Attractions of Sumy district

A monument to the entrepreneur Ivan Kharytonenko stands on one of the central squares of Sumy.

A successful sugar factory and philanthropist, one of the richest people of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, Ivan Kharytonenko had a significant impact on the development of the city of Sumy. He and his descendants built hospitals, educational institutions, and other infrastructure facilities in the city.

In 1899, a monument to Ivan Kharytonenko by the sculptor Oleksandr Opekushin was erected on Pokrovska Square. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, but was restored in 1996.

The first wooden temple was built in Nysy by the founder of the village Herasym Kondratyev back in 1678 in memory of his dead son Ivan.

The current brick church of John the Theologian was built by sugar factory Mykola Sukhanov in 1910.

During the Soviet rule, the church of John the Theologian building was used as a vegetable warehouse.

Now the temple is active.

The Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was founded in Basivka in 1906 in honor of those killed in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1912, the Kazan Church was consecrated.

The interior was decorated with frescoes dedicated to the memory of the residents of Basivka, who died at Port Arthur, in Manchuria, on ships of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Pacific squadrons. Also in the interior was an image of the Holy Trinity - a copy of the painting of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

Now the temple is in a dilapidated state.

The Kharytonenko estate in Sumy is located on the bank of the Psel River at the confluence of the Sumka River on the opposite bank from the city center.

The famous sugar factory and philanthropist Ivan Kharytonenko bought this plot in the 1860s. The estate built by him consisted of three buildings: a residential building (a little in the depth of the estate; Kharytonenko's house in Moscow, where the British embassy is now located, was built on the model of this mansion), and two service buildings. In addition, the estate included a fountain in front of the residential building and a park above the Psel. In 1912-1913, the office building of the trading house "Kharytonenko and Son" was built, which housed a polyclinic in Soviet times.

Currently, the Kharytonenka estate belongs to the Ukrainian Academy of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine, which is going to build a Palace of creativity and leisure for students here.

The estate house in Lyfyne was founded in the first half of the 19th century by the Khrushchov family of landowners. It is located in a park on a hill above a pond on the Vorozhba River. It is famous for the stay here of the outstanding Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

Initially, the complex consisted of a wooden manor house and one outbuilding in the form of a typical Slobozhanshchyna hut in two halves. Nearby was a farmyard with wooden services, barns, stables, etc. An alley led through the garden to a wooden bridge over the pond.

In the summer of 1859, the then owner of the estate, Dmytro Khrushchov, hosted Taras Shevchenko for four days, whom he had met the day before in St. Petersburg. The poet lived in an outbuilding that has not survived to this day. Here he wrote the poem "Oh, the rose blooms on the mountain". The centuries-old Shevchenko pine tree also reminds of the poet's stay.

In 1880-1893, the estate was rebuilt and significantly expanded. The main house was bricked and decorated in the French Neo-Renaissance style. The wooden manor house was also bricked, and another outbuilding was built to the south of it. In the northwestern corner of the front yard on the edge of the hill, a wine warehouse was built, resembling a medieval castle.

Despite the fact that the Khrushchov estate is included in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine in the category of local importance, the buildings are in poor condition and remain abandoned. In addition, in 2025, the main building was severely damaged by a Russian drone strike - a fire completely destroyed the roof and all wooden architectural elements.

The two-story building "Teremok" is the only surviving structure of the estate of the Kondratyev landowners in Stare Selo near Sumy. It is considered the oldest surviving civil building in Sumy Region.

The estate on the high bank of the Psel River was founded in the first half of the 18th century. The first one-story manor house was built in the Baroque style. In 1753, Colonel Stepan Kondratyev, a descendant of Herasym Kondratyev, the founder of Sumy, reconstructed the building. An extension was made to it and a second floor was added.

Later, "Teremok" was used as a granary. In Soviet times, it was residential. Now abandoned. Restoration is planned.

Nearby are the ruins of the Saint Nicolas Church (1741-1754).

The Krasnopillia History Museum was established in 1985 as a museum of the history of the district on a non-profit basis. In 1994, it received the status of a "People's Museum".

The museum's collections include about 4 thousand exhibits, some of which are available for viewing in four halls of the museum. A special place in the exposition is occupied by stands dedicated to famous natives of the region - Pavlo Hrabovsky, Petro Sokolenko, Leonid Zhabotynsky, etc. Separate expositions are dedicated to the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1922 and the Holodomor in Ukraine of 1932-1933.

In addition, the museum presents a large ethnographic collection of the region.

The building of the city administration (town hall) with a tall clock tower was built in Lebedyn at the beginning of the 20th century.

Made in the forms of rationalist modernism as an architectural dominant of the city center.

In Soviet times, a fire brigade was placed in the building, and the tower was converted into a fire hydrant.

The museum-workshop was founded in Sumy in 2006 by the famous Ukrainian artist Leontii Kostur. The artist works in a style that he called his own surname - "kosturism". His mainly clay works, kosturs, tell about the everyday life and traditions of Ukraine.

