Attractions of Ivano-Frankivsk region

The fortified palace-castle in Stanislav (Stanisławów, now Ivano-Frankivsk) was founded in 1672 by the founder of the city, the Halician mayor Andrzej Potocki, as his residence and the citadel of the Stanislaviv fortress. Before that, the wooden hunting castle of his father Stanisław "Rewera" Potocki served as a residence.

The first stage of construction was managed by the architect François Corassini, and after 1679 by the architect Karol Benoît. The castle consisted of a three-story palace surrounded by defensive ramparts and bastions, side service buildings and a park in the center of the castle yard. Only the front palace fence, which separated the castle from the city, with an entrance gate decorated with knightly symbols, was well preserved.

Polish King Jan III Sobieski, Transylvanian Prince Francis II Rákóczi and others visited the Potoski Palace.

Until now, the main complex of buildings has lost its original appearance, as it has been repeatedly rebuilt and adapted to the needs of various military departments. Until 2004, a military hospital was located on the territory.

In 2017, the Potocki Palace was transferred to the ownership of the Ivano-Frankivsk city hromada. First of all, the entrance gate was restored to its original appearance. The restoration of the palace buildings has begun. Artistic actions, performances and other events began to be held on the ordered territory of the architectural monument.

In 2024, the charitable foundation "Palace" Innovative Creations Space opened the "City and Weapons" Interactive Museum in the premises of the Potocki Palace. The exhibition reveals the theme of the life of the city in times of war: from its foundation through the First and Second World Wars to the present day. Replicas of the most common types of weapons are presented. of each period in physical and digital form, as well as copies of uniforms of those times. With the help of digital devices, you can view old maps, archival materials, old postcards, videos from the period of the First and Second World Wars.

On the opposite side, you can see the remains of castle ramparts and bastions, on one of which the Ascension monument with a 3-meter sculpture of Jesus Christ (2001) was installed.

The private photo museum "Hutsul Multicolor" was opened in 2022 by Svitlana Opruk, a resident of the village of Verkhnii Yaseniv.

The exhibition is housed in an old Hutsul hut from 1917, which is located on a steep mountain slope above the village.

In the first room, copies of miraculous icons from various monasteries of Western Ukraine are presented.

The exposition of the second room combines an exhibition of beadwork, a collection of Hutsul household items, and a selection of old Hutsul photographs.

The third room-terrace is a photo location where you can take a picture in Hutsul clothing and taste Carpathian tea with a view of the Pysanyi Kamin rock.

"Kalush Prison" Memorial Museum was established in 2013 in the basement of a 19th-century building, which housed judicial and investigative institutions during the Polish and German occupations, and during the Soviet regime, the repressive bodies of the NKVD and the KGB.

Many OUN and UPA activists were under arrest here. The exposition in the hall "Early-Middle of the 20th Century National Liberation Struggle History" tells about their activities in the Kalush region.

In the hall of archaeological finds, materials from excavations on the territory of the city are presented. In another hall, the interior of a city room of the middle of the 20th century is recreated. A separate exposition is devoted to the history of the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian-Ukrainian war. The basement is used as an exhibition space for thematic exhibitions.

The "Kalush Prison" Memorial Museum is one of the subdivisions of the Communal Institution "Museum and Exhibition Center of the Kalush City Council".

A large stone arch railway bridge-viaduct from Austrian times connects the two banks of the Prut River in Vorokhta. The Yaremche-Verkhovyna highway passes under it.

The bridge was built in 1895 during the construction of the railway Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) – Yaremche – Vorokhta – Rakhiv. The length of the bridge exceeds 100 meters. It is still used as intended.

Nearby is another old Austrian bridge, which is considered one of the longest stone railway bridges in Europe (130 meters).

The Archcathedral and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ is the main Greek-Catholic shrine of Ivano-Frankivsk.

The cathedral was founded in 1720 as a Jesuit church, but due to construction errors, the original building had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt in 1752. In the middle of the 19th century, the temple was handed over to the Greek Catholics and it became a cathedral.

In 1899-1890, Bishop Andrey Sheptytsky of Stanislavsky served as the rector of the cathedral before his appointment as Metropolitan of the UGCC.

The Resurrection Cathedral is considered a model of the Austro-Bavarian architectural school with clear features of classicism. At the same time, the tops of the towers are made in the style of Hutsul wooden architecture.

In the interior there is a large five-tiered iconostasis, made by the famous Ukrainian artists Modest Sosenko, Yuliush Makarivskyi and Antin Monastyrskyi.

