" was created in 1994 on the site of the ancient Cossack village of the same name.

It is located on a picturesque peninsula, formed by a steep bend of the Dnipro opposite Pereyaslav. Scythian and early Slavic settlements were discovered here. In princely times, the ancient Rus city of Zarub stood on this site.

In 1147, the Trakhtemyriv Monastery was mentioned, built on the site of the Zarub monastery destroyed by the Tatars. In 1576, a hospital for old and infirm Cossacks was created at the monastery. Two years later, the Polish king Stefan Batory, having established a registered Cossack army, bequeathed the Trakhtemyriv to the Cossacks.

The Trakhtemyriv fortress was built, which became the informal Cossack capital - hetmans were elected here, ambassadors were received, and supplies were stored here. It was also an outpost of popular uprisings on more than one occasion. In 1665, during the suppression of one of the uprisings, the city and the monastery were destroyed.

A Cossack cemetery has been preserved on the outskirts of the village of Trakhtemyriv, a cross has been erected on the site of the monastery in the Tserkovshchyna tract, the remains of the fortress have not been found.

Currently, most of the territory belongs to the private Agrarian and Ecological Association "Trakhtemyriv", which uses the protected lands as elite hunting grounds. A large castle-style hunting lodge (burned down in 2015) was built in a picturesque location next to a former pioneer camp. A tree in the shape of a trident grows near it, next to which there is a memorial sign.

Several houses have been preserved in the village, in one of which the family of a hermit nicknamed "Scyth" lives permanently.

The Historical Museum of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi State Historical and Cultural Reserve is located on the territory of the Stanislav Ponyatovsky Palace in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, and operates as a research department of the reserve.

More than 2,000 exhibits in six halls reveal the history of Korsun in the context of the history of all of Ukraine from ancient times to the present. Fragments of Trypillya pottery, items from Cimmerian and Scythian burials, Slavic ornaments, a Polish cannon, armor and weapons of Poles, Ukrainians and Moscow archers are presented.

Also on display are items from the Stanisław Poniatowski Palace.

The dioramas "Anti-serfdom uprising of 1855 in the Korsun region" and "Battle of Korsun in 1648" give a clear idea of the key historical events of the region.

Separate sections of the exposition tell about collectivization and the Holodomor, about the participation of Korsuns in the First and Second World Wars, the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 and the Russian-Ukrainian War.

The palace and park complex in Korsun, on the islands in the middle of the Ros River, was founded in 1782 by Prince Stanislav Ponyatovsky as his own summer residence.

The Ponyatovsky Palace was built in 1787-1789 on the basis of the old Polish fortress of the Vyshnevetsky princes, who in turn were created on the site of the Ancient Rus Korsun settlement. The project of the palace in the neo-Gothic style was developed by architects Zhan-Anri Myunts and Yan Lindsey.

The new owner, Prince Pavlo Lopukhin, significantly changed its architecture in the middle of the 19th century, giving it features of Russian romanticism with elements of neo-Gothic and classicism. The last owners of the Korsun estate were the Lopukhin-Demidov princes.

After the Soviet-Ukrainian war, the manor was miraculously preserved and has survived almost unchanged to this day. The famous silhouette of the Ponyatovsky Palace is created by the keel-shaped kokoshniks, above which the belvedere towers rise. Nearby is a large three-story outbuilding (1782-1783), which was connected to the palace by the Order Gallery. The entrance gate in the form of French defensive architecture was built in the middle of the 19th century (there is a cafe in the basement). Other manor buildings have been preserved: the service building, the "Swiss house", the Orthodox chapel.

Most of Kotsyubynsky Island is now occupied by a luxurious landscape park (area of 100 hectares, 80 species of trees and shrubs) with bridges, gazebos, sculptures and a romantic grotto. It is especially beautiful in the spring, when the lilac is blooming.

In Soviet times, the exhibition of the museum of the history of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi battle was placed in the premises of the Ponyatovsky Palace. An exhibition of military equipment was on display in the square in front of the palace. In April 2022, at a meeting of the Scientific and Methodological Council of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Reserve, a decision was made to dismantle the exposition of the museum of the history of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Battle and change its name to the "Military Museum" with the creation of a new exposition in the Ponyatovsky Palace.

The new exposition presents the works of artists of different times and different directions, styles, and techniques. These are, in particular, the works of unknown Italian sculptors of the 18th century (at one time they decorated the palace), the Italian engraver Domeniko Kuneho, the Ukrainian artist Ivan Soshenko, the Italian sculptor Luyidzhi Yorini, the Hungarian artist Syhizmund Bubiks, a lithograph from the work of a Polish artist of Ukrainian origin, Yuliush Kossak, works local artist Herontiy Bondarenko and Ukrainian artists of the 20th-21st centuries Mykola Prokopenko, Borys Fedorenko, Serhiy Shyshko, Andriy Chebykin, Serhiy Dupliy, Oksana Tymkiv.

