Attractions of Kremenets district

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 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.

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.

The exposition is located in the former house of the baker Stefanyak, built in 1930, when the city was part of Poland.

The nature department introduces visitors to the geographical and natural conditions of the region, its flora and fauna (a corner of autumn nature is presented in a diorama).

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 fascists and the Soviet authorities: weapons, photographs, documents, models.

A rich ethnographic collection is also presented.

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.

The palace in the English Neo-Gothic style was built in Bilokrynytsia by the landowner Chosnovsky in the middle of the 19th century on the site of a defensive castle founded in the 16th by the Zbarazsky princes.

The first wooden castle was burned by the Tatars, after which Yuriy Zbarazky rebuilt it in stone (ancient cellars, earthen ramparts and one bastion have been preserved). At the beginning of the 19th century, the castle completely burned down. Landlord Chosnovsky, having bought Bilokrynytsia from the Radzyvill, reconstructed one of the parts of the castle into a ceremonial residence.

The last owner of the palace was an official of the Kyiv Governor-General, a secret adviser, Count Oleksandr Voronin. After Voronin's death, according to his will, the Bilokrynytsia Palace was transferred to the agricultural school. Now it is the Kremenets Forestry College.

A small museum of the history of Bilokrynytsia, the college and the palace itself has been opened in the premises of the college dormitory.

The Yuliush Slovatsky Literary Memorial Museum was opened in Kremenets in the estate of Yanushevsky (the poet's grandfather), where he spent his childhood in 1814-1828.

Slowacki is one of the most famous Polish poets of the Romantic period. He was born and lived in Kremenets for many years, and then repeatedly praised his hometown in his works. Many objects in the city are connected with the name of Slovatsky: his native house, the lyceum to which his father taught, his mother's grave in the Tunytsky cemetery.

The museum exposition is located in eight rooms, each of which reflects a certain stage of the poet's creative path. The museum has 1,500 exhibits. Since 2004, the museum has had an extensive exposition "The Hour of Thought of Yuliush Slovatsky".