Attractions of Ternopil region

The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin was built in Buchach in 1764 in the late Baroque style according to the project of the architect Bernard Meretyn (according to other sources - Yohan Shiltser).

The Intercession temple has a defensive character. The impression of "femininity" of the interior is created by the rounded corners and harmonious lines of the portal. The Deacon Gate, the work of the outstanding sculptor Ivan Pinzel, has been preserved.

During the revival of the Intercession Church after the Soviet period, the burials of dozens of repressed residents of the city were discovered in the basements.

A monument to Ivan Heorhiy (Yohan-Heorh) Pinzel was erected in 2014 near Buchach Town Hall on the initiative and at the expense of local businessman Vasyl Balabala.

Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel, a prominent sculptor of the mid-18th century, a representative of the late Baroque and Rococo, is the founder of the Lviv School of Sculptors. He lived and worked in Buchach at the invitation of the owner of the city, Mykola Potoski, creating many outstanding works here in collaboration with the architect Bernard Meretyn: the altars of the Church of the Assumption and the Church of the Intercession, the facades of the Buchach Town Hall, roadside figures, etc.

The monument to the sculptor was created by Roman Vilhushynsky in an expressive manner, characteristic of the Pinzel school. The brush is shown with a cutter in hand while working on a sculpture of the Virgin Mary. The height of the monument reaches 3 meters.

The majestic complex of buildings of the Jesuit church, monastery and collegium in the baroque style is the architectural dominant of Kremenets. In the 18th-19th centuries, the Kremenets collegium was one of the largest centers of education in the Podillya and Volyn lands. Jesuit monks were invited to Kremenets by Prince Yanush Vyshnyvetskyi to create a Catholic collegium on the basis of the sister school of the Epiphany Monastery. In 1731-1743, the famous Italian architect Paolo Fontana built the church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Stanislav Kostka (now the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine) with adjacent educational buildings at the expense of the Vyshnyvetskyi.

In 1805, on the initiative of the historian and educator Tadeusz Czacki, the collegium was transformed first into the Volyn Gymnasium, and then into the Volyn Lyceum. The famous park builder Dionysius Makler (Mickler) laid a botanical garden next to it, which still exists today. In 1832, after the suppression of the Polish uprising, the higher school was closed, and its library funds and teaching staff became the basis for the creation of Kyiv University. A theological seminary was opened instead of a lyceum.

After the return of the Poles at the beginning of the 20th century, the lyceum was restored, and during Soviet times, a pedagogical school was opened on its base. Currently, it is the Taras Shevchenko Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian and Pedagogical Academy.

The castle-ship on the hill, which is washed on three sides by one of the tributaries of Zbruch, got its nickname due to its characteristic oblong shape.

Sydoriv Castle was built in the middle of the 17th century by the field hetman of the crown, Martyn Kalynovsky, as his own residence. The date of construction is recorded on a brick slab above the entrance arch. The length of the castle reached 178 meters, while the width was only 30 meters. Seven defense towers were located along the perimeter of the walls, of which only three remain. The walls of the northern edge of the well-preserved castle are joined at sharp angles, which gives the fortress the appearance of a ship floating in the sea of green.

Sydoriv Castle was badly damaged during the Turkish invasion of 1672, then it was restored, but from the beginning of the 18th century it lost its defensive significance, fell into disrepair and gradually collapsed until our time.

Access is free.

Near Podillya Tovtry, on the outskirts of the village of Vikno, there are karst lakes on a wide meadow, which are called "vikno" (windows) in these parts.

20 million years ago, waves of the warm Sarmatian Sea splashed here. From its underwater reef, giant side formations (tovtry) formed, and when the sea receded, hills several hundred meters high were formed. Now in the lowlands is a field where karst lakes were formed.

There used to be several dozen of them, then there were five, but after land reclamation in the 1980s, only two lakes remained: Sinye and Bezodnya. The lakes were formed in limestone cavities, the depth of which cannot be determined. Although the bottom of the lakes reaches four meters, the underground passages from where the powerful springs come are much deeper.

The water temperature in the lakes always remains at +12 degrees. The surface of the water in them is covered with algae, so during the day, depending on the lighting, the lakes change their color - from dark blue to blue and purple.

Karst lakes do not freeze in the strongest frosts and glow at night.

Two towers and a fragment of the defensive wall remained from the Kryvche Castle, built in 1639-1650 by the Kontsky Polish nobles in the village of Kryvche.

