Attractions of Kharkiv district

The Museum of Archeology of the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University dates back to 1807, when an antiquity cabinet was established at the university.

In the same year he received artifacts from the excavations of Olbia. They formed the basis of the exposition of the Museum of Fine Arts and Antiquities, established at the university in 1837. At the beginning of the XX century the Archaeological Museum became an independent scientific institution.

The modern exposition is located in the Exhibition Hall in the Main Building of the University. Here are some of the largest in Ukraine collections of objects of the Bronze Age, Scythian era, ancient times, Chernyakhiv and Saltivka cultures.

The Museum of Astronomy of the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University was opened in 2008. The museum is named after Mykola Barabashov, the founder of Kharkiv astronomy and the former rector of the university, who, while still a student, set up an observatory on the roof of one of the city's buildings. In 2020, on the occasion of the 215th anniversary of the university, the opening of the renovated and reconstructed museum took place.

The museum houses a collection of unique astronomical and geodetic instruments from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. This provides an opportunity to explore the formation and development of astronomy in Kharkiv, Ukraine and the world.

The peculiarity of the exhibition is that it is created in the premises of the Repsold meridian circle pavilion - the largest instrument in the collection - and has an underground floor. Thus, visitors can familiarize themselves with the peculiarities of the process of astronomical observations and the design of the telescope, check the time on a sundial, view a collection of ancient telescopes and a collection of meteorites - one of the largest in Eastern Europe.

AVEC Gallery is one of the main exhibition venues in Kharkiv.

It was opened in 2000 in the Platinum Plaza office and shopping center with the assistance of the AVEC charity fund of the great Kharkiv businessman Oleksandr Feldman.

The best masters of Kharkov have repeatedly exhibited their works in the AVEC gallery. A special place is occupied by the "Dialogue of Cultures" project, which included the following exhibitions: "Images of the Disappeared World", "Foundation of Eternity", "Ethnic Diversity of Ukraine", the exhibition of Nikas Safronov's works "Childhood Memories. With Love for Ukraine" and others.

In the courtyard, there is a light and music fountain in the summer. The sculptural compositions "Orchestra", "Family at Work" and "Enthusiastic Photographer" (2008) by the famous Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler, as well as "Globe of Kharkiv" ("Planet Kharkiv"; 2011) by the artist Mykola Rosenfeld are also installed here.

Free entrance.

The Kharkiv suspended Cableway is laid from the Central Park of Culture and Recreation (Sumska Street) to the Botanical Garden (Otakara Yarosha Street).

Along the way, two-seater cabins pass over Sarzhyn Yar, from where a view of Pavlove Pole - one of the old districts of Kharkiv - opens up. The building of the Pavlove Pole boarding station, designed by architect Ihor Popov, is decorated with a mosaic panel by Viktor Savenkov.

The total length of the Cableway is 1385 meters, the height is up to 26 meters. Travel time one way - 18 minutes.

The Central park of culture and recreation in Kharkiv was laid out in 1893-1895 and inaugurated two years later, when the trees had grown a little.

At first it was called Mykolayivsky or Zamisky park. The area is about 130 hectares. Now it is one of the main centers of recreation and entertainment, mass celebrations and folk festivities take place here. On the territory there is an amusement park, the "Park" cinema, the "Mala Pivdenna" children's railway, a cable car, tennis courts, etc.

In 2006, for the Day of the City of Kharkiv, the colonnade in front of the entrance was restored on the side of Sumska Street. The central fountain were also restored.

In 2012, a renewed amusement park was opened, including a "roller coaster" and a Ferris wheel, which are most popular with visitors. Many original bronze sculptures symbolizing each recreation area appeared on the alleys.

During the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Central park of culture and recreation in Kharkiv was repeatedly targeted by Russian artillery. As of the beginning of February 2023, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, there were about 70 hits from rocket launchers and two missile strikes on the territory of Park. About 20 attractions, park alleys, lawns, sculptures, and trees were damaged as a result of shelling.

The city garden named after Taras Shevchenko is the oldest green area in the center of Kharkiv, one of the most favorite places of rest for the citizens.

Founded in 1804 by Vasyl Karazin, the founder of Kharkiv University, on the basis of a natural oak grove on the outskirts of the city, it was then called University. A monument to Karazin (1907) was erected on the north side of the park.