The building of the former Jesuit monastery with the collegium, which is now occupied by the medical institute, has been preserved nearby.

In 1993, a high-relief of Andrey Sheptytskyi was installed on the facade of the cathedral, and in 1997, sculptures of Princess Olha and Volodymyr the Great as patron saint of Rus, as well as the blessed martyr Hrihoriy Khomnshin, bishop of Stanislaviv (1904-1945), were placed in the niches.

The Arts of Prykarpattya Museum in Ivano-Frankivsk is the largest treasury of sacred, fine and decorative art of Ivano-Frankivsk region, whose collection includes more than 15 thousand works of art.

The institution opened in 1980 as the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Art Museum. It has since been housed in a Roman Catholic church.

The Collegiate (Parish) Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints Andrew and Stanislav is an architectural monument of national importance, one of the most valuable and ancient architectural and spiritual monuments of Ivano-Frankivsk. Built in 1672-1703 by French architects Fransua Korassini and Karol Benua to order the city's founders Andriy Potocki as the ancestral tomb of this magnate dynasty (Potocki's coat of arms "Pylyava" is located on the second floor on the east wall in front of the buttresses).

The three-nave basilica with a transept is made in the Baroque style with elements of the Renaissance. The interiors of the church have preserved frescoes by Erazm Fabyanskyi, which in Soviet times determined his fate to become an art museum.

Now the exhibition presents samples of Halician iconography and Baroque sculpture, the works of classics of Western Ukrainian painting: Kornyl Ustyanovych, Ivan Trush, Yaroslav Pstrak, Yulian Pankevych, Oleksa Novakivsky, Osyp Sorokhtey, Olena Kulchytska, as well as the works of Polish, Austrian, German and Italian masters of the 18th century.

The most valuable part of the collection are considered to be six sculptures by the outstanding Ukrainian sculptor Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel.

The Maniava Hermitage is an ancient ascetic men's monastery of the Eastern rite, nicknamed the "Carpathian Athos". It is located in the picturesque Carpathian highlands, on the banks of the Maniavka River.

According to legend, it was founded by monks who fled from Kyiv in 1240. The first monastery was located near the holy spring under the Blessed Stone. Rus princes came here for blessings.

The monastery was revived in 1612 by the schymnik monk Iov Knyahynytskyi, who previously settled here in hermitage, and before that he lived on Mount Athos for 12 years. In 1621, the Maniava hermitage received the right of stauropygy, and more than 500 monasteries in Galicia, Bukovyna and Moldova were subject to it.

The architectural complex of stone and wooden buildings, surrounded by a high stone wall with towers and loopholes, is successfully inscribed in the mountain topography. According to scientists, Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi is buried here.

The monastery was closed by the Austrian authorities in the 18th century. During the Soviet rule, restoration was carried out with the aim of creating a museum. In 1998, the monastery was returned to the Orthodox Church. In recent years, the Church of the Ascension of the Cross and other buildings have been restored.

A steep trail up Mount Maniavka leads to the Blessed Stone - a small cave that was the first refuge of the monks. People go here to cleanse themselves and drink the healing water that flows between the stones.

The town hall on the former Bilshivtsi Rynok square (now Vichevyi Maydan) was built in the 19th century.

Originally it had a taller square clock tower with an open gallery and a pointed spire. During the First World War, the building was damaged and was rebuilt in its current, more compact form.

The town hall still serves its purpose - it houses the village council of Bilshivtsi.

The Plast Camp-Museum "Sokil" in the village of Hrynkiv in the Ivano-Frankivsk region is the oldest stationary base of the National Scout Organization of Ukraine "Plast".

The camp was built in 1926 on the left bank of the Lymnytsia River, at the foot of Sokil Mount – on land near Osmoloda, donated by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi for the development of plast movement.

Until 1939, dozens of boys and girls camped here every summer. The revival of the camp began in 1990, the buildings were restored according to the old drawings, a chapel was opened and a memorial cross was installed on the symbolic grave of the scouts who died in the struggle for the freedom of Ukraine.

Now the camp-museum "Sokil" is an active institution of children's recreation, sports and patriotic education. Excursions are possible only by prior agreement.

The multi-functional cultural and creative hub "Carpathian Culture Center" in Kosiv was created in 2023 on the basis of the reconstructed building of the former carpet workshop of the "Hutsulshchyna" Industrial and Artistic Association at the initiative of the "Hutsuliya" Tourist Association.

