Attractions of Kremenets district

The Ivan Marchuk Museum was created in 2010 in the premises of the Moskalivka elementary school in the artist's homeland - in the village of Moskalivka village near Lanivtsi. The institution is a subdivision of the Lanivtsi city communal institution "Ivan Marchuk Museum".

People's Artist of Ukraine Ivan Marchuk was born in Moskalivka in 1936 in the family of a local weaver, graduated from a seven-year rural school. Subsequently, he studied at the Lviv School of Applied Arts named after Ivan Trush. Today, the master's creative output includes about 5,000 paintings, which are exhibited in museums on all continents of the world.

For a long time, the museum in Moskalivka was the only Ivan Marchuk museum in Ukraine. It was started by enthusiastic local teachers in one school room with the personal assistance of the artist. Later, the exhibition expanded.

Now the museum has two exhibition halls where some of Ivan Marchuk's personal belongings, documentary materials about the artist's life in Moskalivka, his creative path and world recognition are presented. For some time, the museum exhibited more than 40 original Marchuk paintings, but now only reproductions can be seen. Excursions are conducted by schoolchildren.

The majestic complex of buildings of the Jesuit church, monastery and collegium in the baroque style is the architectural dominant of Kremenets.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was one of the largest centers of education in the Podillya and Volyn lands. Jesuit monks were invited to Kremenets by Prince Yanush Vyshnyvetskyi to create a Catholic collegium on the basis of the sister school of the Epiphany Monastery. In 1731-1743, the famous Italian architect Paolo Fontana built the church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Stanislav Kostka (now the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine) with adjacent educational buildings at the expense of the Vyshnyvetskyi.

In 1805, on the initiative of the historian and educator Tadeush Chatskyi, the collegium was transformed first into the Volyn Gymnasium, and then into the Volyn Lyceum. The famous park builder Dionysius Makler (Mickler) laid a botanical garden next to it, which still exists today. In 1832, after the suppression of the Polish uprising, the higher school was closed, and its library funds and teaching staff became the basis for the creation of Kyiv University. A theological seminary was opened instead of a lyceum.

After the return of the Poles at the beginning of the 20th century, the lyceum was restored, and during Soviet times, a pedagogical school was opened on its base. Currently, it is the Taras Shevchenko Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian and Pedagogical Academy.

The building of the Kremenets School of Arts named after Mykhaylo Verykivsky was built in the 19th century and is an architectural monument.

During Polish times, it housed a polyclinic. Since 1939 - a music school.

The Kremenets Botanical Garden at the Kremenets Lyceum was founded in 1806 by the Irish gardener and park builder Dionysius Mackler (Mickler).

On 4.5 hectares, he planted 460 species of local plants and 760 imported from different places. Already by 1809, the number of trees and shrubs reached 12 thousand. Among them: edible chestnut, Canadian pine, Pontic azalea, araucaria, red-leaved beech, ginkgo, white mulberry, fig, white-flowered ash, tulip tree.

After the dissolution of the lyceum in 1832-1834, the most valuable breeds were transported to Kyiv to the garden of Saint Volodymyr University.

Currently, the Kremenets Botanical Garden is a monument of horticultural art. It occupies 200 hectares.

The first museum in Kremenets called Muzeum Ziemi Krzemienieckiej emerged as part of the Kremenets Lyceum.

Currently Kremenets Museum of Local Lore there are 65,000 exhibits. It is located in the building of the former seminary. Archaeological finds, numismatic collections, ancient weapons, household items, handicrafts, the first editions and personal belongings of the Polish poet Yuliush Slovatsky and other famous Kremenets residents are presented in 10 halls.

The mountain "Maiden's Rocks" in Kremenets is a natural monument of state importance.

The picturesque rock spur with a height of 376 meters is located in the north-eastern part of the city, within the National Park "Kremenetsky Mountains".

The mountain is associated with a legend about girls captured by the Tatars - residents of Kremenets ravaged by the Krymchaks. Not wanting to be enslaved, the girls threw themselves into the abyss from the rock, which has since been called "Maiden's".

Broken blocks piled up in primordial chaos, steep cliffs and amazing stone compositions, black abysses of grottoes and caves encircle the mountain with a long ribbon 2.6 kilometers long. Shell-like, dense limestones that rise to the surface in steep cornices create a kind of uniqueness and beauty.

The picturesque Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin in Staryi Vyshnivets looks especially impressive from the opposite side of the Horyn River, from the terraces of the palace park.

Wooden, built in the middle of the 19th century.

The Holy Assumption Pochaiv Lavra is one of the largest shrines of the Orthodox world, the second most important on the territory of Ukraine after the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Legend attributes the founding of the first skete to the Athos monk Methodius. Around 1240, Kyiv monks appear on Pochaivska Hill in the neighborhood, escaping from the Tatar invasion (the name is associated with the Pochayna River, where Prince Volodymyr baptized the people of Kyiv). According to legend, a sign from above was the appearance of the Mother of God in a pillar of fire. The imprint of the Virgin Mary's foot remained on a stone, from under which a healing spring flowed.

