Attractions of Sumy region

The Church of the Nativity of Christ, which is part of the ensemble of the Intercession Cathedral in Okhtyrka, is called the "Count's Church" because it was built at the expense of Countess Anna Chernyshova.

According to legend, her mother, Baroness fon Vedel (Veydel), fell fatally ill in Okhtyrka on the way to St. Petersburg. Before her death in the Intercession Church, she had an apparition of the Mother of God, who ordered her to give away her wealth to beggars, and promised to take her two young daughters under her care. Soon after the death of the baroness, her orphaned daughters ended up at court and successfully married, and since then they made large donations to the Intercession Temple. In particular, they financed the construction of the Nativity of Christ Church.

The temple is original in terms of its volume-spatial and decorative solution, and is more like a palace building than a religious one. Indeed, living rooms were provided in the side rooms, in which the pious countess often lived for months, spending time in prayers.

The brick one-bath church of the Nativity of John the Baptist with a bell tower is located on the northeastern outskirts of Sumy, which has the historical name of the settlement of Luka.

The church is the main architectural landmark of Luka, it is well visible from the railway, from the Lypen hillfort and from the banks of the Psel River. The territory of the church is surrounded by a wall with two forged ornamental gates of the end of the 19th century.

In 1687, the Sumy colonel Herasym Kondratyev founded the John the Baptist monastery for girls in Luka, in which a wooden temple of the same name was built in 1691. The monastery was closed in 1787.

In its place, in 1837, a stone three-part church with a bell tower was built at the expense of the family of local nobles Lyntvarov as a parish church for Luka and the neighboring village of Baranivka. In 1907, two side altars were added to the church - the Holy Trinity and Saint John.

The defensive Molchensky monastery-fortress on the banks of the Seim in Putyvl was built at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries on the basis of a fortress from Lithuanian times, which was called the Kremlin.

The monastery was founded in 1570 by monks who moved to the fortress from the Molchensky desert, located 20 kilometers from Putyvl. In 1604, the impostor tsar False Dmitry I was hiding behind the walls of the monastery, coming from here to Moscow after the death of Borys Hodunov.

The complex of the Molchensky Monastery is dominated by the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, built in 1575-1585 and rebuilt several times in the 17th-18th centuries. The tower over the gate of the fortress serves as a belfry, and a fragment of the wall with a corner tower has also been preserved.

The complex also includes the 19th-century church of John the Baptist, the abbot's and cell buildings, a refectory and utility buildings.

Park-monument of horticultural art "Trostianetsky" is located on the slopes of the hills of the picturesque tract "Neskuchne", where there are three lakes in the middle of a mixed pine-deciduous forest.

The landscape park was established at the beginning of the 19th century, when Trostianets belonged to Oleksandra Nadarzhynska, the granddaughter of the city's founder Timofiy Nadarzhynskyi. Formed on the basis of ancient timber and using the natural landscape, Neskuchne Park occupies an area of 256 hectares (400-year-old oaks have been preserved).

Near the back entrance to the park in 1911, a two-story art nouveau manager's house with a tower was built, which now houses a forest research station.

On the shore of the third lake in the depths of the park is the "Grote Nymph" (1809), built of large flat stones for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. According to legend, the grotto was the entrance to the dungeons located under the city. Under Prince Vasyl Holitsyn, the grotto was used for theatrical performances on the theme of ancient Greek myths, hence the name.

The House of Civil Meetings for Nobles in Sumy was built at the end of the 19th century.

On the first floor there was a music salon, a theater hall, and a restaurant. On the second floor there are smoking rooms and rooms for gambling.

After the Soviet-Ukrainian war, the House of Nobles' Assembly was turned into a philharmonic hall. The Sumy Regional Philharmonic Hall is famous for its acoustics. In 2008, major repairs were carried out and an organ was installed.

The manor house of the Ohiyevsky landowners in Krolevets is famous for the fact that the poet Taras Shevchenko stayed there.

In 1859, he returned from Kyiv to St. Petersburg for the last time. After visiting his friends the Lazarevsky in the village of Hyrivka (now Shevchenko) in the Konotop district, he drove with them to Krolevets, where the Lazarevsky sister Hlafira Ohiyevska lived. Shevchenko spent the night here, then went to Hlukhiv.

The house of the Ohiyevsky was preserved in its original form. In 1964, a cast-iron memorial plaque was installed.

Currently, the Ohiyevsky manor houses the Museum of Krolevets Weaving, which exhibits traditional Krolevets towels, embroidered cloths, and looms.

Okhtyrka City Museum of Local Lore is located in a former private mansion of the late nineteenth - early twentieth century, located in the center of Okhtyrka.

The museum was founded in 1920. There are three permanent exhibitions: "Fauna of the native land", "History of Okhtyrka", "Okhtyrka in the occupation period" and an exhibition hall.

The most interesting exhibits of the museum: personal belongings of the writer-countryman Ivan Bahryany, antiques, photographs, books on historical themes, index "Kharkiv Provincial Assembly of 1786-1919", books on the liberation of Ukraine from fascist invaders, theatrical costumes.

