Attractions of Kharkiv district

The Museum of the History of the Kharkiv Municipal Enterprise "City Electric Transport" was founded in 1976 to mark the seventieth anniversary of the enterprise. In 1978, it received the status of "People's Museum".

The exposition illustrates all stages of the development of electric transport in Kharkiv - from the first horse-drawn tram to the present. Photographs, documents, models of tram and trolleybus cars of Kharkiv that previously operated on routes, travel tickets of all times, composters are presented. You can also see a diagram of Kharkiv transport with promising lines in the museum.

The Kharkiv Fire and Technical Exhibition was founded in 1967. Has four branches: in Bohodukhiv, Izium, Kupyansk, and Lozova.

The exhibition, which presents exhibits from almost 200 years of the existence of the regional fire service in ten thematic halls, introduces the history of the Kharkiv region's fire service, the work of the modern State Emergency Service units, and allows you to gain knowledge that will help you act correctly in an extreme situation. The museum presents the uniform of firemen (chiefs of fire departments) of the past, old horse-drawn fire trucks, the uniform of firemen (chiefs of fire departments), special equipment, a signal bell that signaled an alarm, etc.

The Kharkiv Holocaust Museum was established in 1996 on the basis of materials and documents from the personal archive of Larysa Volovik.

The museum`s exposition presents leaflets, posters of the occupation period, resettlement orders, various actions against Jews throughout Ukraine.

The names of 52 Righteous of the World - Kharkiv residents who saved Jews during the war, risking their own lives, are immortalized in the Kharkiv Holocaust Museum.

The Kharkiv airport began operating in 1932 after the completion of the construction of the "Osnova" airfield and the airport's service buildings.

In 1933, he was given the name of Pavo Postyshev. In 1936, Kharkiv Airport was recognized as the best airport in the USSR. In the pre-war years, it was an independent self-supporting unit directly subordinated to the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation. Air routes leading to the Crimea and the Caucasus pass through the airport. The largest passenger plane of those years - the six-engine giant P-124 (ANT-20bis) made a landing in Kharkiv on its way to Mineralny Vody airport. In 1941, a concrete runway was built at the airfield. With the beginning of the Second World War, the personnel of the airport became part of the Kyiv and Kharkiv special air groups of the Civil Air Fleet.

The existing airport terminal was built in the post-war years according to a typical project developed by the Moscow Research Institute "Aeroproject" in 1951 (architects Elkin, Kryukov, Mitkevych). This project was applied in Lviv, Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Chelyabinsk and other cities of the USSR. The construction of the airport began in 1951, and its opening was dedicated to the pompous celebration of the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. From the outside, the building of the air terminal is distinguished by the increased grandeur characteristic of the "Stalinist" architecture of the 30s - 50s. The central entrance is decorated with an eight-column portico with a high parapet of a complex outline. An elegant octagonal turret with a slender tent and a spire topped with a gilded wreath rises above the building. The interiors are richly equipped with stucco architectural details and paintings.

In 2010, a new international terminal "A" was opened, and the old one was reconstructed and turned into a VIP passenger service terminal.

Kharkiv Literary Museum was opened in 1988 in an old mansion of the beginning of the 20th century.

The core of the collection consists of exhibits from the 1910s-1930s from the archives of Ivan Dniprovsky, Mariya Pylynska, Andriy Chernyshov (autographed books, correspondence of writers, photographs, personal belongings), original paintings by Kharkiv avant-garde artists (Nina Kosareva's collection), copies and originals of documents , which were transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (Khotkevych's criminal case, Les Kurbas's passport, etc.), memorial exhibits "Vaplite" and others.

In addition to exhibitions, tours and interactive programs, Litmuseum offers events in the evening hours: presentations, cultural discussions, meetings with artists, master classes.

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the museum has been shelled at least three times. The most serious damage occurred in March 2022, when the shock wave broke windows, damaged the facade and some exhibits. On the night of March 1, 2025, as a result of the Russian attack on Kharkiv, the building of the Kharkiv Literary Museum once again suffered significant damage.

The Kharkiv Municipal Gallery began its activities in 1996 and became the first gallery of municipal status in Ukraine. The main direction of activity is work with contemporary Ukrainian artists.

