Attractions of Rivne region

For centuries, the Holy Trinity Convent in Korets was considered a spiritual fortress of Orthodoxy in Volyn.

According to legend, it was founded in 1064 by Varlaam, the first abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk monastery. Twice ruined by nomads. In 1571, the monastery was revived by Prince Bohdan Koretsky as Resurrection Church. In 1620, the construction of a large monastery complex began on a new site, but Prince Samuyil Koretsky, who converted to Catholicism, gave the new church and cell buildings to the Franciscan nuns. In the 19th century, the Catholics were expelled, and the church was rebuilt into the Trinity Cathedral in the Byzantine style. At the beginning of the 20th century, the warm John the Forerunner church and the belfry over the gate appeared.

During the Soviet rule, the monastery remained the only active nunnery in Ukraine.

The main shrine is the miraculous Korets icon of the Mother of God "Handcuffs of Sinners". On the territory is the grave of Anna Andro de Langeron, born Olenina, to whom Pushkin offered his hand and heart, dedicating to her the poem "I loved you..." after her refusal.

In the garden - an original beehive in the form of a monastery.

A special permit is required for photography on the territory.

Canonically, it reports directly to the Moscow Patriarch Kirill and is not part of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate - the owner of the monastery is the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The outstanding architectural ensemble of the defensive Holy Trinity Monastery in Mezhyrich has been decorating the cape formed by the confluence of the Viliya and Svitenka rivers for six centuries.

This monument of the Volyn school of architecture combines the traditions of ancient Rus constructive techniques with elements of Gothic-Renaissance architecture of the XV-XVII centuries.

According to legend, the Orthodox monastery at this place was founded by Kyiv-Pechersk monks during the Mongol-Tatar invasion. In the 15th century, Prince Kostyantyn Ostrozky began the construction of a wooden castle with the Trinity Church in the center of the courtyard, which became the basis of a fortified monastery. His descendants soon built a stone temple in ancient Rus forms.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the monastery came under the control of the Catholic order of Franciscans, who added Gothic and Renaissance decor to the temple, added two two-story cell buildings with paired round towers at the corners, and also surrounded the complex with stone fortress walls with crenellated defensive towers in the Renaissance style. All this gave the monastery the appearance of an elegant medieval castle.

In the middle of the 19th century, the complex was destroyed by fire, it remained abandoned for a long time.

Now the monastery has been handed over to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Mezhyrich icon of the Mother of God "Zhyttiepodavnytsia" (XVI century) crowned by Catholics is kept here - the ancestral icon of the princes of Ostroh, as well as the miraculous icon of Anthony the Great.

The Saint Nicholas Horodok Convent was founded in the 16th century, when Princess Anastasiya Vilshanska donated her Horodok estate with a castle on an island in the middle of the Ustya River to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

During the time of Ruina, when Ukraine was divided between Poland and Russia, the monastery passed to the Greek Catholics and became the residence of bishops. In 1740, the bishop of Kamyanets, Atanasiy Sheptytskyi, built a stone church of Saint Nicholas of Myrlikiya on the island. The stone body of the cells, which adjoins the church from the south, is dated to the same period.

After the annexation of Volhynia to the Russian Empire, the new owner of the estate, Count Esterhazi, rebuilt the cell block into a manor palace in the style of classicism and planted a park on the island. At the end of the 19th century, Baron Feodor fon Shteynhel built three new buildings to the northeast of the church and placed the first local history museum in Volyn in one of them.

During World War II, the palace housed a military hospital, then a regional tuberculosis sanatorium. In 1991, the complex of cells was transferred to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, which revived the Saint Nicholas Horodok Women's Monastery. At the same time, the Church of Saint Nicholas belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Hoshchansky Orthodox Monastery was founded in 1639 at the Saint Michael's Church, which, according to the protective plaque, was built in Hoshcha in 1632.

The founder of the monastery was Rehina Solomyretska-Hoyska, who inherited Hoshcha from her brother Roman Hoysky. Soon, a relative of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla of Solomyretska transferred here from Vinnytsia a branch of the Kyiv-Mohylyanska Orthodox School, whose rector was Innokenty Hisel. The monastery and the school were helped in every possible way by the champion of Orthodoxy, the Ukrainian nobleman Adam Kysil, who owned the Hoshcha house since 1642. Soon, the Michael Church and the monastery passed to the Greek Catholics, but in 1833 they were finally returned to the Orthodox.

Each time the temple was rebuilt, but did not lose its distinctive features. In particular, the window openings have preserved their original slightly arrowed contours - echoes of Gothic architecture. The building acquired its modern appearance as a result of reconstruction in 1888. The warm Saint Nicholas Church was built next to it with a cell building attached to it.