A chestnut avenue leads from the monument to Taras Shevchenko (1935) to the university building. Next to the "Ukraine" movie concert hall - the central entrance to the Kharkiv Zoo (1895). The Astronomical Observatory (1808) is located in the garden.

Other monuments installed in the park: Monument to repressed Kobzars (1997), sculpture "Soccer Ball" (2001), monument to Archangel Michael moved from Kyiv (2004), sculpture "Aksakal" (1989 -2007 years).

The building complex of the Building of State Industry was built in Kharkiv on the initiative of Feliks Dzerzhynskyi, becoming the core of the new administrative center of city, which was then the capital of Ukraine.

This is the first high-rise reinforced concrete structure in the USSR (63 meters). The useful area of the premises is 60,000 square meters. The building was designed by a group of Leningrad architects in the then fashionable and advanced style of constructivism. Construction under the leadership of engineer Pavlo Rottert was completed in record time - in 3 years.

Until 1934, the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine was located here. In 1955, one of the first 45-meter television towers in the USSR was installed on the roof. Now the building houses the regional government, offices of many companies.

In the 5th entrance there is a museum of Derzhprom, created in the 1980s with the participation of Kharkiv writer Eduard Zvonytskyi.

The Derzhprom building is recognized as an architectural monument of national importance - it is the largest monument of constructivism in the world.

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine on March 1, 2022, Maidan Svobody, where the Derzhprom complex is located, was attacked by Russian Kalibr missiles. One of them hit the historic building of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, injuring twenty people and killing ten. All the windows were broken and significantly damaged, and in some places the ceilings were completely destroyed.

On September 7, 2023, UNESCO included Derzhprom in the list of objects for enhanced protection and in the preliminary list of World Heritage.

On January 2, 2024, the Derzhprom building suffered severe damage for the second time, when a Russian missile hit next to the building. The impact of an enemy rocket damaged the glazing of windows and stained-glass windows in almost the entire northwestern part of the Derzhprom building.

On October 28, 2024, the Derzhprom building was once again destroyed. As a result of a direct hit by a FAB-500 guided aerial bomb in one of the entrances of Derzhprom during the aerial bombardment of Kharkiv by the Russian occupiers, 3 floors of the building were completely destroyed.

The Feldman Ecopark family recreation complex near Kharkov is a charity project of the Oleksandr Feldman Foundation. Since 2013, it has the status of a regional landscape park.

Ecopark is an area for family recreation with entertainment and a zoo where tigers, wolves, monkeys, kangaroos, proboscis, raccoons and others are kept. Visitors have the opportunity not only to observe the animals, but also to communicate closely with some of them in the "Contact Zoo" zone - to feed and pet the animals of the so-called tactile group: chickens, geese, ducks, peacocks, rabbits, alpacas, Cameroonian goats, decorative sheep, donkeys, ponies, Vietnamese pigs (the feed is provided by the ecopark). A group of young naturalists works.

For lovers of active recreation, the ecopark has a rope town, trampolines. The territory is equipped with gazebos, each of which has a samovar, tea, sugar, cups and bagels. In the winter time, on weekends, visitors are treated to kulish and sweets, and in the spring and summer period, small visitors are treated to cotton candy and popcorn.

Russian-Ukrainian war

In the very first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, the territory of the ecopark, where about five thousand animals lived, was in the zone of Russian shelling, and battles were going on nearby. For 199 days, Feldman Ecopark was under daily enemy fire.

Every day, Ecopark employees and volunteers, risking their lives, broke into its territory to feed, water and warm the animals. Six people - park employees and volunteers - died while trying to save their wards. Among them is a minor boy who helped his parents.

During the fighting for Kharkiv, the Russians destroyed 97% of the enclosures and buildings of the Ecopark. More than 300 animals died. 4,750 animals and birds were saved from death and evacuated.

From February 2023, 140 hectares of the territory of the Ecopark will be demined from stretch marks, remnants of cluster munitions, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, clearing rubble. The shot enclosures, as a reminder of Russian aggression, will not be cleaned yet.

The sculpture "Fiddler on Roof" was installed on the building of the Kharkiv Conservatory - an architectural monument of the 19th century.

The author of the composition is Seyfaddin Hurbanov. The prototype of "Fiddler" was the famous violist Yuriy Bashmet, but the image is considered collective, and the monument is dedicated to all Kharkiv artists, artists and musicians - people of creative professions.