In its exhibition policy, the gallery combines programs and exhibitions of masters of traditional painting, graphics, sculpture, photography with projects of contemporary art, new media. Artists of the gallery: Borys Mykhailov, Vitalii Kulikov, Viktor Hontariv, Serhii Bratkov, Viktor Sydorenko, Pavlo Makov, Vachahan Norazian, Eduard Yashyn, Oleksandr Ridnyi, Hanna Ivanova, Volodymyr Kochmar and many others, as well as a team of young authors: Alina Kleitman, Anton Tkachenko, Artem Volokitin, Vitalii Kokhan, Hamlet Zynkivskyi, Hanna Bykova, Konstiantyn Zorkin, Olena Poliashchenko, Olha Fedorova, Roman Minin.

The gallery has two exhibition spaces: the main hall (more than 100 square meters) and the ARTbasement (140 square meters), which specializes in youth and experimental art.

Kharkiv National University named after Vasyl Karazin is one of the oldest and largest universities in Eastern Europe.

It was founded in 1805 as Kharkiv Imperial University. The initiator was the outstanding scientist and educator Vasyl Karazin, whose name the higher educational institution bears today.

Count Severyn Potoski became the first trustee of the university, he formed the teaching staff. Initially, the university was located in the Governor General's house, later it was moved to new buildings on Svobody Maidan.

Over two centuries, Kharkiv University became the center of Ukrainian national cultural revival, played an important role in the development of modern Ukrainian science and culture, and turned Kharkiv into one of the leading intellectual centers of the country. Today, 15,000 students study at 20 faculties of Kharkiv National University.

The University includes the Botanical Garden, the Museum of Nature, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, the University History Museum, "Landau Center", "Yermilov Center", Henrikh Semyradsky Art Gallery.

From the first days of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian forces bombarded Kharkiv. Karazin University, which is one of Kharkiv's landmarks, was no exception to Russian missiles and projectiles. Some of its hulls are badly damaged. By the beginning of 2023, 25% of the university buildings have been destroyed.

The State Museum of Nature of the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University is one of the oldest museums in Europe. It was founded by Count Severyn Potocki in 1807, who in 1806 bought a collection of foreign objects collected by Professor Andre from the Hanoverian pharmacist Gruner, and in 1807 - the zoological collection of the Italian Cetti.

In 23 halls of the museum there are scientific expositions of four departments: geology, invertebrates and vertebrates, evolution of the organic world and nature conservation. The exhibits in the halls are demonstrated not only in the form of systematic collections, but also in the form of biogroups and spectacular dioramas equipped with audiovisual means, and are distinguished by high quality artistic design. The scientific funds of the museum store more than 250 thousand exhibits.

The Kharkiv Planetarium was opened in 1957 on the initiative of the prominent astronomer Mykola Barabashov.

The "Middle Zeiss" apparatus is installed in the hall, which allows, in addition to the starry sky, to demonstrate other celestial phenomena.

The museum of cosmonautics and ufology (the science of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations) works at the planetarium. Presented are four-meter figures of aliens, models of flying saucers made on the basis of eyewitness accounts, photographs of UFOs.

Kharkiv Zoo is the oldest in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Zoological Garden was founded in 1896, when an exhibition of domestic animals and birds was organized on an area of 2 hectares rented near the University Garden. Later, the exhibition was replenished with wild animals, which were delivered to Kharkiv by residents of the surrounding villages.

In 1906, the construction and equipment of the main building of the aquarium was completed. In 1911, the South Russian Acclimatization Society decided to set up a zoo in Kharkiv, which became the third largest zoo in the Russian Empire. At the expense of the Society, winter premises and summer enclosures were built, wild animals and birds were purchased, some of which came from the Askania-Nova reserve.

During the Soviet-Ukrainian war at the beginning of the 20th century, the zoo was destroyed. In 1921, it began to be restored, and within a year, the capital's (at that time) Kharkiv Zoo was again open to visitors. In 1928, a whole echelon of animals arrived from Germany, including a lion, leopard, llama, kangaroo, mongoose, monkey, parrot, white-cheeked kazakh and many others. Swans, pelicans and about a hundred other species of waterfowl were brought from Transcaucasia. A pond with an area of 2,400 square meters was built in the ravine for geese, swans, flamingos and other aquatic animals. In the 1930s, a "mountain enclosure" with artificial slides was built, where turus, gazelles, and mouflons lived in conditions closest to natural ones. An elephant house, a monkey house, an aviary, pens for ungulates were built.

During the Second World War, most of the animals died, the zoo was rebuilt on an almost empty site. A new aquarium, winter quarters for large animals, pools for fish and waterfowl were built, and tens of thousands of trees and shrubs were replanted. During the time of the reforms, there were problems with financing and feeding the animals, and their number decreased somewhat.

Now it is one of the most favorite leisure places of Kharkiv residents - adults and children.

