Attractions of Okhtyrka district

The Annunciation Church is one of the oldest stone buildings in Trostianets.

It was built at the expense of local nobles in 1750, when Trostianets belonged to the Nadarzhynskyi family, descendants of the royal clergyman Timofiy Nadarzhynskyi.

The Church of the Annunciation in Trostianets is made in the style of early classicism with baroque elements. It has a stocky silhouette.

Currently, the temple is active (UPC of the Moscow Patriarchate).

The architecturally original temple of Archangel Michael with ball domes on thin "necks" was built on the outskirts of Okhtyrka in 1884 as a military church.

Relief masonry made of red brick with decorative elements of Byzantine and Rus architecture of the 17th century vaguely resembles the image of military churches of the beginning of the 20th century, found in Right Bank Ukraine.

A feature of the interior decoration of Saint Michael's Church is a belt of deep semi-circular niches with works of easel painting stretched under the lunettes. A conch is covered with thematic oil painting. The interior decoration was done later.

The Church of Archangel Michael in Okhtyrka is distinguished by the originality of the three-dimensional solution and the clarity of the silhouette.

The Ascension Church in Trostianets was built at the beginning of the 20th century. The richly decorated temple in the tent-dome style is popularly called the "Red Church" because of the characteristic color of the brick walls.

The 40-meter bell tower is distinguished by the highly artistic work of master stonemasons. The floor in the temple is made of Metlakh tiles. A special feature of the building is the location of the sacristy and the deacon's room of the central nave behind the side apses.

Due to its large size and expressive plasticity, the Ascension Church dominates the surrounding buildings of Trostianets and gives the city a well-known silhouette.

The Forest Museum in Trostianets was opened in 2019 at the Trostianets Forest Farm to the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Sumy Regional Department of Forestry and Hunting.

The exposition presents samples of flora and fauna of Sumy region, tools for forestry management, forest planting and wood harvesting. On the territory of the forest farm, you can take a walk through the mini arboretum and buy seedlings.

The 4.3-km-long ecological trail starts from the museum, which runs through the Neskuchne tract and includes 10 stops, including a black walnut plantation, an oak tree up to 500 years old, Yakubiv Yar, Nymph's Grotto, etc.

During the Russian military aggression in 2022 and the temporary occupation of Trostianets, the building of the Forest Museum suffered significant destruction. The exposure is restored.

The Holy Intercession Cathedral is the main temple of Okhtyrka, a visiting card of the city.

The place where the priest Danylo Polyansky found the miraculous icon of the Okhtyrka Mother of God in 1739 was chosen for its construction.

The project of the Intercession Cathedral in the Ukrainian Baroque style was developed in 1753 by the famous architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Part of the funds was allocated by Empress Elizabeth, who visited the city in 1744. Construction lasted 15 years and was completed in 1768. The famous Russian architect Stepan Dudynskyi took part in the construction. The interior is decorated with pilasters with capitals of the Ionic order, sculpting of plant and rocaille motifs, painting on sails.

The building was damaged during the Second World War, restored in 1970-1972.

The icon of the Okhtyrka Mother of God was stolen in 1903 during restoration in St. Petersburg, the cathedral keeps a list. Other lists are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kharkiv and many other cities.

The ensemble of the cathedral also includes the Introduction belfry church (1784) and the Church of the Nativity (1825).

The three-tiered Introduction Church-Bell Tower is part of the complex of the Intercession Cathedral in Okhtyrka.

It was built according to the project of the Kharkiv architect Petro Yaroslavskyi, a native of the city of Okhtyrka. Made in baroque style with elements of classicism. It has a centric pyramidal composition and consists of three tiers installed on a low plinth. The church is located on the first floor, the two upper ones are intended for bells. The building has good proportions and a clear silhouette.

The Introduction Church-Bell Tower is located near the main entrance to the Intercession Cathedral and is its bell tower.

The former house of the manager of the estates of Leopold Koenig in Trostianets was built in 1911 in the far part of the Neskuchne Park.

