Attractions of Chernihiv district

Yuryeva Bozhnytsia in Oster - the eastern part of the Saint Michael's Church, preserved from princely times. It is located on the remains of the settlement of the historic Horodets on Vostri.

The temple was probably founded by Prince Volodymyr Monomakh of Kyiv at the same time as the founding of the city in 1098. It was rebuilt in 1152 under Prince Yuriy Dolhoruky, thanks to which the popular name "Yuryeva Bozhnytsia" took root.

It suffered from Tatar raids, and in 1753 - from a lightning strike, at the beginning of the 19th century, most of the volume was dismantled due to its state of disrepair. Only the altar part - the apse and a fragment of the wall - has been preserved.

At the beginning of the 20th century, restoration and research works were carried out. An ancient fresco "Eucharist" was discovered on the wall, probably made by Kyiv masters in the 11th-12th centuries.

The openwork building of the Chernihiv Collegium with a high bell tower is located on the territory of the Dytynets (Chernihiv Rampart).

It was once part of the cathedral Saints Borys and Hlib Monastery - the residence of the Chernihiv archbishops.

The construction of the monastery refectory was probably started at the end of the 17th century by Archbishop Lazar Baranovich. In its current form, the building was erected in 1700-1702 by Archbishop Ioann Maksymovych with the support and funding of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, as evidenced by the board of the bell tower with the coat of arms of Mazepa, which is now exhibited in exhibition halls.

Later, the refectory began to be used as one of the premises of the Chernihiv Collegium - the first higher educational institution of the Left Bank of Ukraine, which operated from 1700 to 1786. Latin and other languages were taught here, as well as poetics, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, geography, and so on. The college trained church figures, civil servants, translators, writers, and physicians.

Now the Chernihiv Collegium houses a museum that covers the history of the school. The class of the college has been reconstructed, an exposition of icon painting has been exhibited, and the exhibition "Chernihiv and Chernihiv People 100 Years Ago" is open.

The administration of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" is also located here.

The Kozelet Museum of the History of Weaving of the Chernihiv Region was opened in 1988 in the premises of the Resurrection Church, in 2017 the museum finally got its own premises.

In the exposition, in addition to carpets, embroidered fabrics and towels, you can see photos of old Kozelets and a family tree of the Rozumovskys.

Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral was built in Chernihiv in the 12th century on the foundation of an older stone building of the 11th century, and was rebuilt several times.

During the restoration in the middle of the XX century the buildings returned to the old Rus forms. The interior of Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral has preserved ancient frescoes, inlaid floor.

A museum of architecture has been opened in the church, which is part of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv".

The administration of the reserve is located in the adjacent building of the Collegium (1672), which in the XVII century was part of the Saints Borys and Hlib Monastery - the residence of the Chernihiv metropolitans.

The Chernihiv Historical Museum is named after Vasyl Tarnovsky, a landowner, businessman and philanthropist from Kachanivka, who in 1902 organized the first Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities in the city. The exposition is based on his personal collection of Cossack-Hetman's antiquities and relics.

Today the museum is located in the former governor's house on Chernihiv Rampart (XIX century).

The collection includes more than 130 thousand exhibits belonging to different periods of Chernihiv region's history from ancient times to the present. The decoration of the exposition is a rich collection of archeological finds, old prints, rare documents, objects of the Cossack era.

Of particular interest is the diorama "Mezyn settlenent", which gives an idea of ​​the life of primitive man in the late Paleolithic era on the basis of archaeological finds in the village of Mezyn in Chernihiv region.

For almost three centuries, the Sedniv estate was the main residence of the Lyzohub noble family, which came from a Cossack sergeant in the time of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

The first known member of the family was a simple Cossack Kindrat Lyzohub from Zolotonosha. His sons, Ivan and Yakiv, advanced from ordinary Cossacks to sergeants during the hetman's strife of the "Ruins" period. Yakiv became a colonel of Chernihiv and settled in Sedniv, and his descendants continued the arrangement of the estate he had begun.