The castle had an almost regular rectangular shape with four corner towers and one entrance tower. During the first century of its existence, it was constantly at the epicenter of the Polish-Turkish wars, passing from hand to hand. During the Liberation War, he was captured by the Cossacks. In 1672, the Turkish Sultan Mahomet IV stopped here when he was returning from Buchach after signing the Peace of Buchach.

Only in the 18th century, the Kryvche Castle lost its strategic importance and was transformed into the residence of the Polish magnates of the Holiyovsky. In the 19th century, the entrepreneur Lazar Zeydman bought the ruins, ordering most of them to be dismantled for building materials for a distillery.

An attempt at restoration was made in 1920 by the Podillya Tourism and Local History Society.

Now, the Kontsky Castle is part of the National Reserve "Castles of Ternopil Region". Two towers are preserved, access is free.

Stone Kremenets Castle on the site of an ancient Rus settlement was built in the 12th century on the top of Castle Hill (Bona). In the 15th century, by order of the Grand Duke Vitovt of Lithuania, it was strengthened with defensive walls.

The prosperity of Kremenets Castle is connected with the name of the Neapolitan princess Bona Sfortsa, the wife of Polish King Syhizmund I, who gave her Kremenets in 1536. A relative of the Roman emperor, Bona strengthened the castle, which at that time had three towers, high walls and a garrison armed with cannons. The castle yard housed barracks, a powder cellar, a siege well (80 meters) and a palace, which Bona turned into a luxurious residence. Although there is no reliable information about the stay of Queen Bona in Kremenets, since those times there have been legends about her beauty, temperament, experience in intrigues, but also about her extreme cruelty.

In 1648, the Kremenets Castle was stormed and completely destroyed by the Cossack detachment of Maksym Kryvonos. A tower with a gate and defensive walls have been preserved.

Excursions are conducted by employees of the Kremenets-Pochaiv state historical and cultural reserve.

The well-preserved ruins of a defensive castle rise on Mount Strelka above Zbruch.

The Kudryntsi castle was built by the Polish noblemen Herburts to protect against frequent Tatar and Wallachian raids at the time (the Moldavian border was nearby and the Wallachian road passed).

A quadrangular fortress with three corner towers on three sides was protected by the steep slopes of the mountain. The weakly defended northern side was separated from the plateau by a moat and rampart, as well as a powerful fortification complex with two towers, one of which was the entrance. In 1648, the Cossack troops of Maksym Kryvonos expelled the Polish garrison from the castle, and it was also captured twice by the Turks.

In the 18th century, the Polish magnates Humenetsky reconstructed the Kudryntsi Castle, turning it into a palace-residence, and the next owners, the Kozebrodsky, gathered a collection of works of art here (individual copies of ancient canvases and furniture can now be seen in the Ternopil Museum of Local Lore).

There is a legend about a ghost - supposedly, sometimes in the castle you can see the spirit of a young girl who was walled up by the Turks. Another legend tells about treasures buried by the owners of the castle, over which the earth hums.

The Marian spiritual center in Zarvanytsia is the main shrine of the Greek Catholics of Ukraine.

A folk tale tells about a Kyiv monk to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream and ordered him to found a monastery. At this place, a healing spring flowed and an icon of the Mother of God appeared, which was named Zarvanytsia. At the same time, a cave monastery was founded.

It is believed that the first church in Zarvanytsia was built in the 13th century by Prince Vasylko Terebovlyansky after his miraculous healing.

The written mention of the monastery dates back to 1458. In the 17th century, the Tatars destroyed the monastery several times, but the miraculous icon was preserved.

In 1754, Count Myonchynskyi rebuilt the Holy Trinity Church, which has survived to this day (it now houses the icon of the Mother of God of Zarvanytska). In 1867, Pope Pius IX crowned the Zarvanytsia icon, after which the monastery became a major center of pilgrimage.

During the Soviet rule, the monastery was razed to the ground, but local residents managed to save the icon. Until 1988, religious services were conducted secretly. Only in 1991 did the revival of the shrine begin.

On the slope of the mountain near the Strypa River, the majestic Cathedral of the Mother of God of Zarvanytsia with a four-tiered bell tower 75 meters high was built. Nearby - the gate church, the chapel above the spring and the singing field.

The Greek Catholic Church of the Miracle of Saint Archangel Michael is located near the road in the very center of the village of Nivra in the premises of the former Roman Catholic church, an architectural monument of local importance.

