Attractions of Poltava district

Ecopark "Kovalivka" near Poltava is one of the largest contact zoos in Ukraine. On an area of 120 hectares, more than 5,000 animals of 530 species are kept here, which can be observed, and some can also be fed and petted.

Many species of predators are represented in the ecopark, including tigers, lynxes, panthers, red wolves, servals, caracals, ocelots and others. Lemurs, monkeys, a family of tapirs, tree porcupines, iguanas, and turtles live in the enclosures. Among the ungulates in the contact part of the zoo, llamas and alpacas receive the most attention from visitors. You can also feed raccoons with special feed purchased on the territory of the park.

The pride of the ecopark "Kovalivka" is the residence of birds, the area of which is about 900 square meters. Here you can see flamingos, cockatoos, cranes and many other birds.

A steam locomotive runs through the territory of the ecopark. There are cozy gazebos where you can have lunch.

The Poltava Educational House named after Mykola Hohol was built in 1901 according to the project of academician Oleksiy Trambytskyi, the St. Petersburg architect of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters.

The theater building is made in the Neo-Renaissance style. Rectangular in plan, the audience hall for 1,100 seats with balconies and boxes, an orchestra pit and a compact stage box resembled in miniature the stage of the famous Milanese theater La Scala.

During the Second World War, the theater was destroyed, in the post-war years it was restored to its original architectural form and adapted to the "Wizoria Kolos" cinema (now a 3D cinema).

The Museum of Pottery of Mali Budyshcha "Ethnoselo Рonchariya" has been operating since 2021 as a separate structural unit of the National Museum-Reserve of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishnia.

It is located on the territory of one of the largest pottery centers of the Opishnia pottery district - in the village of Mali Budyshcha, located on the northern outskirts of Opishnia.

In one of the two buildings will be presented local pottery, sketches of pottery paintings, epistolary heritage, photographic documents, photos, wood products and more.

In the second - the interior of the potter's house of the late XIX - early XX centuries is recreated.

The Exaltation of the Cross Monastery in Poltava was founded in 1650 on the banks of the Vorskla River at the expense of Colonel Martyn Pushkar, a Poltava elder and burghers.

The Cathedral of the Ascension of the Cross (1699-1709) is the only seven-headed baroque church in Ukraine that has survived to this day. The four-story belfry (1786) in the late Baroque style is 43 meters high. The complex also includes the single-domed Trinity Church (1750) and the Simeon Church (1887).

During the war with the Swedes, there was a pond of Karl XII.

In the first half of the 20th century, the monastery was closed and ransacked, the premises were used by the NKVD as a prison for minors, then as a boarding school.

The complex of the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery was returned to the church in 1991.

The exposition of the Dykanka State Historical and Local Lore Museum named after Dmytro Harmash is located in 9 halls and has 8,000 exhibits.

Among them is a handmade chest of Kochubey, decorated with a bizarre pattern, and which served as a treasury in the Trinity Church. Chest in the XVIII century. presented to Judge Kochubey Hetman Ivan Mazepa, but the legend attributes the masterful work on it to the blacksmith Vakula, Hohol's hero from "The Night Before Christmas".

You can see the Polovtsian woman, an old locomotive (steam tractor), Mykola Hohol's posthumous mask. Also presented are valuable finds from Scythian burials, household items, works of art by local masters.

Souvenir products are sold.

Employees of the Museum of Local Lore conduct tours of Dykanka.

The People's Museum of History of the Poltava Polytechnic named after Yuriy Kondratyuk is dedicated to the creation and development of one of the oldest universities in the Poltava region, which was founded in 1930.

The university is located in the former building of the Poltava Institute of Noble Girls.

The exposition of the museum has 10 sections, where more than a thousand exhibits are presented, which acquaint visitors with the stages of development and traditions of the Poltava Polytechnic staff. In particular, you can see a clock from the house of the famous Poltava inventor Yuriy Kondratyuk, whose name is the university.

A separate exposition is occupied by models of the university building, stands with scientific achievements, awards of the former Poltava Civil Engineering Institute, which for a long time was transformed from a single-profile institution of higher education into a classical European university.

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord on the territory of the current residential area of Polovka in Poltava (the former village of Pushkarivka) was built in 1762 at the expense of Poltava colonel Ivan Chernyak as the cathedral church of the Pushkarivsky Ascension Monastery, founded here in 1721.

According to some sources, Motrya Kochubey, the daughter of General Judge Vasyl Kochubey, executed by Hetman Ivan Mazepa, spent the last years of her life here in a monastery (until the 30s of the 20th century, there was a grave of Motrya in the monastery cemetery).

At the beginning of the 19th century, the monastery was closed, and the Ascension Church acquired the status of a parish. All the monastery buildings fell into disrepair and were dismantled. Currently, the Church of the Ascension is an active church of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Holy Assumption Cathedral on the Ivanova Mountain is the first stone spore in Poltava.