During the Soviet rule, the premises were used for economic purposes. At present, the restored churches are part of the complex of the Saint-Intercession Hoshchansky women's monastery.

The romantic ruins of the Hubkiv Castle adorn the picturesque rocky shore of the Sluch River.

The castle was built in the 15th century. It was first mentioned in 1505, when it was destroyed by the Tatars. In the 16th century, the Semashko princes restored the castle, turning it into one of the most powerful fortifications in Volyn. The fortification system consisted of four corner towers, united by walls with loopholes, an entrance gate and a drawbridge. Residential and commercial buildings were located in the castle yard.

In 1596, during Severyn Nalyvayko's rebellion, the Hubkiv Castle was captured by the Cossacks under the command of Hryhoriy Loboda (a memorial sign was erected), but was soon restored by the Poles.

Two episodes of the Northern War, when the fortifications were destroyed first by Russian (1704) and then by Swedish troops (1708), were fatal for the stronghold. Since that time, Hubkiv Castle has not been restored.

Small sections of dilapidated walls of one tower and the former palace, the castle well, have been preserved. Access is free.

The palace and park complex in Mlyniv was founded in 1775 by tycoon Yan-Mykola Khodkevych, inviting the Polish court architect Efrayim Shreher.

The 25-hectare park was planned by the famous park builder Dionysius Mikler.

Valuable collections of French and Chinese porcelain, paintings, and silverware were stored in the palace.

Heavily damaged during the Second World War, the palace was dismantled, and the premises of the zoo-veterinary technical school were built in its place.

One of the outbuildings of the palace, in which the Khodkevychy lived until 1939, has been preserved, as well as the dilapidated pavilion of the Philosopher's House and the summer gazebo.

The Mlyniv Museum of Local Lore is located in the wing, the interior of Khodkevych's room is reproduced.

Next to the estate is the Intercession Church with a bell tower (1830-1840).

Khotyn Caves near Rivne are a natural monument of local importance (since 1979).

They are located on the slope of the second floodplain terrace of the Horyn River near the village of Khotyn.

The caves interested researchers as early as the 19th century, when drawings were discovered on the walls, possibly dating back to pre-Christian times. Probably, the Khotyn Caves were a refuge for local residents during enemy attacks.

According to legend, an underground passage leads to Rivne.

The Klesiv Arboretum was created on the territory of the Klesiv Forestry by a self-taught landscape designer, former forester Oleksiy Voron.

With his own hands, he created a lot of green sculptures from trees and shrubs, which he brought from various forests of Ukraine. The alleys of the Klesiv Arboretum are decorated with balls, pyramids, cylinders and glasses. There are about 30 sculptures, many arches and other architectural forms. There are also complex sculptural compositions: "Virgin Mary's Candle", "Olympic Cup", "Bohdan Khmelnytskyi's Chalice".

At the entrance to the Klesiv Arboretum, visitors are greeted by a huge coat of arms of Ukraine made of spherical thuja trees.

The well-preserved, well-fortified Klevan Castle was founded in 1475 by Prince Mykhaylo Chartoriysky on the site of an ancient Rus settlement above the Stubla River.

The castle is surrounded by powerful walls (thickness of 3.8 meters) and a defensive moat, over which a four-arch bridge is thrown. The construction was supervised by the Lviv fortification engineer Ivan Lys, the architect of the Lviv City Arsenal. Two corner towers were also preserved from the original building. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a college of Jesuits was located here. After the reconstruction carried out in 1817 by Kostyantyn Chartoryysky, a Polish gymnasium was opened in the new buildings, then a theological school.

During the Soviet rule, the Klevan Castle housed a boarding school, a mechanization school, and a NKVD post at various times, then it was converted into a treatment and labor ward for alcoholics.

Currently, the buildings are derelict, and projects for reconstruction and development of tourist infrastructure are being discussed. Klevan Castle is cared for by volunteers from the sports and patriotic organization "Shyt".

The ruins of Korets Castle with a distinctive tower over the gate of red brick are the hallmark of the city.

The first wooden fortification was built in the 15th century above the Korchyk river by Prince Ostrozky. Later, the castle passed into the possession of Volyn Voivode Bohdan Koretskyi, who strengthened it with stone walls with towers and bastions, surrounded by an earthen rampart and a moat filled with water from the river.

In the 18th century, the fortress buildings became the basis for the construction of the palace complex of the Chartoryskyi princes. In 1832, the palace burned down and has not been rebuilt since then.