During the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the museum building was damaged by an explosion and is now in need of restoration. Part of the exposition was damaged. But the most valuable exhibits were saved.

Employees of the museum conduct tours of the city of Okhtyrka and its surroundings.

The Okhtyrskyi Holy Trinity Monastery was founded in 1654 in a picturesque place on the top of Monastyrska Hill on the forested banks of the Vorskla.

The first builder of the monastery was hegumen Ioannikiy, who came to Okhtyrka with his brothers from the Lebedyn monastery beyond the Dnipro, destroyed by the Poles.

According to legend, the first wooden church was consecrated in the 17th century in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the monastery was originally called Annunciation. Later, a stone refectory church of the same name was built instead of a wooden one at the expense of the Okhtyrka colonel Fedir Osypov.

From 1720, according to the decree of Peter I, the abbot of the Okhtyrskyi monastery became the tsar's confessor Tymofiy Nadarzhynskyi. He died in 1729 and was buried in the Trinity Cathedral built by him. His son Yosyp Nadarzhynskyi built the stone Church of the Transfiguration with a fraternal refectory and bell tower at his own expense, and in 1741 – a hospital with the Church of Peter and Paul. The main shrine of the monastery was the miraculous Okhtyr icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Sorrowful Ones".

In 1917, the Okhtyrskyi monastery was closed, an asylum for orphans was placed in it, then a military unit. During the Second World War, the monastery buildings were badly damaged.

The revival of the Okhtyrskyi Holy Trinity Monastery began in 2002.

Oleksandrivska Male Gymnasium is the oldest educational institution in Sumy. An architectural monument of national importance.

Founded by philanthropist Pavlo Kharytonenko. The main building in the style of classicism was built in 1873. Later, a boarding house for 40 people was built for out-of-town students. Thanks to pointed towers, battlements, a pointed portal and the same windows, this building resembles a medieval castle. The hospital was built in the same style. Unusually beautiful stairs leading to the second floor of the main building and a two-light assembly hall.

Currently, it is the Sumy Classical Gymnasium, specializing in advanced study of the English language.

The People's Literary Memorial Museum of Ostap Vyshnya was opened in 1982 by his compatriots in the writer's homeland - in the village of Hrun in Sumy region.

The main exposition is dedicated to the life and work of the Ukrainian humorist, classic of satirical prose Ostap Vyshnya.

Several stands cover the history and ethnography of the village of Hrun.

Every autumn, the Vyshnya Smiles festival is held here, which is attended by humorous writers from Sumy and Ukraine, guests from near abroad.

The Park of Culture and Recreation named after Ivan Kozhedub with an area of 58 hectares is located in the center of the city of Sumy.

There are many attractions in the park, exhibitions, festivals and other cultural events take place regularly.

The modern stadium "Yuvileyny" is located near the central entrance to the park. The city beach on the Psel River is located in the southeastern part of the park.

The first monument in Ukraine to Petro Kalnyshevskyi, the last kosh chieftain of Zaporizhzhia Sich, was erected in the village of Pustoviitivka, where he was born in 1691.

In fact, with the installation of this monument in 1991, the creation of the Kalnyshevsky memorial in Pustoviitivka began.

The chieftain is depicted with the hetman's mace in his hand. The authors of the monument are academician Vasyl Boroday and sculptor Rostyslav Synko.

The memorial complex of the last Kish Otaman of the Zaporizhzhia Sich Petro Kalnyshevsky in the village of Pustoviitivka in the Sumy region includes the Museum of Petro Kalnyshevsky, which is a department of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Posullya".

The museum was founded in 2005 on the basis of materials from the Romny Museum of Local Lore, which previously formed the exhibition "Legendary Koshovy ". It is located in the house of culture of the village of Pustoviitivka, in the homeland of Petro Kalnyshevsky.

The main exposition tells about the life of the Kish Otaman: childhood in his native village, dedication to the Sich, service in the Zaporozhzhian Lowland Army, election as Kish Otaman, participation in the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-1774, imprisonment by order of the tsarist government and exile on Solovki. Reconstruction of the interior of the Solovki cell, where Petro Kalnyshevsky spent 25 years, is presented.

Also on display are fragments of a wooden Trinity Church, built at the expense of the Otaman in Pustoviitivka (now reconstructed). You can also see a collection of Cossack weapons, coins, pipes, icons.

Two more exhibition halls present local archeological finds of Scythian times and materials about other prominent natives of Pustoviitivka.

A Pig Monument with the inscription on the pedestal "From grateful Ukrainians" was opened in the city park of Romny in 2000.

Here, on the site of an ancient Rus settlement, archaeologists found pig bones. They came to the conclusion that the pigs, which the Mongols could not eat because of their religion and therefore were not taken from local residents, saved the people from starvation.

The Romny concrete pig, sitting on its hind legs, became the fourth pig monument in the world.

The Prophet Illya Church Church in Sumy was built on an artificial embankment.

It was laid back in 1836, but after a fire, construction was frozen for a long time.

The church was built in the style of classicism with elements of eclecticism.