Attractions of Sumy region

The Church of the Nativity of Christ, which is part of the ensemble of the Holy 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 Church of the Nativity of Christ is the oldest building in Shostka. The construction of the city began in 1779 with its establishment. The construction lasted 6 years.

The Church of the Nativity of Christ was built on the private donations of workers and employees of the powder factory. In 1809, a bell tower was added.

All solemn events in Shostka were held on the Church Square near the Church of the Nativity of Christ: processions, military parades, solemn religious services.

The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin in Yunakivka is an outstanding monument of classicism architecture.

The beautiful five-headed two-story church in the style of classicism, designed by the architect Oleksandr Palytsyn, resembles the works of the late 18th-early 19th century architect Dzhakomo Kvarenhi. Construction began in 1793 on the site of the old wooden church and lasted 13 years at the expense of Prince Mykhaylo Holitsyn. The stone temple had three thrones: in the name of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Michael the Archstrategist and the main one - in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In 1874, the warm church of the Three Saints was also arranged in the lower basement floor of the temple. There was a church-parochial school.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin remained active for a long time even under Soviet power, but was closed in the 1960s, and has reached our days in a half-ruined state.

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. It is part of the Putyvl State Historical and Cultural Reserve.

The Nedryhayliv Local Lore Museum was opened in 2006 on the initiative of the local branch of the "Prosvita" society. It is located in the restored premises of the printing house. It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Posulliia".

The exposition has about 5,000 exhibits. The archaeological collection presents fragments of ceramics and metal products of the Bronze Age, found by archaeologists in the Mazepyna Hill tract. The historical section tells about the founding of the village of Nedryhailiv, here you can see copies of documents from the Khmelnytskyi period.

Also presented are weapons, military equipment, tools, household items from different times, materials about the Holodomor of 1932–1933, and the liquidation of the Chornobyl accident.

In addition, the museum highlights the life and activities of local artists, folk craftsmen, scientists, and politicians.

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 Bolshevik coup of 1917, the House of the Nobility Assembly was converted 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.

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

On April 13, 2025, the Russians launched a missile strike with two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles on the city center of Sumy, killing 35 people, including two children, and injuring 119 people.

As a result of the Russian missile strike, the building of the Regional Philharmonic was severely damaged. In addition, other cultural institutions and cultural heritage monuments of the city were destroyed, including: the Sumy Regional Local Lore Museum, the Sumy Regional Art Museum named after Nikanor Onatsky, the Regional Academic Theater for Children and Youth, the Shchepkin National Academic Theater of Drama and Musical Comedy, the Regional Scientific and Methodological Center for Culture and Arts, the Regional Library for Children, the workshop of the regional organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, and the Sukhanov-Sumovsky estate.

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.

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

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

During the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the Okhtyrka Local Lore 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.

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.

The Oleksa Yushchenko Museum-Estate in the village of Khoruzhivka in Sumy Oblast has been operating since 2007 as a sector of the Nedryhayliv Local Lore Museum as part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Posullia". It is located on the southern outskirts of the village, which is called Shkodivka.

The exhibition is located in the century-old parental house of Ukrainian poet and journalist Oleksa Yushchenko, a great-uncle of the third President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. The house recreates the atmosphere that existed here during the life of Oleksa Yushchenko and his parents at the beginning of the 20th century.

The exposition presents personal belongings of the Yushchenko family, first editions of the poet's collections, his articles, letters and photographs.

A bust of Oleksa Yushchenko is installed in the courtyard.

The Museum of the outstanding lyric poet of the 20th century, Oleksandr Oles (Oleksandr Kandyba), opened in the city of Bilopillia, the poet’s birthplace, in 1998 on the second floor of the Bilopillia Central District Library, which has been named after its famous compatriot since 1993.

A bust of Oleksandr Oles (the work of Sumy sculptor Yakiv Krasnozhon) is installed in the lobby of the library. In two spacious halls with a total area of ​​54 square meters, an exhibition is located, which includes 384 exhibits and tells about the life and work of the poet.

The first hall is dedicated to the Bilopillia period of Oleksandr Oles’s life. Thanks to the local bookseller Kostia Storozhenko, the museum has a photograph of the house where the poet was born in its then appearance. A photocopy of the entry in the church book of the Intercession Church indicates that little Oleksandr was baptized here.

The exhibition opens with a diorama of the central square of Bilopillia from the end of the 19th century. The museum's exposition is complemented by furniture from the end of the 19th century, which was kept in the apartments of Bilopillia's residents. The highlight of the museum is a samovar found in the Kandyba estate in the attic of a barn that has survived since those times.

The most valuable treasure of the museum is Oles's personal belongings transferred from the poet's archive by the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and lifetime editions of his works dated 1909, 1917, 1919, 1923, 1935.

A significant place in the exhibition is given to materials that highlight the life and work of the poet's son Oleh Olzhych (Oleh Kandyba), the stay in the Bilopillia region of Oleksandr Oles' grandson - Oleh Kandyba, who lives in Canada.

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 Paleontological Museum in Sumy opened in 2025 at the Center for Ecological and Naturalistic Creativity of Student Youth of the Sumy City Council. Its exposition presents authentic objects of natural history of the Sumy region and other regions of Ukraine and the world.

In particular, the museum presents the largest collection of fossil invertebrates of the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene in the region. Also presented is a mammoth femur, found by one of the co-founders of the museum during diving training on the Seim River.

Today, the total number of exhibits of the Paleontological Museum exceeds 700 units.