In the premises of the "Carpathian Culture Center" there are workshops of folk crafts, exhibitions and master classes are held. In particular, the Vandra Rugs weaving studio producing handmade carpets and Serhiy Dutka's ceramic workshop are operating.

The public space "Vilni" functions on the first floor.

The Carpathian tram is an original narrow-gauge excursion route through the picturesque foothills of the Carpathians, which runs from Vyhoda to Senechiv.

It was opened in 2004 on the basis of a narrow-gauge railway created by Baron Leopold Popper fon Podhrahi at the end of the 19th century to service mountain logging. The width of the narrow track is 760 millimeters, which is almost 2 times smaller than the traditional European track.

The train includes a locomotive in which you can observe the driver's work, a closed car with comfortable seats, a cabriolet car, and an open platform. Along the route, the train crosses 4 bridges.

Stops are planned near the bridge over the Myzunka River, the source of mineral water "Horyanka", the height of the Shirkovets swamp, Dubovy Kut station and near the cascade of the Myzunsky Waterfall. It is possible to organize picnics.

The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin is better known to residents of Ivano-Frankivsk as the "Armenian Church" or "Blue Church".

A tall building with two towers in the mature Baroque style next to the market square was erected in the 18th century on the site of a wooden church in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God (crowned in 1937, now located in Poland). Construction began after the Armenian community of the then Stanislaviv received the right to self-government. Since the Armenians did not have enough funds for construction, the owner of the city, Yuzef Potoski, obliged the Jewish community, which competed with the Armenian community in trade, to help with financing.

Two restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries significantly changed the appearance of the building.

Wooden sculpture, most likely the work of master Matviy Poleyovskyi, was used in the interior design. On the walls are frescoes made by Yan Soletskyi. The interiors were completely preserved during the Soviet times due to the fact that the museum of the history of religion and atheism was located here.

In 1990, the church was returned to believers. Today it is the Holy Intercession Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krylos was built in 1586 from the materials of the destroyed Assumption Cathedral - the main shrine of Ancient Halych (the foundation of the cathedral was discovered next to the church, restoration is planned).

Ancient Rus reliefs and graffiti were found on some of the stone blocks that make up the church. In the 17th century, the temple complex was surrounded by defensive stone walls with four corner towers (fragments have been restored).

The church, badly damaged during the Turkish invasion, was restored at the beginning of the 18th century by Bishop Yosyp Shumlyanskyi. Great artistic value is represented by the western portal with a pediment, decorated with a stone-carved composition "The Assumption of the Virgin".

The Basilian monastery, which was abolished in 1783, operated near the cathedral.

Today, the Church of the Assumption in Krylos belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. It is part of the National Reserve "Ancient Halych".

The Catholic church was founded in Bohorodchany in 1691 at the expense of Countess Konstantsiya Potoska.

The first temple was wooden. In 1742-1762, a new stone church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in the Baroque style, as well as a Dominican monastery complex with clergy chambers, a fence and a gate.

The complex was heavily damaged during the First World War. The miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was taken to Poland in 1944, was kept in the Bohorodchany church.

In the 1990s, the local authorities handed over the UOC temple to the Moscow Pariarchate, thus causing a conflict with the city's Roman Catholic community. The Orthodox Church of Peter and Paul operated in the church building, and a music school was housed in the wards.

In 2020, the church was finally returned to the Roman Catholic Church.

The rocks of Dovbush in the Bubnyshche tract, which have long amazed people with their fantastic forms, are called the Carpathian Sphinxes.

A group of rock remains up to 80 meters high is scattered in the middle of a beech-spruce forest near the village of Bubnyshche on an area of 100 hectares. The massif of sandstone rocks about 200 meters wide and 1 kilometer long was formed more than 70 million years ago at the bottom of a warm sea.

In pre-Christian times, there was a pagan sanctuary here. Probably, in the 13th century, during the reign of King Danylo Halytskyi, a rock fortress was created here, which withstood the Mongol-Tatar invasion and lasted until the 16th century.

In the middle of the 18th century, opryshka rebels were active in this area, and in 1743, the camp of the detachment of the legendary people's avenger Oleksa Dovbush was located in the rock caves, which is where the current name comes from.

The rocks of Dovbush are a complex natural monument of national importance and are part of the Polyanytsky Regional Landscape Park. Many climbing routes of different difficulty categories are laid out on the rocks, and climbing competitions are held regularly.