The three-level gate tower, the adjacent ruins of the outer walls of the palace buildings, and the three-pylon four-arch bridge (reconstructed in recent years) have been preserved.

The Korets Historical Museum was opened in the former Horchynski Palace (18th century) to mark the 850th anniversary of the first chronicle of the city.

The exposition is located in five halls: the history of the city of Korets, World War II, ethnography and two exhibitions. More than 6,000 exhibits reflect the history, culture and life of the region.

In front of the entrance to the Korets Historical Museum there is a monument to Taras Shevchenko, according to the legend, remade from the monument to Lenin.

Kostopil Museum of Local Lore is located in a small one-story house in the center of Kostopil.

There are 10 exhibitions about the nature, history and ethnography of the region. In the exposition "Nature of the native land" the most interesting dioramas are "River and meadow" and "Forest".

In the ethnographic corner the interior of the Polissya house was reconstructed, the full process of fabric making was presented.

The archeological collection includes tools of prehistoric times, fragments of pottery, bronze products.

The history of the region is told by the exhibition "Kostopil region from the IX century to 1921".

Stands "Kostopilshchyna Today" is actually an advertising exhibition of products of local enterprises.

A large collection of military equipment from the Second World War, open to the 40th anniversary of the victory, is on display on the site in front of the museum. Among the 17 exhibits are an IS-3 tank, a BM-13 Katyusha jet mortar, ISU-122 and ISU-152 self-propelled artillery units, a 203-mm B-4 howitzer, an automatic anti-aircraft gun, and more.

The estate of the Lenkevychi-Valevsky landowners in Hoshcha is an outstanding monument of palatial modernism in the residential architecture of Volyn in the 19th century, the embodiment of modernist aesthetics in Volyn garden and park construction. The palace is an architectural monument of local importance.

At the end of the 18th century, Stanislav Kostka Lenkevych of the Lenkevych-Ipochorskyi family, to whom Hoshcha had belonged since the beginning of the 18th century, founded the Hoshcha estate with an English-style park and a one-story wooden house. In 1852 the estate became the property of Oktaviya Lenkevych, who married Count Mikhal Valevsky. Around this time, the current palace was built in the style of a Swiss chalet - an alpine house with half-timbered facades, an attic floor, a decorative tower and a balcony over a porch in Art Nouveau style. The last owners were the Russian landowners Isakov.

In Soviet times, the palace was greatly modified by adding a second floor, completing the second wing instead of a decorative tower and partially covering the facades with ceramic tiles, but the main facade remained close to the original. For a long time the building was used as a district library.

In 2017, the Lenkevych-Valevsky estate was transferred to the balance of the Hoscha village council, and restoration work began. Now the exposition of the Hoshcha Historical and Ethnographic Museum "Pohoryna" is unfolding here.

Hoshcha Park with an area of ​​7 hectares is a monument of landscape art of national importance. Among its greenery you can find a relict ginkgo tree, which is also called the "dinosaur tree". Also growing are marsh oak with a pyramidal crown, Schwedler's red-leaved maple, Weymouth pine with small silky needles and long narrow cones, Japanese sophora, which resembles white acacia but has no thorns.

The Lutsk Gate is a three-tiered stone building that played the role of the western entrance gate and the forward defense tower - the Barbican, in the medieval system of Dubno city fortification. It was built in 1623 by the architect Yakub Madlayn.

This type of defense structure is typical for Poland and is not found anywhere else in Ukraine. Researchers assume that the Lutsk Gate was connected to the Dubno Castle by a wide underground passage. Later, the building lost its defensive significance, the gate was bricked up, and the street was built next to it. The commemorative plaque indicates that the restoration was carried out in 1785.

According to legend, at the end of the 18th century, a masonic lodge met in the Lutsk Gate under the leadership of Grand Master Mykhaylo Lyubomyrskyi.

Now the Lutsk Gate is used as an administrative building. The monument needs restoration.

The historic quarter "Maidan Bergshloss" opened in 2020 as part of the renewed architectural complex of the Rivne Brewery at the initiative of the director of the enterprise Maryan Hoda.

A small cobbled square is surrounded by three-story buildings reminiscent of the buildings of an old European city. Colorful and stylish false facades have Polish, German and Scandinavian features.

Most of the premises are currently occupied by the Hotel Optima Collection Bergshloss Rivne of the "Reikarts" chain. There is an Italian restaurant.

The European courtyard "Bergshloss" is periodically used as a festival site and a cultural and exhibition space.

The opening of the Beer and Hop Growing Museum is planned.