Attractions of Khmelnytskyi region

Stefan Batory's seven-story tower is the largest defensive structure of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi fortification system.

It is the upper part of the Polish Gate complex - one of the three entrances to the Old Town. It had great fortification value, as the gentle bank of the Smotrych River made it easier for enemies to attack here.

The tower was built on the site of the ancient city gate in 1564-1585 at the expense of the Polish king Stefan Batory, which is why it got his name. After the repair of the tower in the 17th century by the artisan workshop of furriers, it was also called Kushnirska.

According to legend, in 1711, during the visit of Kamyanets-Podilskyi to the Russian Tsar Peter I, who was passing through the gate of the tower, his hat was blown off his head by the wind, after which the tower began to be called the Wind Gate.

In the 1780s, during the reign of King Stanislav Avhust, the commandant of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi fortress, Yan de Vitte, completed the tower to seven levels and added a rectangular building. Many decorative elements have been preserved.

The rock monastery in Subich has been known since the 16th century, although some researchers attribute its foundation to the 10th-13th centuries, when many Orthodox cave hermitages appeared in Podillya.

The Subich monastery is called the "younger brother" of the Bakota monastery. Revived thanks to the efforts of local resident Mykola Semenyuk. Three small caves have been preserved in the Monastyryshche tract at a 40-meter height above the Dniester, one of which is rather a niche for an icon. In front of the caves is a platform about 2 meters wide. An 800-meter steep descent along a narrow path leads to the caves from the chapel on the edge of Subich village. There are several sources along the way.

A breathtaking panorama of the Dniester opens from Mount Monastyryshche.

Taras Shevchenko Square is a favorite recreation spot for residents of Khmelnytskyi.

Until the 19th century, there was an oak grove on the outskirts of old Proskuriv. In 1824, a shopping area was created on the site of the grove, and part of the trees were cut down. For some time, the square was used as a military parade ground of the 46th Dnipro Infantry Regiment. At the end of the 19th century, they decided to create a city garden at this place, and the square was planted with trees.

Decorative shrubs were planted in 1960-1980, at the same time a cinema was built. The park zone with an area of 5 hectares has a regular layout. The main compositional node is the square with the monument to Taras Shevchenko (1992).

The Taras Shevchenko Square is decorated with whimsical metal sculptures created by the modern artist Mykola Mazur.

The estate house of the Tokarzhevsky-Karashevychs family in the village of Hrushka was built at the end of the 19th century. The two-story manor palace with small towers and a side balustrade is located in the old park at the entrance to the village from Kamyanets-Podilskyi.

The owner of the estate in Hrushka at the beginning of the 20th century was the Ukrainian political and diplomatic figure, historian, honorary knight of the Order of Malta, Yan Tokarzhevskyi-Karashevych. During the First World War, he was the head of the Hrushka Volost Committee for Aid to Military Families, the chief controller of the Podillya Zemstvo Committee for Aid to the Wounded. In 1917-1919, he served as an adviser to the Ukrainian embassy in Vienna, then worked in the UNR government in exile.

During the Soviet rule, the palace of the Tokarzhevsky-Karashevychs was used as the premises of the village council and the board of the local collective farm. Currently, part of the premises is occupied by the Hrushka Starostat of the Staroushytska hromada and post office. In other premises, a museum space with a gallery of antiquities, an exhibition hall and a photo area was arranged.

The main architectural monument of Staryi Ostropil is the Transfiguration Church - an architectural monument of national significance.

The stone church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is a rotunda with a rectangular vestibule covered by a complex system of vaults resting on four pylons and walls.

Elements of classicism are used in the decorative design of facades and interiors. The upper part has been changed as a result of unscrupulous reconstruction.

Since May 2022, it belongs to the community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Turkish bastion is part of the fortification system of the Old City of Kamyanets-Podilskyi. It was part of the system of north-western fortifications, the main element of which was the Polish Gate.

The Turkish bastion got its name after this part of the fortress, which is most suitable for shelling the road leading to the castle, was improved by the Turks during the occupation of Kamyanets in 1672-1699.

The Turkish bastion is a large four-story structure with casemate rooms, wood-earth parapets and gun embrasures. In 1753, the commandant of the fortress, military engineer Krystian Dalke, repaired it with the installation of stone parapets on the high, multi-lane arcade.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the stone vaults of the casemates were completely translated and began to be used as warehouses.

A stone column erected during the stay of the Turkish garrison in Medzhibizh (1672-1699) is called a "Turkish Pillar" in the village of Trebukhivtsi.

