Attractions of Khmelnytskyi region

Botanical reserve "Tovtra Verbetska" is located 15 kilometers north of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, west of the village of Verbka.

The status of a national botanical reserve was assigned to this territory in 1977. The area of ​​the reserve is 9.3 hectares.

Rare types of steppe vegetation have been preserved within the reserve, including: spring adonis, Volyn milkweed, big dream, hairy heifer, and Dniester hazel.

Local residents nicknamed this mountain "Four Cavaliers" due to its appearance.

On the site of the ancient Podillya village of Sokilets, there were two ancient Rus fortresses back in the 13th century.

In 1973, the village was included in the list of settlements that were subject to flooding in connection with the commissioning of the Dniester HPP. This is exactly what happened to the villages of Bakota, Kalyus and others. Local residents were urgently relocated to the heights of the Ushytsky Canyon. However, the level of rising water turned out to be significantly lower than the erroneous calculation of engineers. In this way, it was possible to preserve the historical part of the village.

Among the ruins are the remains of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin (1723), the remains of an ancient cave monastery, a part of the ancient defensive wall of the 18th century, a settlement of the 12th-13th centuries, an old village cemetery, a burial mound of the 12th-13th centuries, and the only active object - the Orthodox Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God (1840).

From the territory of modern Sokilets, a wonderful view of the abandoned valley of the village opens.

The Literary Memorial Museum of Anna Akhmatova in Slobidka-Shelekhivska was opened in 1989 "in a house near a road with no traffic," as the poet herself described the house of her aunt Anna Vakar.

Akhmatova repeatedly visited her relatives in Podillya, often visited Slobidka-Shelekhivska, and wrote several poems there. In the 1920s, Akhmatova's mother Inna Horenko also settled here, where she lived until the end of her life.

The grave of Akhmatova's mother, her aunt and her husband have been preserved in the village cemetery.

In front of the museum, the first monument to Anna Akhmatova by Viktor Zayko, as well as two cast-iron benches and a street lamp from St. Petersburg, was installed in Ukraine.

The Literary Memorial Museum of Anna Akhmatova is a department of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Literary Museum.

The Museum of Antiquities (Archaeology) of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi State Historical Reserve is located in the former palace of the Armenian bishop, which was founded in the 15th century as a trading house.

After the Turkish invasion, the commandant of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, Yan de Vitte, settled in the house.

The archeological exposition is based on a collection of antiquities, which began to be collected in the XIX century. The halls of the museum recreate the dwellings of ancient man, exhibit ancient tools, household items of the people who inhabited Podillya from ancient times to the baptism of Rus.

In the courtyard of the Museum of Antiquities is a lapidary of pagan idols.

The Arian Chapel in Tykhomel is a unique landmark of sacred architecture, the only similar structure in Ukraine.

The chapel was built by a local landowner, Pavlo Kshyshtof Senyuta, who was a follower of the Arians' Christian teachings, which were considered heretical. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Arianism was widespread in Eastern Europe, and, in particular, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Arians denied the triune essence of God, that is, the Holy Trinity, affirming the superiority of God the Father over God the Son, who was created by him - Jesus Christ.

The frescoed chapel is built on a mound above the grave of Pavlo Kshyshtof Senyuta, on the site of the ancient Rus settlement of Tykhomel. Later, the Arian chapel served as a tower of the fortress built here. Preserved in ruins.

The massive octagonal pavilion near the town hall on the Polsky Rynok of Kamyanets-Podilskyi was erected over the Armenian Well, which was opened in 1638.

A well with a depth of 55 meters (according to other sources - 40 meters) was cut in solid rock by order of the Polish king Vladyslav IV Vazф. It was to become the main source of drinking water for the city's residents.

According to legend, the construction was carried out on the remains of stolen funds bequeathed to the construction of the city's water supply by the rich Armenian merchant Narzes. However, the water in the well turned out to be salty, and it was deemed unsuitable for drinking. Because of this, the Armenian well was jokingly nicknamed the "monument of corruption".

For a long time, the well pavilion was used as a warehouse. Now it is an exhibition hall.

The Art Gallery of the Art Department of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi State Historical Museum-Reserve is located in the former educational building of the Theological Seminary (XVIII century) on the Armenian Market Square.

Mykhaylo Dostoevskyi, Stepan Rudanskyi, Mykola Leontovych, Anatoliy Svydnytskyi, and others studied at the Kamyanets-Podilskyi Orthodox Seminary.

The museum exposition presents works of painting, graphics and sculpture of the XVII-XX centuries, as well as a collection of icons of various religious denominations.

In 2008, the Mykyta Hodovanets room-museum was opened in the Kamyanets-Podilskyi Art Gallery. Thematic exhibitions are held there.

The Art Nouveau building, which currently houses various administrative organizations and shops, was built in Starokostiantyniv in the middle of the 19th century.

The modern two-story volume of the building is composed of several separate buildings placed close to each other, forming a single building - a square with an inner courtyard.

In 1917-1919, the headquarters of various military formations fighting in the district, in particular the Bohun Brigade of the Shchors Division, were located here at various times.