You can also see the palace projects of the palace and the palace ensemble, the originals of which are kept in the Cabinet of Drawings of the Library of the University of Warsaw; photos of the interiors of the palace from the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century; copies of drawings and lithographs of the 18th and 19th centuries, in particular, by Zhan-Anri Myunts, the Polish artist Napoleon Horda, Vanicek, the French lithographers Fransua-Zhozef Dyupresuar and Yevheniy Hyuho, the Polish artist Adolf Kozarsky.

Porcelain and ceramics from the collection of Canadian citizen Olena Berykul-Kryvoruchko, representing 20 countries of the world, is exhibited in a separate hall. Most products are from England, Japan, China, Italy, Germany, USA, France. A separate hall is also dedicated to sacred art, where, among other icons, the icon of the icon painter Hryhori Stetsenko, the father of the composer Kyrylo Stetsenko, and icons restored by the artist and icon painter Oksana Tymkiv will be presented.

The exposition include museum objects of everyday life, which characterize the era of the 18th - 19th centuries.

The Museum of Ancient Life and Folk Crafts in Pleskachivka recreates the atmosphere of rural life of the XIX century, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the era of two hundred years ago, try to make a wheel for a cart or grind flour by hand.

Crafts have long flourished in the village (in particular, the production of pottery) (potters were called flatterers, hence the name of the village). Boxes with minted metal were supplied from Pleskachivka to St. Petersburg, Warsaw and Moscow.

The museum's exposition includes a working loom and other exhibits that give an idea of ​​folk crafts. A collection of coal irons from Polish, Austro-Hungarian and German life is presented.

The Chyhyryn Archaeological Museum is located in a restored one-story building of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The exposition presents objects of material cultures that existed in the Middle Dnipro. In particular, Scythian weapons and armor found on the territory of Scythian settlements in the Kholodny Yar. More than 600 unique exhibits are stored in four exhibition halls.

A monument to Lenin, removed from a pedestal at the foot of Castle Hill in Chyhyryn, has been erected in the courtyard.

The Cherkasy City Archaeological Museum of the Middle Dnipro region was created in 2016 on the basis of the archaeological collection of the Cherkasy historian Mykhaylo Syvolap, which contains several tens of thousands of finds of all eras and cultures from the territory of the Middle Dnipro region, starting from the Paleolithic and ending with Cossack times, as well as objects of the XVIII-XX centuries

Both fossil artifacts and items of traditional Ukrainian culture that have not yet had time to visit the earth are presented.

A numismatic bonistic exposition is planned.

The Archaeological Museum of the Middle Dnipro region in Cherkasy is temporarily located in one of the premises of the "Ukraine" cinema. In the future, the museum will be provided with a separate room in one of the historical mansions of Cherkasy.

Assumption Cathedral was built in 1144 by Prince Vsevolod Olhovych. The type of architecture is close to the Kyiv churches - Kyrylivska and Bohoroditsa Pyrohoshcha.

From the year of foundation of Assumption Church, it is customary to keep the official chronicle of Kaniv, although the city existed earlier. A classic example of Byzantine architecture.

In 1185, a defense against the Polovtsy was being prepared near the walls of this temple after the unsuccessful campaign of Prince Ihor Svyatoslavych of Novhorod-Siverskyi. In 1587, Cossack leader Ivan Podkova, who was executed in Lviv, was buried here. Destroyed by the Turks in the 17th century, the temple was restored in 1805, and in 1861, a funeral procession with the ashes of the poet Taras Shevchenko, brought from St. Petersburg, left for Chernecha Mountain.

The temple is active, it belongs to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The nearby building of the former Basilian school now houses the Museum of Folk Decorative Art, which previously occupied the premises of the church.

Nearby, there is a monument to Saint Makarius Kanivsky, who was the abbot of the Kaniv monastery in the 17th century and died during the Turkish invasion.

The Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary is located in the center of Smila, on the territory of the city park of culture and recreation.

The church in the neoclassical style was built on the site of the old wooden church in 1818-1827 at the expense of Antoniy Sovetskyi.

In Soviet times, the church, devoid of the central tower and two bells, was used as a cultural center, then as a district library.

In 2003, the Church of the Assumption was returned to the Roman Catholic community of Smila, and restoration is underway. The building of the parish house is located nearby.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medvedivka was built in 1860-1864 at the expense of the Kyiv Civil Governor Ivan Fundukley, who owned Medvedivka in the 19th century.

The church is one-story, cruciform in plan. Its appearance is close to standard diocesan architecture, but at the same time it differs in some modern features.

The Assumption Church in Medvedivka is an architectural landmark of the 19th century of local importance.

The Museum of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in Chyhyryn is located in the two-story building of the district administration reconstructed in 1995.

