Attractions of Kherson region

The building of the Central RAGS was erected in 1896 for the Kherson Public Library. The construction was carried out on donations from the people of Kherson, part of the funds was allocated by the city administration.

The building was designed in the neoclassical style by the architect Mykola Tolvinsky. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kherson public library was often visited by Borys Serhyeyev, the future writer Lavrenyev.

The first exhibition of the Kherson Museum of Antiquities was located here. The library served its purpose until 1987, when it was decided to house the city registry office in the building.

The church of the righteous Petro Kalnyshevskyi in Heroiske (former Prohnoyi) was built in 1898 at the expense of a descendant of the Cossack-elder family, Hryhoriy Kapusta, as a church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

The church, half-destroyed during the years of Soviet power, is currently being restored by the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In 2016, at the request of the local religious community. the name of the church was changed from the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God to the righteous Petro Kalnyshevskyi.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was founded on the initiative of Prince Hrihory Potemkin to attract foreigners to Kherson.

The first Catholic church in the name of the Savior, built in 1787, was adobe. A stone church was built on this site in the 1820s, later a spire was built above the bell tower. A Roman Catholic church school and a society for helping poor Catholics operated here.

In 1918, the first service was held in Ukrainian. In 1931, the church was closed, workshops were placed in it, then a children's cinema was opened.

In 1994, the temple was returned to believers and reconstructed. Today it is the Roman Catholic church of the parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Saint Catherine Cathedral in Kherson - a landmark of the 18th century. The style of early classicism with the use of motifs of the Balkan medieval architecture.

The cathedral with a monumental bell tower was built in 1782-1787 on the site of the wooden Saint Michael's Church on the territory of the former Kherson fortress. Named after Saint Catherine and Empress Catherine II, who visited the temple in 1786. A chair made especially for the empress has been preserved. In the interior, there are paintings attributed to Volodymyr Borovykovskyi and Dmytro Levytskyi.

In 1791, Prince Hryhoriy Potemkin-Tavriyskyi was buried in the crypt under the cathedral.

The "Pantheon of the Kherson Fortress" is located on the territory of Catherine's Cathedral - the burial place of officers who died in the Russian-Turkish war.

Saint George's Church in Mala Kardashynka was built in 1905-1912 according to the project of the architect Kazymyr Kvinto in the traditions of Moscow temple architecture of the 17th century.

The interior of the temple was painted by the artist Semen Panpushyn from Kherson.

During Soviet times, the temple was closed, the premises were used as a warehouse, then a club.

Currently, the church of Saint George in Mala Kardashynka is active, restoration has been carried out.

Saint Hryhoriy Bizyukiv Men's Monastery, located on the bank of the Dnipro in the village of Chervonyi Maiak, was at one time one of the largest monasteries in the south of Ukraine.

The monastery was founded in 1781 as the Sophroniy hermitage on the site of an old Turkish fortress, which after the expulsion of the Turks was called "Zaporizhzhian town". At first, monks lived in caves. According to legend, these multi-kilometer tunnels, passing under the entire village, existed since the time of the nomads. In 1803, the Bizyukiv monastery was transferred here from the Smolensk province, and from that time the monastery received its current name.

During the Soviet rule, the Saint Hryhoriy Bizyukiv Monastery was closed, the Zaporizhzhian Church of Saint Hryhoriy (1782), the Ascension Cathedral and the bell tower (1894) were destroyed, and part of the fence was dismantled. The walls with towers (XVIII-XIX centuries), the Intercession Church, the bishop's house with the Church of the Three Saints, the Trinity Church, the Refectory, the building of cells, the hotel building, the gate, fountains, cave cells (XVIII century) have been preserved.

Now the monastery is being revived. One of these caves cut out of a steep limestone rock, where a small cave church has been preserved, is a place of pilgrimage for pilgrims.

The monastery belongs to the Kherson Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

On February 10, 2024, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Bizyukiv Monastery was damaged by massive shelling by the Russian army - the roof and facade of the building were destroyed.

The Orthodox Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Zmiivka is located in the premises of the former Protestant Church of the Apostle John. The brick church was built in the 19th century on the site of the wooden church of 1787, from which the establishment of a Swedish village in the Kherson region by Swedish settlers began.

It is shared by the Orthodox and Swedish Protestant communities. The interior combines Protestant and Orthodox motifs.