The two-story building of an asymmetrical composition with a tower in its eastern part is made in the Art Nouveau style. The head of forestry lived here with his family. During the Soviet rule, an agricultural school was opened in the building, and in 1923, the first forest research station in Ukraine.

Today it is the administrative building of the Krasnotrostyanetska Forest Research Station - a branch of the Institute of Forestry and Agromelioration.

The Manager's House has the status of an architectural monument of national importance.

During the Russian occupation of Trostianets in 2022, the House of the estate manager Leopold Koenig burned down. In particular, the fire destroyed the red oak wooden staircase and the library, which had more than 15,000 books and began to take shape during Koenig's time. The monument needs complete restoration.

Leopold Koenig Manor (Holitsyn Palace) in Trostianets is a neoclassical manor house with Baroque elements, built in 1762 by the Nadarzhynskyi brothers next to the Round Yard Manor.

Prince Vasyl Holitsyn owned it for almost half a century from 1832, and in 1881 the estate became the property of the sugar factory Leopold Koenig, who carried out the reconstruction. Now the palace houses the Trostianets Museum and Exhibition Center.

The building is decorated with rich stucco on the facade and sculptures in the niches. The palace is surrounded by a luxurious park with a lake, a gazebo and park sculptures. The grand oak staircase to the second floor, door portals with volutes, and a dance hall decorated with stucco and sculpture have been preserved in the interior. In the summer of 1864, the composer Petro Tchaikovsky lived and worked in this house while visiting Oleksiy Holitsyn, here he wrote the overture to the drama "The Thunderstorm" – his first symphonic work. During Soviet times, the palace housed a kindergarten, then the building was empty for a long time. Restoration was carried out in 2007-2009.

Currently, the ballroom and other central premises of the palace house a picture gallery and a small exhibition dedicated to Petro Tchaikovsky (a room-museum of Tchaikovsky is planned to be opened on the second floor). The Trostianets Museum of Local Lore operates in the right wing. In 2012, a chocolate museum was opened in the left wing, where the products of the Trostianets chocolate factory "Mondelize" (formerly "Kraft Foods", "Ukraine"), which is now produced mainly under the "Korona" brand, are presented. A coffee room is also open.

During the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, when Trostianets was under Russian occupation for a month, Leopold Koenig's estate was damaged. There was a partially destroyed room with a local history exposition. The museum needs restoration.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Unique in terms of architecture, the manor house "Round Yard" was built in 1749 by Yosyp Nadarzhynskyi with brothers - sons of the royal clergyman Timofiy Nadarzhynskyi.

The building is made in the form of an oval fortress or castle. Initially, it was planned as a defense to protect against the Tatars. The "Round Yard" is surrounded by a hollow brick wall reinforced with buttresses, with one-story rooms inside the yard and four round three-tiered towers.

In the middle of the 19th century, the estate passed into the possession of Prince Oleksiy Holitsyn, who adapted the fortress for a summer theater or circus. In the open area of the courtyard, three-tiered boxes for spectators were built, similar to ancient Roman amphitheatres. Artists lived in the towers. In the center was an arena where circus performances and performances by the troupe of the Holitsyn Fortress Theater took place.

During the years of Ukraine's independence, the "Round Yard" was restored, various cultural events are held. Adjacent to it is a park with the Holitsyn Palace (XIX century), an arboretum, lakes and wooden sculptures.

During the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, during the battles for Trostyanets, the buildings of the "Round Yard" suffered significant damage.

The majestic church of Saint George the Victorious in Okhtyrka is also known as Yuriyivska Church.

Its history begins in 1660, when the first Saint George's Church was built in Okhtyrka. Subsequently, it was repeatedly reconstructed by the efforts of the hussar regiment of Denis Davydov, but in 1860 it was decided to build a new one instead of the old church. Construction lasted 45 years. The temple was consecrated only in 1905, and it was active for a short time. In 1920, it was closed and partially looted by the Bolsheviks, for a long time the premises were used as a warehouse.

In 1993, the church was handed over to the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In May 2022, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Saint George's Church was severely damaged by a Russian missile attack. Damaged upper, over-door and arched windows, as well as wall structures.