Today, the relics are inside the grand Assumption Cathedral (1783, architect Gottfried Hoffmann). In the main altar, there is a miraculous icon of the Mother of God, donated to the monastery in 1597 by its founder - landlady Anna Hoyska. The parishioners want to attach themselves to the relics of Saint Iov, who was the abbot of the monastery during the confrontation with the Union in the 17th century.

The current magnificence of the laurel is largely due to the donations of Kaniv's elder Mykola Potoski, it was supported by the Russian tsars.

Excursions are conducted, visitors should dress appropriately: men in pants, women in skirts and with their heads covered (scarves and skirts can be rented).

The monastery is leased by the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The church of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian was built in Bilokrynytsia in 1890 in the Russian eparchial style at the expense of the secret adviser of the Kyiv Governor-General, Count Oleksandr Voronin.

The count is buried in the church, as evidenced by the memorial plaque.

The Church of John the Theologian belongs to the parish of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Saint Nicholas Cathedral in the baroque style was originally built as a church of the Franciscan monastery, founded in 1606 at the expense of the Vyshnevetsky family (according to legend, Queen Bona was the founder of the monastery).

At the monastery there was a fraternal school and a printing house, where the "Kremenetska Grammar" was printed. In 1832, after the defeat of the Polish uprising and the beginning of the Russification of Western Ukrainian lands, the church was transformed into an Orthodox cathedral. During the reconstruction, the temple lost its Gothic-Renaissance look and acquired Baroque features.

Now the temple is active.

The ruins of the Church of Saint Stanislav's are located on the opposite bank of the Horyn River from the Vyshnevetskyi Palace and are clearly visible from the palace and park terraces.

The church was built in the 18th century on the territory of Staryi Vyshnivets, near the old castle of the 14th-15th centuries. Destroyed in the 19th century.

The Church of Saint Stanislav in Kremenets was built in the 19th century at the expense of the parishioners after the Russian authorities took the Franciscan monastery from the Catholics and converted it into the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Nicholas.

Saint Catherine's Church in St. Petersburg was taken as a model for the new Catholic church. In 1908, the church was decorated with Czech stained glass windows.

At the entrance to the church of Saint Stanislav, a highly artistic marble bowl with a bas-relief of the Mother of God, made in 1872 by the famous Volyn sculptor Viktor Brodzky, attracts attention. To the left of the entrance is a monument to Yuliush Slovatsky by the Polish sculptor Vatslav Shymanovsky.

An organ with 8 registers has been preserved.

The Transfiguration Church in Shumsk was founded as a church of the Franciscan monastery in 1715.

The monastery in Shumsk itself was founded by the Volyn voivode Malynsky back in 1637, and was originally a Basilian (Uniate) monastery. In 1676, one of the voivode's descendants, who converted to Catholicism, handed over the monastery to the Franciscans.

The church was made in the Gothic-Renaissance style, the building had a defensive character. At the end of the 18th century, a three-tier bell tower was added. In 1837, the church was rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style and became an Orthodox church.

Above the entrance, the coat of arms of the family of the founders of the Malynsky temple is still preserved.

The Shumsk Museum of Local Lore was founded in 1985 on the initiative of a local history teacher, Ivan Babiy. It was originally housed in the former house of the baker Stefaniak, built in 1930, when the city was part of Poland. In 2022, the museum moved to the premises of the former lyceum.

On the first floor, guests are greeted by a stone cross, which is the hallmark of Shumsk. It stands on the background of a panoramic photo of the city center. Also on the first floor there is an ethnographic exhibition designed in the form of an old Ukrainian house with a light room and a pantry.

The nature department introduces visitors to the geographical and natural conditions of the region, its flora and fauna. The ancient history department presents materials about the founding of the city in princely times, the participation of residents in the Liberation War, and the creation of the Church of the Transfiguration. A significant part of the exposition of the new history department is devoted to the period of the Second World War and the national liberation struggle of the UPA against the Nazis and Soviet invaders: weapons, photographs, documents, models.

The exhibition "Fight for Independence" tells about the modern Russian-Ukrainian war. Artifacts from the front are presented here: flags of combat brigades, photos of defenders, military formations, casings from spent shells, military trophies. A memorial corner "Heavenly Guardians of our Land" has been decorated.

Twin Houses in Kremenets are unusual in terms of architecture, a residential building in the Baroque style.

It consists of two symmetrical parts, which are covered with separate gable roofs and differ slightly from each other in design details.

According to legend, twin brothers once lived here.

Restoration is planned.