The great reconstruction was carried out in the 19th century by brothers Andriy and Illya Lyzohub. They expanded the park and built a new manor house, and the old stone house (Lyzohub Kamyanytsya) was stylized as a small Gothic castle and converted for household needs. In their estate the brothers received the poet Taras Shevchenko, the biker Leonid Hlibov, the artist Lev Zhemchuzhnikov and other famous cultural figures of the time (monuments were erected).

In Soviet times, the manor house housed a high school (now - in a new house next door), and in another part of the manor was opened the House of Artists. Shevchenko's 600-year-old linden tree and Hlibov's romantic gazebo, in which the lyrical poem "Kruchyna" was written, have been preserved in the park.

In front of the entrance to the estate there is a monument to the former owners, art lovers and patrons Andriy and Illya Lyzohub.

The Regional Landscape Park "Mizhrichynsky" is located in the Chernihiv region in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Desna rivers. It is the largest RLP in Ukraine - its area is over 102 thousand hectares.

The park protects various landscapes of Ukrainian Polissia: taiga forests, protected upland and lowland swamps, glacial sand dunes, the floodplain of the Desna River, etc. There are oaks that are about 500 years old. There are dozens of Red Book species of flora and fauna. Glacial relics deserve special attention - low birch, blueberry willow, various types of orchids. In the swamps you can find an interesting insectivorous plant - sundew.

The numerous inhabitants of the park are moose, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, hare, beaver, muskrat, raccoon dog. The pride and decoration of the park is the lynx, which has been living and breeding on the territory for a long time.

Ecological trails "Zhuravlyna", "Polissia", "Bondarivske Swamp", "Sokolynyi Meadow" and others have been laid through the park. They pass through pine-birch forests, wetlands, the Desna floodplain and introduce the local flora and fauna.

In the village of Otrokhy, which can be considered the informal capital of Mizhrichchia, there is the Mizhrichynska Pushcha Nature Center with the Polissya Forestry Museum, created by the famous ecologist Andriy Sahaidak. The center organizes excursions to the territory of the Mizhrichyn regional landscape park and provides other tourist services.

The oldest religious building in Liubech is an underground temple, excavated in the 11th century by monk Antoniy Pecherskyi.

The founder and first abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery was born in Liubech in 983. According to legend, from here he went to Palestine, received tonsure on Mount Athos, and, returning a few years later to Rus, began to found cave monasteries - in Bukovyna, Kyiv and Chernihiv region.

He went to Chernihiv after a conflict with the Kiev prince, and spent the last years of his life in his homeland - in Lyubech, where he founded his last cave monastery. Antoniy's Monastery existed until 1786, when it was closed by order of Empress Catherine II.

The Far Cave, located in the forest on the southern outskirts of the village, has been preserved in its original form.

Recently, the cave was discovered in the center of the village, next to the Pavlо Polubotko Kamyanytsya (excavations are underway).

The art space "Fabrychna, 12" was founded in Chernihiv in 2024 by Yevhen Filatov and the frontman of the ONUKA band Nata Zhyzhchenko in order to popularize and preserve, rethink and modernize the unique cultural heritage of the region.

The modern ethnographic music space was founded in the old family house of Nata Zhyzhchenko, built in 1904, which was carefully restored by her and Yevhen. The house preserved a unique workshop-laboratory, where the singer's grandfather, a famous master of folk instruments, musician and researcher of Ukrainian culture from Chernihiv, Honored People's Master of Ukraine and Moldova Oleksandr Shlonchyk, not only crafted, but also researched the history and technologies of creating musical instruments of different peoples.

The workshop-laboratory "Fabrychna, 12" combines educational, artistic and ethnographic components. Nata Zhyzhchenko plans to organize both virtual and offline events here, meetings with stars, artists, and lecturers on various topics. Other areas of the project include master classes in woodworking and pottery, as well as the preservation and restoration of folk instruments.

The small brick Assumption Church of the so-called diocesan architecture is the "youngest" in Sedniv. Located on a hill on the outskirts of the village.

The temple was built in 1860. Then throughout the Russian Empire old wooden churches were replaced by stone structures. The basis was "exemplary" (tested) projects, which diocesan architects adapted to a specific place. Decorative elements of Russian architecture of the XIV-XVI centuries were used to decorate these temples. Such is the Assumption Church in Sedniv.