Promoted in 1751-1770 by the initiatives of Colonel Andriy Horlenok at the wooden church, which, since 1695, stood on Vichevy Maidan of Poltava Fortress.

The temple in the style of the Byzantine basilica was designed by the architect Stefan Stabansky. In 1780, two more domes were added to three domes. In 1900, the cathedral underwent one reconstruction, and as a result, it became spacious and bright. On a door with a height of 44 meters, the wall of the door "Kizi-Kermen" is visible from Turkish garmats, for example, of the XVIII century (now at the Local Lore Museum).

In 1934, the Cathedral was demolished by the Bolsheviks, but the door was miraculously preserved. In 1999-2007, at the initiative of the President of Ukraine, the cathedral was reconstructed and turned into the bulk of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Church in honor of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia was built in 2002 at the initiative of the city authorities and the women's religious community of Poltava.

The author of the project is the Honored Artist of Ukraine, architect Anatoliy Chornoshchokov. Inside the church, the earthly abode of Jesus Christ is separated to the entire height of the church by a carved iconostasis made by masters of the Lviv company "Syaivo". Some icons were brought from the Pochaiv Lavra.

The five-bath temple in the style of classicism is crowned by a central five-meter cross. Decorative baths contain seven bells. All of them were cast at the Poltava Locomotive Repair Plant. The most powerful of them, weighing 271 kilograms, is called "Poltava".

The 200-year-old Trinity Church, which adorns the center of Kotelva, is an architectural monument.

It was built in 1812 on the site of a burned down wooden temple, founded in the 17th century. The stone church became the fourth after the three wooden ones that were there before it.

The authorship of the Holy Trinity church project in the style of classicism is attributed to Kharkiv architect Petro Yaroslavskyi. In 1835, a stone belfry was added. On the eastern side, a brick fence with openwork metal gates and wickets has been preserved. The interiors are decorated with paintings of the 19th century.

The church has a library of spiritual literature, and a Sunday school.

The spectacular Holy Trinity Church in the late Baroque style was built in Dykanka on the site of an old wooden church.

It is located on the shore of a pond near the intersection of Ivana Mazepy Street and Troitska Street.

Construction was carried out in 1780 under the direction of the architect Mykola Lviv at the expense of Pavlo Kochubey of the Poltava Regiment of Bunchuzh. The temple is high, single-domed, with four semi-domes. It has the shape of a cross in plan. The floor was once paved with cast-iron tiles.

Legends closely associate the Trinity Church with the work of Mykola Hohol, who visited it many times. It is believed that this church was painted by the blacksmith Vakula in "The Night before Christmas": "...on the side wall, as you enter the church, Vakula painted a devil in hell, so disgusting that everyone spat when they passed by."

During the Soviet era, the temple was closed and looted, for some time it was used as a warehouse.

In 1993, the Trinity Church was restored and returned to the Orthodox Church.

The Holy Trinity Church in Velyki Budyshcha is the only one preserved in the village from pre-revolutionary times.

It was built in 1819 in the style of classicism. Architectural monument of the 19th century. It is one of the objects of the "Dykansky" Regional Landscape Park.

The Literary and Memorial Museum of Ivan Kotlyarevsky was created in Poltava in 1969 based on the estate of the outstanding writer, recreated according to a drawing by Taras Shevchenko, made from nature in 1845. There is a house, a barn and a well-crane, which are immersed in the green garden.

Kotlyarevsky lived in Poltava most of his life. He studied at the Poltava Theological Seminary, later was the director of the Poltava Theater, and was even a member of the Poltava Masonic Lodge.

In his Poltava house, the classic of Ukrainian literature created most of his works, including the famous "Aeneid".

Details of the old building have been installed in the house restored to the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth. Inside, the atmosphere of the XIX century is very authentically recreated. Here are stored personal belongings of the writer, awards, manuscript pages of his works, the first editions of books.

Ivanova Mountain (Ivanova Hora) is the historical core of Poltava, the best scenic spot in the city. More than 11 centuries ago, the historic city of Ltava stood here on a high hill above the Vorskla River.

Later, an earthen Poltava fortress was built, which in the 18th century held back the advance of the Swedes for three months, until the army of Petro I approached. The wooden Podil tower (one of 15) was reconstructed, next to which it is planned to restore the Sentinel bastion of the Poltava fortress.

The panorama of the Vorskla Valley with the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery on the nearby hill opens from the White Arbor.

In 2006, a monument to the Poltava halushka, celebrated by writers, was erected near the Ivan Kotlyarevskyi museum and the Lileya restaurant.

The Karlivka Museum of History and Local Lore was founded in 1967 and has been housed in a historic building in the center of Karlivka since 2001, opposite the central square.

The museum has 6,000 exhibits. The exposition in 14 halls tells about the nature and history of Karlivka Region from the distant past to the present.

The permanent exhibition of works of the honored master of national creativity, the founder of studio of fine arts of the Karlivka Gymnasium Ihor Nikolayevsky is presented.