The building was built at the beginning of the 19th century at the foot of Castle Hill, where the Lower Town of the Hetman's capital was located.

Museum collections include about 2,000 exhibits. The main place in the exposition is occupied by monuments of the Cossack era: weapons and equipment, objects of decorative and applied art, numismatics, household items. With their help, the material environment in which Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky lived and performed state affairs was recreated.

The pride of the museum is the series of paintings "Hetmans of Ukraine" by the People's Artist of Ukraine Danylo Narbut.

The wings of the building are occupied by the administration of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve of Chyhyryn.

Nearby is the restored Peter and Paul Church, as well as the chapel of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, in which the remains of 263 Cossacks and city residents who died during the Tatar raids of the 17th century are reburied.

The reconstruction of the complex of the fortified residence of Khmelnytskyi, embassy buildings and other buildings of the hetman's capital, on the basis of which the tourist historical and architectural complex "Residence of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi" was created, is being completed.

The artificial lake Buchak was formed on the site of the lower pit of the unfinished Kanivska HPP, the construction of which was started in 1984.

Construction was stopped after the accident at the Chornobyl NPP, and in 1992 it was completely frozen for economic reasons.

During construction, the village of Buchak was partially displaced and destroyed, part of the oak forest was uprooted, and the ecosystem of this area was disturbed. Currently, the issue of resuming the construction of the Kanivska HPP is under consideration.

Meanwhile, Lake Buchak, replenished with spring water, self-cleansing and overgrown with reeds on the banks, is a wonderful place for secluded recreation in nature. It has very clean water, fish are found there.

The largest Buddhist temple "White Lotus" in Europe was founded in Cherkasy in 1988, built in the 1990s by followers of the "Sha-Fut-Fan" school of kung fu.

Its prototype is a Buddhist temple in Laos. The architectural project of the temple complex was initiated by Volodymyr Skubayev, the head of the Cherkasy Society of Buddhism. According to legend, during the laying of the foundation, an ancient stone was found on which the Buddha in the mask of a warrior is depicted. At the entrance to the cell, there are two figures of soldiers brought to Cherkasy from Tibet. In the ritual hall, the floor is covered with carpets, the walls are decorated with wood and velvet.

Followers of Buddhism study Thai boxing and kung fu here.

On Sundays, tours and tea ceremonies are held in "White Lotus". It is possible to organize a wedding ceremony.

The remains of the fortifications of Chyhyryn from Cossack times have been preserved on Castle (Bohdanova) Hill in the center of the city.

The small Chyhyryn fortress, founded in the 16th century, served as an outpost of the Commonwealth of Nations, then as a Cossack fortress. The stone fortification measuring 200 by 150 meters was surrounded by walls with towers and bastions. In 1677, a 120,000-strong Turkish army unsuccessfully besieged the Chyhyryn fortress for 3 weeks, and only the following year did the Turks manage to capture it, returning with 200,000 forces.

Later, hetman Ivan Samoylovych's Cossacks recaptured Chyhyryn with the support of the Moscow army of Voivode Hrihoriy Romodanivskyi.

In the 19th century, the fortifications were almost completely dismantled for building materials, when a quarry was built on Castle Hill. Currently, there is a park here, in which there is a reconstructed Doroshenko bastion (XVI-XVII centuries), a stone cross in honor of the defenders of the Chyhyryn bastion (1912), a monument "Kobzar" at the foot and other sculptures. A majestic monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky 18.6 meters high (1967-82; sculptors Oleksiy Oliynyk, Makar Vronskyi) was erected on the top of the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain is the chapel of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, in which the remains of Cossacks from the 17th century cemetery are reburied.

The complex is part of the Chyhyryn National Historical and Cultural Reserve. Excursions are conducted by employees of the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Museum, located near the Hetman's residence at the foot of the mountain.

The memorial complex with the monument "Motherland" in Cherkasy is located on the territory of an ancient castle, on the site of the Holy Trinity Church, which was destroyed during the Soviet regime.

According to one version, during Cossack times, the Cherkasy fortress was located on this small hill. In fact, in different periods there were three fortresses in Cherkasy. An ancient Rus settlement of the 14th century and the remains of the Cherkasy fortress of the 18th century were located on the site of the current Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Park on Castle Hill  (now there is a stele in honor of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and a monument to Ivan Pidkova), and on the site of Hill of Glory there was a reserve fortification, on the territory of which in 1863, a stone Trinity Church was built instead of the wooden church of the same name in the lower town.

All architectural and archaeological monuments were completely destroyed during the construction of the Glory monument. The church was blown up in 1961, the cultural layer was removed in 1965 during the construction of the Hill of Glory, and in 1977 the Memorial of Glory with the bronze monument "Motherland" was opened.

A large panorama of the Kremenchuk Reservoir opens from the top of the hill.