The workshop is located in a house that Leontii Kostur inherited and converted into a museum-workshop. The museum exhibits more than 300 sculptures ("kosturs") and a significant number of paintings.

The Lesya Ukrayinka People's Museum was opened in Kosivshchyna in 1971 for the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth.

Lesya Ukrayinka's stay in Sumy region is connected with her treatment for tuberculosis. In 1889, the mother brought Lesya to the Kosivshchyna to the folk healer Paraska Boрush. Here the poetess wrote her "Spring Songs".

Lesya Ukrayinka's museum room is located in the local secondary school named after the poetess. Among the 600 exhibits are things that belonged to Paraska Boрush: a pot, a thick-walled pot for medicine, a trough, a towel. Lesya Ukrayinka's first collection "On the Wings of Songs" published in 1904, etc., is presented.

Excursions are conducted by young tour guides.

The People's Museum of Marshal of Armored Troops Pavlo Rybalko has been operating in the village of Malyi Vystorop since 1954, which is associated with the life and activities of this Soviet commander. It is located on the territory of the Malyi Vystorop Vocational College, which bears the name of Marshal Rybalko.

The museum building is a historical monument. It is the former estate of the Romanivskyi Sugar Factory, which was built in 1870.

Rybalko's wife, sister, and nephews helped local teachers and students create the museum. For many years, the institution has been headed by Marshal's great-grandson, Volodymyr Rybalko.

The current exhibition was created in 1984. The museum has several thematic rooms dedicated to Rybalko's childhood and family, his participation in the First and Second World Wars, as well as scientific and teaching activities after 1945. One of the rooms recreates his study - with furniture and a library. In general, the exhibition consists of photographs, newspaper clippings, posters, documents, objects, and clothing that belonged to Rybalko or have survived from that era.

It is planned to update the exposition in accordance with a modern view of the history of the 20th century.

Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Sumy is the historical and administrative center of the city.

The city began from this place in the middle of the 17th century, when its founders, Colonel Herasym Kondratyev of the Sumy Slobid Cossack Regiment and Voivode Kyrylo Arsenyev, began to implement their plans for the construction and arrangement of the Sumy Fortress and its post.

In 1694, a wooden Mykolaiv church was built, which has not survived to this day. Already after the death of Colonel Kondratyev in 1702, the construction of the Resurrection Cathedral was completed, which is now the main decoration of the square. Mykolayivska and Voskresenska squares, formed around the churches, later merged into one.

For a long time, the square was called Petrivska because Tsar Peter I visited it on the eve of the Battle of Poltava. After the Second World War, the square was reconstructed, at that time it was named after Lenin. In 1991, it was renamed Maydan Nezalezhnosti.

The buildings are dominated by high-rise buildings of the regional council and the Sumy hotel.

The Michael's Virgin Land Nature Reserve is a unique area of virgin meadow steppe with an area of 202 hectares, which has never been touched by a plow.

Since 1741, these lands belonged to the Kapnist Counts, who bred Oryol trotters at their stud farm in Mykhailivka. Large areas of the steppe were set aside for pastures and therefore were never plowed.

In 1928, "Michael's Virgin Land" was declared a reserve, until recently it was part of the Ukrainian Steppe Nature Reserve (in 2009, it was allocated to a separate protected area). The territory of the reserve, surrounded by a protective afforestation, is a low hill that gradually descends to the surrounding streams. The total area of the reserve is 882.9 hectares.

More than 500 types of herbs grow here, 38 of which are protected (11 are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine). Since they bloom at different times, the steppe changes color 10-12 times during the summer.

Brown hares, foxes and small rodents live in the reserve.

Excursions to the "Michael's Virgin Land" are organized by the Lebedyn city museum of local lore.

The People`s Museum of the History of Mountaineering has been operating in the Sumy Palace of Children and Youth at the Abalakovets Club since 1977.

The museum's exposition is divided into 21 thematic sections, which present more than 8 thousand exhibits. These are photographs, newspapers, personal belongings of climbers, equipment, awards, flags, pennants, signs of the most outstanding ascents, memoirs, autographed books, reports, maps, diagrams, stones from the peaks.

All of them demonstrate the history of the development of mountaineering. In 2000, a new section "Ukrainian climbers on eight-thousanders" was opened.

The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin in Yunakivka is an outstanding monument of classicism architecture.

The beautiful five-headed two-story church in the style of classicism, designed by the architect Oleksandr Palytsyn, resembles the works of the late 18th-early 19th century architect Dzhakomo Kvarenhi. Construction began in 1793 on the site of the old wooden church and lasted 13 years at the expense of Prince Mykhaylo Holitsyn. The stone temple had three thrones: in the name of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Michael the Archstrategist and the main one - in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In 1874, the warm church of the Three Saints was also arranged in the lower basement floor of the temple. There was a church-parochial school.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin remained active for a long time even under Soviet power, but was closed in the 1960s, and has reached our days in a half-ruined state.