On the western side there is a tented belfry. In the post-war period, it was the only active church in the entire district.

The Beremytske Nature Park on the left bank of the Desna River with an area of ​​500 hectares was opened near the city of Oster in 2017 with the aim of restoring the original appearance of the forest-steppe zone and the mixed forest zone, typical for the Chernihiv region.

Beremytske Park offers tourists to spend time face to face with nature, see and communicate with animals in a recreational environment. The park offers to walk along an ecological trail through the forest and steppe areas in the reserve part of the park accompanied by a guide, observing such wild animals as tarpans (wild horses), red deer, elk, aurochs, fallow deer, roe deer, mouflons, wild boars, hares, foxes, badgers and others. Visitors will be able to get to know the flora and fauna of the Chernihiv region better. You can also explore the park from a bird's eye view using the observation tower.

The tourist part of the park has a mini-zoo, a shooting range, an apiary, a museum of wild cats, and stables where you can not only ride horses, but also learn many interesting facts about each breed and how to properly care for horses.

The "Black Grave" mound is located in the park near the Palace of Culture of the Builders.

According to legends, the legendary founder of Chernihiv, Prince Chorny (Black), was buried at this place.

According to an ancient legend, the prince's daughter threw herself out of the window of the princely tower in order not to become the wife of the Khazar Khagan, who surrounded the city.

In 1872-1873, archaeologist Dmytro Samokvasov excavated the burial mound, discovering a 10th-century burial with a rich treasure of weapons: two helmets, chain mail, two swords, a saber, more than ten spears, arrowheads, an axe, stirrups, and clubs. 2 gold Byzantine coins from the time of Basil I of Macedonia allowed us to date the burial.

A memorial obelisk has been installed on the "Black Grave" mound.

The flooded sand quarries near Oleshnia in Chernihiv region are called "blue lakes" (high-quality quartz sand is mined in Oleshnia).

It is believed that the crystal clear water of four lakes located in the middle of a pine forest has certain healing properties. The area of the largest lake is 25 hectares, the depth is about 20 meters. The water in the lakes has a bright blue and even azure color, because their bottom is covered with deposits of special quartz sand.

These picturesque places are a popular recreation area with clean air and comfortable beaches. More than 250,000 tourists come to Oleshnia every year to rest on the "Blue Lakes". But even this amount of space on the shores of the lakes is not always enough for a large number of people willing to breathe in the fresh air of the pine forest and enjoy a rest near the crystal clear, blue water. These places also attract fishermen and hunters.

The historical area, known as the Boldyni Hills (Boldyni Hory), is located 1.5 kilometers from the Chernihiv Val.

This is a chain of hills with a height of 20 to 35 meters, which in ancient times were covered with an oak forest (the ancient Rus word "bold" means "oak"). Since pagan times, the Boldyni Hills had an important sacred significance. One of the largest ancient Rus burial mounds is located here, with more than 200 burial mounds dating back to the 9th-10th centuries. The largest of them are Hulbyshche and Bezimenny.

With the advent of Christianity, Anthony's Caves appeared on the slopes of the mountain, and the Trinity-Illinsky Monastery was founded. During Soviet times, a monument to the Unknown Soldier with the Eternal Flame at its foot was erected on Boldina Hill.

Monuments were installed on the graves of Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsyubynskyi and Ukrainian folklorist and ethnographer Opanas Markovych.

In March 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Boldyni Hills were fired upon by Russian troops. As a result of being hit by a Russian projectile, the gazebo, which was installed at the beginning of the 20th century before the arrival of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II in Chernihiv, was destroyed.

The ancient Rus hillfort of Liubech is located on a high hill above the Dnipro, from where a picturesque view of the river valley opens.

A three-story princely palace, a tower-donjon, a church and farm buildings were located here.

The earth ramparts surrounding the castle, on which rose oak walls with towers, have been preserved. A granite memorial sign was erected on Castle Hill in honor of the 1100th anniversary of the city, as well as a monument in honor of the congress of Old Russian princes that took place in Lyubech in 1097, as a result of which the principalities united against the Polovtsians.