Attractions of Cherkasy district

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.

The Roman Catholic church in Moshny was built in the 1850s at the expense of Yelyzaveta Vorontsova, the widow of Count Mykhaylo Vorontsov.

During Soviet times, the temple was closed. Until now, the building is used as one of the production buildings of the mill.

Kamyanka Central Park is located on the slope of a steep mountain above Tyasmyn. These are the remains of a large romantic park that was founded at the end of the 18th century around the landowner's estate of the Davydov family, which stood on the mountain.

Heroes of the war of 1812, the Decembrists, Pushkin, Petro Chaykovskyi visited the park. After Vasyl Davydov, the owner of the estate, was exiled to Siberia, the park fell into desolation. In 1926, to the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Decembrists, the park was named in their honor. And only in 1975, to the 150th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising, the park was cleared and put in order. In the same year, a monument to Pushkin (author Vira Shatukh), the composition "The Decembrists in Kamyanka" (authors Makar Vronskyi and Volodymyr Chepelyk, architect - Vasyl Hnyezdylov), the stele of the Decembrists were erected.

In one of the cozy corners of the park is the Grotto of the Decembrists. It was built at the end of the 18th century as an architectural decoration of the park. A grotto is arranged in the hill, it is always cool inside, good acoustics. Pushkin liked to rest in it, which is why it is now sometimes called Pushkin's Grotto. Many legends are associated with him. It is said that the Decembrists gathered in the grotto and talked about political topics. According to legend, a secret underground passage connected the grotto with the "Green House", which the Decembrists could use in case of danger. Later, the grotto lost its importance as a place of rest and was used as a fruit and wine cellar. It was restored in 1982. Interesting literary and musical evenings are held here, united under the name "Summer Meetings in the Grotto", as well as the All-Ukrainian Literary Festival.

The Cherkasy Academic Puppet Theater is located in the central part of the city, in a building that is an architectural monument of the 19th century.

The building belongs to the so-called "model houses", the author of which was the architect Luyidzhi Rusca. At the beginning of the 19th century, he released the album "Exemplary facades", which were used to build many Ukrainian cities. From the moment of construction, not only the walls and ceilings, but also the carpentry, and even the fittings with the monograms of the firm "M. and H. Babashov. 1850" have been preserved.

Since the 1970s, the building has been used by a puppet theater. The front side of the building is decorated with a mosaic with characters from children's fairy tales.

The Cherkasy Regional Art Museum is housed in the former Communist Party's city committee, which was vacated after the August 1991 events.

The exposition is formed from the former private collections of Count Bobrynsky, Princes Lopukhin, Bilokopytov, which were transferred in 1918 to the Cherkasy Historical and Pedagogical Museum named after Taras Shevchenko.

The Department of Decorative and Applied Arts introduces the folk art of the middle Dnipro. The second chapter presents the iconography of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the beautiful portrait painting of the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Cherkasy Regional Museum of Local Lore is located in a modern building built in 1985 in the historic center of the city, near the Hill of Glory (Castle Hill). The project was designed by local architects Kondratsky, Sobchuk, Fursenko.

In 30 halls there are sections of the nature of the region, archeology, ethnography, history of the region XIV - beg. XX century, as well as new and modern history from 1917 to the present. A total of 12,000 exhibits were presented.

Cossack flags and a copy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky's first letter to Russian Tsar Oleksiy Mykhaylovych asking for help in the war with Poland, written in Cherkasy on June 8, 1648, are kept here.

Other rare objects of Cossack times are presented, including stove tiles of the second floor. XVII century with a relief plot "Three Musketeers" and the inscription "Zholdak".

The building of the Cherkasy Regional Philharmonic was built in the central part of Cherkasy in 1955, on the site of a pre-revolutionary hotel. The facade was completed in 1961.

According to acoustic data, the Cherkasy Philharmonic Hall ranks third in Ukraine.

In 1957, the famous Cherkasy State Honored Ukrainian Folk Choir was organized at the Philharmonic, which later became a laureate of the republican competition of creative groups and the III World Festival of Youth and Students, laureate of the Taras Shevchenko State Prize.

Cherkasy River Station was built in 1962.

It was one of the most beautiful on the Dnipro, but after the collapse of the USSR and transfer to private hands in the 1990s, it fell into disrepair and practically fell into disrepair.

In 2011, a complete reconstruction was carried out and boat trips were resumed. At the moment, river walks along Cherkasy and flights to Kaniv are carried out.

The Cherkasy Zoo is located in the southwestern part of the city of Cherkasy.

A large number of green plants grow on the territory with a total area of 4 hectares, many plants belong to rare species.

Cherkasy Zoo contains more than 200 species of animals, the total number of which reaches about 500 individuals (including birds, reptiles, and reptiles). Among the representatives of the animal world in the zoo are: two-humped camel, llama, bison, African lion, brown bear, wolf, lynx, baboon and others. Birds are represented by such species as: golden pheasant, Emu ostrich, white-headed vulture, whooper swan, common peacock, mandarin duck.

In recent years, new enclosures for ungulates, carnivores, and monkeys have been built, old unsuitable premises have been reconstructed, and the territory has been significantly improved.

Chernecha Hill in Kaniv is one of the highest Kaniv mountains (244 meters) on the high right bank of the Dnipro, the burial place of the Ukrainian poet-prophet Taras Shevchenko.

According to folk tales, in the 11th and 12th centuries, on the slopes of Chernecha Hill in the Monastyrok tract, there was a cave monastery of Kaniv, where monks (ukr. – chentsi) secluded themselves, which is where the name of the mountain comes from.

During Cossack times, the Holy Intercession Monastery, known since 1702, was located here.

The poet Taras Shevchenko planned to buy a plot of land for his own estate on Chernecha Hill shortly before his death in 1961, after seeing these places during his last visit to Ukraine. Here he was reburied at the request of the public, according to the will. Since then, Chernecha Hill has been called Taras Hill (Tarasova Hora).

Now it is a memorial park, the central element of which is a monument to Taras Shevchenko, erected over his grave in 1939. This bronze monument by the sculptor Matvyi Manizer is considered the highest monument to Shevchenko in Ukraine - 17 meters. There is an observation deck near the monument, which offers a wide panorama of the Dnipro.

From the pier and parking lot at the foot of the mountain, a granite staircase with 392 steps leads to its top, with recreation areas and the "Lilium" fountain (1977, architect Anatoly Moshenskyi).

The landscape park on Chernecha Hill with an area of 45 hectares is a component of the Shevchenko National Reserve "Taras Hill".

A small cozy park in the central part of the city. There are sports grounds near the castle town. The park is decorated with alpine slides and flowerbed compositions, which create a special atmosphere of coziness characteristic of green corners.

There are also many sculptural compositions made of stone and wood.

The wooden Cossack Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the Monastyrok tract at the foot of Taras (Chernecha) Hill in Kaniv was restored in 2014 for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko.

The Church of the Intercession existed on this site in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the spiritual center of the Kaniv Holy Intercession Orthodox Monastery, which gave the name to the tract and Chernecha Hill. The monastery was destroyed by the Poles in 1776, but the Greek Catholics preserved the church and moved it to the Assumption Cathedral, which was destroyed at that time. There he was painted by the outstanding French artist Jean-Henri Muntz. Muntz's drawing became the basis of the project of reconstruction of the Church of the Intercession. It is also called the Tarasov Church.

There is a Cossack memorial in front of the church.

The ruins of the Roman Catholic church are located in the central part of Medvedivka. The temple was built in the 19th century. Made in the Neo-Gothic style.

In Soviet times, the church building was used for economic purposes. It is currently in a state of emergency.