It is an obelisk pillar, square in plan, gradually narrowing upwards, with a three-slope end. It is located southwest of the Medzhibizh castle, on the opposite bank of the Pivdenniy Buh, near the bridge. At first it stood over the grave of a Turkish military commander, later it served as a chapel.

Another column-chapel is located in the upper part of the Old Town, near the Saint Nicolas Church (turn left after the church).

The defense ramparts of the chronicled ancient Rus city of Tykhomel (Tykhoml) are located on the banks of the Horyn River on the outskirts of Yampil near the modern village of Tykhomel.

According to one of the versions, the fortification was built by order of the Kyiv Prince Volodymyr the Great at the end of the 10th century. The city was first mentioned in 1152 during the war between the Kyiv prince Izyaslav Mstyslavych and the Galician prince Volodymyrko Volodarevych. In 1214, the city was captured by the troops of the Hungarian king, but soon it was repulsed by the Galicia-Volyn prince Danylo Romanovych. Subsequent internecine wars devastated the city, and it soon lost its importance.

In the 16th century, these lands became the property of Vilnius bishop Yanush, who founded the nearby town of Yampil, and the ancient Tykhomel has since disappeared from the maps.

A panorama of the valley of the Horyn river opens from the walls of the fortified settlement. Nearby are the ruins of the only Arian chapel of the 16th century in Ukraine.

The bench on the embankment of the pond on the Utka River in Slavuta, along the Third Dam, has had the title of the longest bench in Ukraine since 2012.

Its length is 213 meters and 12 centimeters. 1,000 schoolchildren were able to sit on it at the same time. They painted part of it with different patterns.

Previously, the "Family Bench" on the Dnipro embankment was considered the longest in Ukraine.

The house of the veterinarian of Count Potoski's stud farm was built in Antoniny at the beginning of the 20th century. The building is in the Art Nouveau style with Western European motifs in the decor.

Currently, the Antoniny Children's Music School is located here.

The Church of the Visitation of Elizabeth by the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kytaihorod was built on a high cliff above the Ternava River in the 18th century.

According to legend, the temple was founded by a local landowner after he miraculously survived when his carriage fell off a cliff. And since his wife was Orthodox, he built a church nearby.

The Church of the Virgin Mary is distinguished by a combination of the plan-volume structure characteristic of the late Renaissance era with facades in the Baroque style. Baroque paintings and altars have been preserved in the interior.

Since 1994, the church belongs to the Catholic community "Mission of the Holy Spirit".

From the viewing platform in front of the church, a stunning panorama of the Ternava River canyon opens, which looks quite full of water, as it flows into the Dniester Reservoir near this place.

A monument to the composer Vladyslav Zaremba was erected in 2015 on the square in front of the House of Schoolchildren's Creativity in the city of Dunaivtsi, where he was born in 1833.

Vladyslav Zaremba is the author of numerous romances, piano pieces, arrangements of folk songs. He created more than 30 songs based on Taras Shevchenko's poem, including "The mountain stands high", "The willows are rustling at the end of the dam", "Such is her fate", including the well-known version of the song "I'm watching I'm in heaven".

The author spent the last years of his life in Kyiv, where he was buried at Baikove Cemetery.

The Khmelnytskyi Music School is named after Vladyslav Zaremba. 

Volochysk Historical and Ethnographic Museum is located in the city center. The exposition tells about the history of the region from ancient times to the present day.

The Literary Museum of the poet-warrior Volodymyr Bulayenko was opened in 1993 in his native village of Sorokoduby. The exposition is located in the premises of the Sorokoduby Village Club.

Volodymyr Bulayenko was born in Sorokoduby in 1918, went to Sorokoduby Primary School. He began writing poetry in his school years. He fought as a volunteer on the fronts of World War II, died in 1944.

Volodymyr Bulayenko's work became known thanks to Lina Kostenko. The first collection of his poems was published in 1958. Later, he was posthumously accepted into the Writers' Union.

The museum's exposition presents early editions of Volodymyr Bulayenko's works, historical photographs and documents, and stands with quotes from his poems.

His bust is installed on the site of the poet's parental home.

The Vrublivetsky forest on the hills at the confluence of the Tarnava River with the Dniester is a state botanical natural monument of local importance.

The territory of the reserve occupies 89 hectares.

This is a forest area of natural origin, covered with hornbeam and oak trees. There is a relict species - white sedge (carex alba), on steep hills (tovtras) an ordinary orchid grows, which does not have green leaves and can provide its nutrition only in symbiosis with woody plants.