Attractions of Kamyanets-Podilskyi district

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is the main religious building of the Old City.

The Peter and Paul Church was built by the Dominican monastic order, which appeared in Kamyanets-Podilskyi in the 14th century. The construction of the stone church in the years 1502-1517 is attributed to Bishop Yakub Buchachskyi. During the Turkish rule (1672-1699), the temple was used as the main mosque, and a 36-meter minaret was attached to it. After the return of the Poles, according to the peace treaty, the minaret was preserved, but a gilded statue of the Madonna was installed on top. Now the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Kamyanets-Podilskyi is the only Christian church in the world with a minaret.

It houses a wonderful sculptural tombstone of 21-year-old Laura Przezdetska by Viktor Brodzkyi (1874). During a horse ride, the girl fell off her horse, broke her spine and died. In two years, on the order of the disappointed parents, the sculptor created a marble masterpiece: the beauty with the shadow of a smile on her face looks asleep, but the grieving angel has already lowered the extinguished torch, and the unread book is open on page 21. The sculpture is often called the "Sleeping Queen".

The magnificent Triumphal Arch (1781) in honor of the arrival of the last Polish king, Stanislav Avhust, leads into the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Church.

Excursions are held during the time free from religious services.

The Greek-Catholic Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Kamyanets-Podilskyi was founded in 1722 by Basilian monks.

The Orthodox Trinity Church was first mentioned in 1582. It is likely that in this place there was an ancient temple of the XIII-XIV centuries. During the Turkish rule, the church was turned into a mosque, and after the departure of the Turks, it passed to the Greek Catholics and became a cathedral. After the annexation of Podillya to the Russian Empire, the Uniate monasteries were handed over to the Orthodox.

In 1836, a two-story stone wing with the warm church of Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersky was added to the monastery building, and in 1855, the reconstruction of the Trinity Church was completed, giving it Orthodox forms.

During the Soviet era, the temple was completely destroyed. In recent years, the Trinity Church was restored on cleared foundations by the forces of Basilian monks.

The Trinitarian church in Kamyanets-Podilskyi was founded in the 18th century by monks of the Trinitarian order, who specialized in the redemption of slaves from Turkish captivity.

The temple is made in baroque style. Attention is drawn to the main facade, which is given the slenderness of the pilasters of the Tuscan order. The facade is finished with a pediment decorated with sculptures and vases. The church is surrounded by a stone wall. The gates are decorated with statues of Jean de Mat and Felix Valois, the founders of the Trinitarian monastic order. The stairs leading to the gate are surrounded by a parapet, on which a statue of the Virgin Mary is installed.

After the Second World War, the funds of the Khmelnytskyi Regional State Archive were housed in the Trinity Church.

Today it is the Greek Catholic Church of Saint Josaphat.

The memorial museum of the reformer Count Ihnatsiy Stsybor-Markhotsky in Mynkivtsi is dedicated to one of the most extravagant Podillya landowners of the 18th century, the founder of the self-proclaimed Mynkivtsi state, which existed for 30 years within the Mynkivtsi Kluch on the territory of the present Kamyanets-Podilsky district.

Hundreds of exhibits tell about the life of Ihnatsiy Stsybor-Markhotsky, as well as the organization of his small state, which had its own constitution, a judicial system based on Roman law, and its own currency.

The museum was opened in 2012 in an ancient building that once housed the NKVD and the Gestapo. Pretrial detention cells have been preserved in the basement and basement floors. In 2010, a memorial sign to the victims of the Holodomor and repressions was installed in front of the house.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1699. Armenians who moved to Zhvanets after the expulsion of the Turks from Podillya.

Almost a century later, when the Armenians left the city, the building was rebuilt into an impressive baroque Catholic church.

During Soviet times, a factory was located in the premises of the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today, the temple is gradually being restored, and worship has been resumed.

The estate with a palace and a park in Velykyi Zhvanchyk was established in 1868 by the landowner Ihnatiy Khelminsky. In 1881, a tower was added to the palace.

After the death of the owner of the estate, one of his two sons, Syhizmund Khelminsky, lost his half of the palace at cards to the landowner Matviy Krupensky. In 1902, Krupensky bought the second part of the building, becoming the full owner of the estate.

After the October coup of 1917, Krupensky left for Poland. The villagers looted the palace and tried to burn it down, but thanks to the efforts of the local priest, the building was saved.

In 1953, an anti-tuberculosis sanatorium was located in the premises of the estate, which in 1972 was repurposed into a children's pulmonology sanatorium. The village school was located in the rebuilt stable.

In 2023, with the support and assistance of the Romanian government, the palace premises began to be redeveloped into a sanatorium for children with limited physical characteristics.

The manor house in Rakhnivka was built in 1910 by the descendants of Baron Oleksandr Korf, who bought the manor house in 1888. The last hostess was Yelyzaveta-Sofiya Korf.

The building is one-story, with minimal decor. In Soviet times, a village school was located in the premises of the Korf Palace, now it is the Rakhnivka Gymnasium.

In 1362, the Lithuanian prince Olherd liberated Podillya as a result of the victory over the Tatars near Zhovti Vody. He transferred the administration of the region to the sons of his brother Koriat.