"Fiddler on the Roof" became a symbol of the "People's Recognition" award - the "Kharkiv Oscar", which is awarded every year in the nominations "Music", "Fine Art", "Literature", "Theatre" and "Architecture".

In 2017, the monument was moved to the roof of the Platinum Plaza building.

Cossack Kharko (Kharyton) is the mythical founder of the city of Kharkiv, about whom several urban legends have been compiled.

According to the "Topographical description of the Kharkiv governorship" (1785), "...if we believe the rumor, one of the wealthy Ukrainians established a farm in this place, but who he was, where and when, there is no information about it, by the name of Kharyton, and according to the colloquialism, Kharko, from which this city and the river supposedly got their title."

The monument to the Founders of Kharkiv in honor of the city's 350th anniversary was opened in 2004 at the beginning of Nauky Avenue. Presented to the city by the famous sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. This is the first equestrian monument in the history of the city. It is a 12-ton bronze sculpture of a horseman, the Cossack Kharko. In his hand he holds a spear, a shield, behind his shoulders is a bow and a quiver of arrows. The height of the sculpture is 6 meters, the pedestal is 7 meters.

The old building of Kharkiv University was built in the 18th century as the Governor General's House.

The Governor's Palace is the oldest building in Kharkiv in the classicist style. Kharkiv University was located in the governor's house from 1805 to 1958. Later, the university was moved to new buildings on Svobody Maidan.

Currently, the premises of the governor's palace are occupied by the Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy.

The grandiose architectural ensemble of the Holy Annunciation Cathedral in the Neo-Byzantine style with a 75-meter bell tower rises in Kharkiv above the Lopan River.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos was built in 1901 on the site of the old Annunciation Church, the history of which dates back to 1655. At that time, a wooden church was built in the village of Zalopany on the outskirts of Kharkiv, which was later replaced by a stone one, but it soon ceased to accommodate parishioners.

In 1888, the construction of a new cathedral began nearby, the funds for which were collected by the local nobility, merchants and ordinary parishioners. Mykhaylo Lovtsov, a professor of architecture, was chosen as the architect. The five-headed temple with a high bell tower is distinguished by a special "striped" masonry and a wealth of decor. The iconostasis of the work of the master Vasyl Orlov was made of white Narra marble, the paintings were made by local artists.

The Annunciation Cathedral was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1930, but became active again during the Second World War. According to legend, a cross fell three times from the dome of the temple due to hurricanes and fire.

The tall and slender Holy Assumption Cathedral in the Ukrainian Baroque style was built in Kharkiv in the center of the University Hill on the site of the old church of 1688.

The bell tower with chimes, built by architects Yevhen Vasiliev and Andriy Ton, is the tallest building in the city (89 meters). Thanks to the location of the windows, the temple looks like a palace.

During Soviet times, the church was closed, and in 1986, the House of Organ and Chamber Music opened in it. After the opening of a new philharmonic complex in Kharkiv in 2016, the Assumption Cathedral became fully owned by the diocese.

In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the cathedral was damaged by shelling from Russian troops. The projectile that hit the building of the Assumption Cathedral broke windows and stained-glass windows, damaged church utensils and decorations.

The Holy Intercession Monastery in Kharkiv is the oldest building preserved in the city. In the 17th century, the monastery was part of the system of fortifications of the Kharkiv fortress. The Belfry of the Intercession Cathedral (1689) looks like a defensive tower.

The entrance gate is decorated with an icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands. On the territory there is the Ozeryan Church (1896), the bishop's house, the abbot's house and a cell block with a refectory. In 1726, the Kharkiv Collegium was founded here, where the philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda taught (the monument is erected), and the writer Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko worked.

For the 2000th anniversary of Christianity, the figure of Jesus Christ was established.

The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Recovery of the Dead" was built in 2006 in memory of fallen soldiers participating in local wars. The initiator was the Kharkiv Regional Union of Veterans of Afghanistan.

Initially, it was planned to build a chapel near the monument to internationalist soldiers who died in Afghanistan, but later it was decided to build a temple for 250 people. It was named after the icon of the Mother of God "Recovery of the Dead" - a revered image before which mothers pray for their dying children.

In the future, the temple complex should also include a bell tower and a church park.