A small Roman Catholic church in Nivre was built in 1937. In Soviet times, it was closed and gradually fell into disrepair. In 2011, the Greek-Catholic community began the restoration of the church, and already in 2013, the consecration of the restored church took place.

The roadside figure of the Mother of God was installed in Buchach in 1751 by order of the owner of the town, Mykola Potoski. It was one of the early works of the outstanding sculptor Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel and the architect Bernard Meretyn. The coat of arms of the Potocki family "Pilyava" is depicted on the pedestal.

During Soviet times, the figure of the Virgin Mary was destroyed, but part of the pedestal was preserved. It was restored in 2006 in its former place, the author of the copy is Roman Vilhushynskyi.

The open-air museum of the Camp UPA Volyn-South was founded in 1992 in the Dihtyarnya tract near Antonivtsi, where the headquarters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army military district operated in 1942-1944.

Under the pseudonym "Kruk", which became famous for a number of successful combat operations against the Nazis. The camp withstood the blow of General von dem Bach's SS division with the support of the air force in 1943. In 1944, the largest battle in the history of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army took place in the Hurba tract, with 5,000 insurgents In memory of these events on the territory of the Antonivtsi camp the UPA memorial was created, the objects of the camp were recreated: the headquarters of the military district "Volyn-South", summer class officers' schools, a camp chapel near the spring, a bunker-hideout.

In 2008, the regional program for the creation of the spiritual and cultural museum complex "Antonivetska Respublika" was approved. Reconstruction of the open-air museum "Camp UPA Volyn-South" has started.

The castle in Mykulyntsi is known as the only residential medieval castle in Ukraine. People still officially live on the territory of this 16th-century fortification.

The first wooden fortifications on the hill near the Seret River existed here even in princely times. The stone castle was built in 1550-1555 by the mistress of the Mykulyntsi, Anna Yordan (Yordanova) from the Senyavsky family, the wife of Spytko Yordan, the castellan of Kraków. Later, the Mykulyntsi Castle belonged to the Zborovsky and Konetspolsky magnates.

After being damaged during the Liberation War of 1648-1657, the castle was improved and expanded. In 1672, the fortress was taken by the Turks after a 15-day siege. Then they destroyed the entire male population of Mykulyntsi.

Later, the fortress belonged to the Lyubomyrsky, Mnishek, and Potocki. It was then that it lost its defensive significance, and the palace built next to it began to perform representative functions. In the 19th century, Baron Yan Konopka converted it into a cloth factory.

The building is quadrangular in plan, two of the four corner towers have been preserved. Around the perimeter of the inner yard were built residential and commercial buildings, some of which have also been preserved.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when Mykulyntsi belonged to Countess Yuzefa Rey, her beloved servant Anna settled in the castle. She continued to live there even after the arrival of Soviet power, when the countess died and her son died. Currently, the housekeeper's daughter Stefaniya Baloy remains the owner of the residential premises of the architectural monument.

Mykulyntsi Castle is part of the National Reserve "Castles of Ternopil Region", but access to the territory is closed.

The Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Ternopil is a surprisingly beautiful temple, one of the best examples of the Podillya architectural school of the 17th century.

The church was built in 1602-1608 by a craftsman named Leontiy near the eastern city gate. It acquired a modern appearance as a result of further reconstruction and restoration in 1937.

Currently, the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The main shrine is the icon of the Mother of God of Ternopil.

The bright half-timbered building of the Old Town Hall with a clock tower and a weather vane in the shape of a rooster is the hallmark of Chortkiv. It is surrounded by wooden shopping arcades, which are still used for their intended purpose - they house shops and other commercial establishments.

The Old Town Hall in Chortkiv was built in 1905-1908 on the initiative of the then mayor Ludwik Noss. After the First World War, the newly built shopping arcades continued to be developed as a trade and administrative complex. Together with small shops, the magistrate was located here until the New Town Hall was built in the city.

The building is made in the half-timbered (frame) style, which is characteristic of the medieval architecture of the northern regions of Western Europe. The tower houses a Swiss clock with four dials, made in 1887 by the Munich firm "Johann Mannhardt". The clock mechanism is still in working order. It can be viewed during tours of the tower, organized by the Chortkiv Tourist Information Center.

The "Lemkivska Svitlytsia" cafe, located in the Old Town Hall, offers national Lemko dishes (after deportation from Poland, one of the large Lemko communities settled in Chortkiv).