The LandauCenter Educational Center of Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University was created in 2014 on the initiative of the university community and the Association of Alumni, Teachers and Friends of the University as the first exhibition space for interactive science and scientific discoveries in Kharkiv.

The LandauCenter exhibition hall is one large laboratory in which visitors can conduct experiments, work with devices and try themselves as scientists. Here you can try out an air cannon and fly a sailboat, discovering the laws of physics; think about creating sounds, playing the piano, in which you can "see music"; you can see the largest "Tesla transformer" in Eastern Europe, which gives discharges of up to half a million volts, "Jacob's ladder", "Ames room"; you can try on glasses to see the world as it is perceived by people with vision problems, as well as try to overcome obstacles and perform certain tasks in a wheelchair.

"LandauCenter" is a permanent exhibition of unique exhibits created by university scientists, as well as temporary exhibitions dedicated to a specific topic - physics, anatomy, optics, mathematics, etc. It hosts events in interesting botany and zoology, archeology, biomechanics, experimental chemistry and physics, geometry, astronomy, computer science, robotics, and even philology, psychology, ethnography, and local history.

The Liubotyn Museum of Local Lore was founded in the city of Liubotyn in the Kharkiv region in 1993 on the initiative of local historians. The museum is located in the premises of the central city library.

The museum's collections include over 8,000 exhibits, including a large numismatic collection, icons from the late 19th century, antique clothing, household items and tools from the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

The Museum of Local Self-Government of the Kharkiv Region was opened in Kharkiv in 2015 on the occasion of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the 150th anniversary of the introduction of Zemstvos - the first elected local self-government bodies in the Slobozhanshchyna.

The museum is located in the city center, in the premises of the Derzhprom Building (5th entrance). Is a subdivision of the Kharkiv Historical Museum is named after Mykola Sumtsov.

The museum's exposition tells about the historical past of self-government since its inception, about the spread of the regimental-hundred system, about the formation of zemstvo self-government and the introduction of the position of mayor. Original documents, reproduced clothing of officials of different eras, original weapons are presented.

Pavlivskyi Maidan emerged in 1660-1662, when a fortification (outpost) was built here, adjacent to the Kharkiv Fortress.

After some time, the center of the fortification became a large shopping area called Narodna. At the corner of the square and Universitetska Street in the second half of the 18th century, there was a post office (now on this site is a post office building), next to which a stone verst pillar with inscriptions indicating the distances from Kharkiv to Moscow and neighboring provincial cities was installed. Decrees were read near the pillar and public punishments were carried out, so the square was also called Lobna.

In the middle of the 19th century, the square was called Pavlivska in honor of the merchant Pavlov, who opened the first store with fixed prices for goods. Later, the large building of the insurance company "Russia" (1910-1915, architect Mykola Verovkin) and the City Merchant Bank (1913, architects Mykola Vasylyev and Oleksandr Rzhepishevsky) were built, on the two upper floors of which the Astoria hotel was located.

During the Second World War, the building was destroyed, but then restored in its original form.

On the night of August 27, 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Russians launched a missile attack on Pavlivskyi Maidan in Kharkiv. The historical building of 1912 was damaged, the windows and doors of the building were blown out by the blast wave.

The current Serhiivskyi Maidan below the Universitsky Hill, along the former embankment, was formed at the beginning of the 18th century as a shopping area with benches and taverns, where auctions were held 4 times a week.

It was called the Basarna Square or the Lopansky Bazaar. In the 19th century, a wooden covered market was built at the Lopansky Bazaar. In 1835, all the houses burned down during a great fire. In the middle of the 19th century, the construction of stone commercial buildings began, in particular, Serhiivskyi row, named after the Kharkiv governor (the square was called Serhiivskyi). In 1868, stone stairs were built instead of wooden ones, which were located in the place of the current ones.

In 1875, the construction of Novo-Serhiivskyi row was completed, in which the city museum soon opened. In 1890, a two-story Mykolaivskyi row was built on the site of the burned-out Serhiivskyi row according to the project of the architect Alfred Spiegel. In 1898, stone shops were built on the banks of Lopan according to the project of the academician of architecture Oleksiy Beketov. The "Grand Hotel" was located in the southern part of the square.

In 1932, the square was renamed Proletarska. After the Second World War, the square was reconstructed. Trees have been planted along the banks of Lopan, and a square with flower beds and lawns has been laid out. The Universitsky Hill and its slopes were arranged, and new stairs were built.

In 2016, the historical name of the square was returned - Serhiivskyi Maidan.