A memorial sign to the repressed Swedes and Germans who were persecuted by the Soviet authorities in 1937-1938, as well as a memorial sign on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding and settlement of the village of Zmiivka by Swedish colonists, was installed on the territory of the Saint Michael Church.

Belongs to the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In 2008, the Swedish King Carl XVI Hustav and his wife Silviya visited Zmiivka. Before the arrival of the king, the temple was repaired, a new dome was installed on it.

The Saint Nicholas Maritime Cathedral in Kherson was built in 1842 at the expense of a descendant of the Doroshenko hetman family, a collegian assessor Yakiv Doroshenko. It is located in the Zabalkivskyi suburb, which is separated from the city by a deep ravine.

The first wooden church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared here at the beginning of the 19th century, but it quickly fell into disrepair, and then there was a need to build a new church. The stone temple in the style of classicism has a spherical dome and a two-tier bell tower.

During the Crimean War, the defenders of Sevastopol who died in Kherson hospitals were mourned in the Saint Nicholas Church.

In 2007, the Saint Nicholas Church was granted the status of a maritime cathedral.

The sculpture of the Mother of God was opened in Pokrovsky Square in 2009. It is located on the site of the Church of the Holy Virgin, destroyed in the 1940s.

The figure, 2.5 meters high, made of white artificial stone, looks at the sunrise. The territory of the square, located near the city RAGS, which until recently was neglected and unattractive, has now been put in order: benches have been installed along the paths paved with pavement tiles, and flowers and conifers have been planted in the flowerbeds. And in the evening, lanterns burn here.

The Skadovsk of History and Local Lore Museum is located in an ancient building called the "House with Columns".

The two-story house with antique columns was built at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and belonged to one of the founders of the city, Professor Mettelshteyn of the Odesa Technical University. This is the only pre-revolutionary mansion preserved in the city.

The main exhibition tells about the history of the city and its founder, Serhiy Skadovsky, the leader of the nobility of the Tavria province.

There is also an exhibition dedicated to the liberation of Skadovsk from fascist occupation, an art gallery and a hall of the nature of the region.

The building of the provincial government, where in 1792-1794 lived and worked the commander Oleksandr Suvorov, who oversaw the completion of the construction of the Kherson fortress. Under the command of General Anshef, the strengthening of the approaches to the fortress and the defense of the Kinburn district were carried out.

Now Suvorov's building houses shops and offices. A memorial plaque hangs on the building, on the left is a bas-relief of the work of Kherson sculptor Ivan Bilokur "Soldiers of Suvorov in battle".

At the beginning of the Suvorov pedestrian street, a monument to the commander was erected, cast in 1904 by master Mykola Rukavyshnikov. In 2022, during the occupation of Kherson by Russian troops during the Russian-Ukrainian war, on the eve of the retreat from the city as a result of a successful counteroffensive operation by the Ukrainian army, the Russian occupiers dismantled the monument and took it out of the city.

The remains of defensive structures on the banks of the Dnipro in the village of Tiahynka belong to Lithuanian and Turkish times.

Back in the 14th century, the Lithuanian Tyahyn castle with three round towers at the corners was built on the island of Velyke Horodyshche.

In 1491, after seizing these lands from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey rebuilt the Tyahyn fortress, which became one of the strongholds for Tatar raids on Ukrainian lands.

In 1492, Zaporizhzhia Cossacks captured and destroyed a Turkish ship under the walls of Tyagin fortress, which is considered to be the first mention of Cossacks and the date of foundation of Zaporizhzhia Cossacks.

In 1673, Ataman Ivan Sirko marched on the Tyahyn fortress, and in 1693, Colonel Semen Paliy defeated a Tatar detachment here. The fortress was finally destroyed in the 18th century.

In 1992, a monument in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Ukrainian Cossacks "Cossack Slava" was erected on the site of the hillfort in the form of a column with the figure of Saint Michael the Archstrategist. Fragments of the fortress walls were preserved near the old bridge.

The water tower, which supplied water to Prince Trubetsky's estate, was built on the basis of the ruins of an ancient watchtower of the 14th century by the owner of the local manor, Prince Petro Trubetsky, at the end of the 19th century.

According to one version, the tower was built during the time of Prince Vitovt (XIV century), when the border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania passed through these lands. Later, a fourth tier with arrow windows in the pseudo-Gothic style was added.

Currently not in use.