The wooden Church of the Ascension of the Holy Cross with a bell tower is located in the suburb of Kamyanets-Podilskyi Karvasary on a narrow coastal strip on the Smotrych River, under the walls of the Old Castle.

The church was built in the 18th century on the site of a temple that existed in the 17th century. The foundation of the church is made of limestone. The church itself is three-log, single-headed with a porch and sacristy on the north side and a belfry attached to the west.

The Church of the Ascension of the Cross is a vivid work of the Podillya school of folk wooden architecture.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Tynna is known for its miraculous image of the Mother of God of Tynna. In the 17th century, the village suffered several Tatar raids, as a result of which the image was transported first to Kamyanets-Podilskyi, and later to Lviv. Only in 1730 the relic returned to the local temple.

The history of the current Church of the Assumption of the Virgin begins in 1597, when Ihnatiy Humetskyi built a new stone church instead of the old wooden one. It is with this period that historians most often associate the appearance of a miraculous image. In 1735, the heavily damaged church was rebuilt. Another decline of the shrine occurred in 1956, when the temple was dismantled.

In the early 1990s, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was restored on its former site thanks to the efforts of Father Vladyslav Vanahs. In 2023, the sanctuary of the Mother of God of Tynna was established.

An ancient cemetery is located nearby. Here was the grave of Prince Charles de Nassau-Siegen, who at one time was considered an extremely extraordinary person. The prince spent the last 12 years of his life in Tynna, but his grave did not survive during the next restoration of the temple.

The Atlantida (Atlantis) karst cave is a geological monument of national importance within the National Nature Park "Podilski Tovtry".

The cave was discovered in 1968 by pioneer speleologists from Kyiv. It is currently supervised by the Khmelnytskyi speleoclub.

The Atlantida cave has three connected tiers, the total length is 2525 meters, the area is 4440 square meters. Bats live here and small, not yet completely looted heliatites - stone flowers "grow" here. On the ceiling of the hall - crystals.

The cave is not illuminated and not equipped for visiting, in some places you have to crawl through. Excursions are possible only accompanied by instructors by prior agreement. To visit, you must have a change of clothes, lanterns and other equipment.

Taking crystals out of the Atlantida cave is prohibited.

A synagogue with a crypt, in which in 1760 one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, the Kabbalist, the founder of Hasidism, Israel Ben Eliezer, who was called Baal Shem Tov (Lord of the Good Name) or simply Besht, was buried.

He spent the last 20 years of his life in Medzhybizh. The Beshta had many followers, including the famous tzaddik Rabbi Nachman of Uman.

Beshta's grave is the object of a mass pilgrimage of Hasids (supporters of this orthodox current in Judaism) and other people who are fascinated by Kabbalism. A crypt was built over Beshta's grave.

In the old Jewish cemetery, you should see the unique beauty of the tombstone. A modern synagogue building was built nearby. Many Jewish houses of the 19th century have been preserved around.

The Spring of Baal Shem Tov is located on the outskirts of the village of Trebuhivtsi near Medzhybizh.

According to legend, the founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, often prayed here, after which he washed his hands in the spring. A Jewish mikvah (bath) is arranged above the spring.

The Bakota tract on the banks of the Bakota Bay on the Dniester river is one of the most popular natural tourist locations in Ukraine, part of the National Nature Park "Podilski Tovtry".

It is located on the limestone Bila Mountain, rising 120 meters above the river, near the village of Horaivka, 45 kilometers east of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, on the road to Stara Ushytsia.

Bakota was the name of an ancient Rus city that existed in this place in the XII-XIII and was the capital of Dniester Ponyzzia. Subsequently, the same name was given to a large village on the banks of the Dniester, which was flooded in 1981 during the creation of an artificial Dniester reservoir. Only on the slope of Bila Mountain are the remains of the Bakota Saint Michael Cave Monastery, where a tourist trail leads.

Bakota owes its popularity to the stunning views of Bakota Bay from the observation deck at the top of Bila Mountain, which are especially enchanting at sunset. Within the framework of the project "Bakota - in search of the flooded heritage", a monument to the flooded villages was installed here.

The site is equipped with a suspended wooden walkway, binoculars for viewing the opposite bank, and a tactile map of Bakota for people with visual impairments. The tourist visitor center is open. The route along the "Ancient Bakota" trail has been arranged with QR codes at key points that allow you to listen to the tour online.

Entrance to the park and car parking are paid. Services of tour guides, rental of places for tents and fires, use of tables, etc. are offered. There is a beach at the foot of the mountain.

The only surviving synagogue in Medzhybizh is the Beit Midrash (house of learning) of Rabbi Abraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apta. It is called the Apta Synagogue or simply the Old Synagogue.

It was built in 1814, when Heschel settled in Medzhybizh. The synagogue had two floors. The rabbi himself lived in the neighboring house.

During the Soviet rule, the building was used for various purposes. In particular, there was a fire station in it.

Restoration was carried out in 2010. Today, a large Jewish library has been organized in the Old Synagogue.