The Lithuanian chronicle shows that the Koriatovych brothers rebuilt a castle over the Smotrych River and built a fortress on a rock, which is still called "Koriatovych Fortress". Probably, the new owners of Podillya rebuilt the city after the Tatars destroyed it in 1240. Tatars burned the city several times and later.

During the War of Liberation, it was captured by the Cossacks, and the Smotrych castle was finally destroyed. Since then, a network of complex and confusing underground passages, as well as an ancient church, remained on the site of the stronghold.

The palace of the Krasinsky family in Dunaivtsi was built in the 19th century.

The founder of the estate, Yan Krasinsky, who became the owner of the Dunaivtsi in 1782, did a lot for the economic development of the city. In particular, he built a cloth factory that is still operating.

During the Soviet times, the palace was rebuilt. Now it is a district cultural center.

At the end of the 19th century, General Mykhaylo Krupetsky built his palace in Kryvchyk. The building has two floors and combines late Gothic and Baroque styles. A four-story octagonal tower with a clock stands out in the architecture of the building.

After the Bolshevik coup of 1917, the owners of the estate left the country. The premises of the palace were used as a pioneer camp, a rest house, and a boarding school for the blind. In 1945, a boarding school for the disabled of the Second World War was placed here, and in 1978 it was reorganized into a psycho-neurological boarding school.

A fountain and an artificial lake remained from the former park, orchard, greenhouses and greenhouses.

The national landscape reserve "Karmalyukova Hill" is located above the Muksha River to the north of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, near the village of Makiv.

The total area of ​​the reserve is 42 hectares. The area is a remnant of a coastal reef of Neogene age and is of interest from a geomorphological point of view.

According to legends, Ustym Karmalyuk, the hero of the peasant uprising, hid from persecution in a cave on the top of the mountain.

In addition to the caves, there is a rampart at the top of the mountain, which is the remains of an ancient Scythian settlement. During the period of Kyivan Rus, this fortification could be used as a pledge, as evidenced by the finds of weapons and monetary treasures of that time.

In 1846, Taras Shevchenko visited Karmalyukova Hill.

Apart from the history, tourists are also attracted to the observation deck, which is a great place to relax.

"Lower Grotto" (Nyzhniy hrot) in Prytulivka near Otrokiv is the longest park cave in Europe, created in the form of a two-story structure.

The upper tier is made in the form of an arched gazebo, previously decorated with frescoes, and the lower tier is carved from solid rock.

This artificial labyrinth was created by order of the landowner Ihnatiy Stsibor-Markhotsʹkoho, viknown for his eccentricity. The structure is part of the park cave complex "Tears Grotto", which consists of the "Upper Grotto" ("Old Monk"), located higher on the slopes of the hill closer to the village of Otrokiv, and the "Lower Grotto", located directly on the outskirts of the village of Prytulivka. In ancient times, there was a cave hermitage here, and the valley of the Ushytsia River, where the lower part of the complex is located, is still called Chernetska Valley.

The palace in Udriivtsi was founded in 1841 by the landowner Lozinskyi. On the hill in the center of the village, he built a two-story building in the Neo-Gothic style. During the construction, local stone and brick were used, for the production of which a small factory was opened.

In 1860, the next owner of the manor, Dmochowski, added two towers to the palace. According to legend, the tower was erected in honor of the birth of a long-awaited son to the Dmochowskis (before that, they had 6 daughters). Next to the palace, Dmochowski planted an orchard and planted a chestnut avenue.

The last owner of the estate in Udriivtsi was the landlady Orlowska.

In Soviet times, the building of the Lozinski-Dmochowski palace housed a secondary school. Recently, the monument stood empty and gradually fell into disrepair.

Since 2022, the public organization "Udriivtsi - the historical heritage of Podillia" has been in charge of the fate of the palace, created by a group of enthusiasts with the aim of reviving the historical and cultural heritage of the Podillia village. The territory of the manor has been cleared, and further restoration of the palace is planned.

The Marusyn Stone (Marusyn kamin) tract is located on the top of a hill near the villages of Hamarnia and Velikiy Oleksandriv on the left bank of the Ushytsia River.

The appearance of this geological formation dates back to the 10th century BC. Originally, there was a pagan temple in the caves of the rock, as evidenced by the presence of a sacrificial stone. Over time, the place was consecrated and an Orthodox cross was carved on the walls. In one of the niches of the stone, the remains of age-old soot from the fires have been preserved, which confirms the assumptions that the caves served as a shelter for people in different periods of history.

Thus, according to legends, during the peasant uprisings, a band of robbers led by Otaman Marusya operated on these lands. Robbers attacked landowners, and the loot was usually distributed among poor peasants, which helped them survive. After one of these raids, a certain landowner Volodymyr announced a raid on the Marusya gang. Having lost all her people, Marusya disappeared into the local caves, but she was caught and killed. The local residents kept the name of the national heroine, calling the rock where it happened "Marusyn Stone".

Milk Stone is a cave located in the gorge of the rock of the same name. It is located in the northwest of the "Sovyniy Yar" nature reserve in the canyon of the Studenytsia River.

According to a local legend, old Ivan lived in the nearby village of Vykhvatnivtsi, who was warned in a dream by a saint about a Tatar raid and ordered to save himself in a cave. Those who believed Ivan went to the cave and waited out the attack, feeding on the milk that flowed from the stone. Since then, the rock and the cave in it have been called "Milk stone".