Attractions of Kamyanets-Podilskyi district

The summer residence of the landowner Ihnatsiy Stsybor-Markhotsky in Otrokiv was built in the 18th century on the basis of the buildings of the Otrokiv Castle known from the 17th century (perhaps the castle was built in the 13th-14th centuries).

It was the most luxurious manor of the four owned by the magnate Stsybor-Markhotsky, the founder of the self-proclaimed Mynkovetska state, which existed in 1793-1831. Fragments of walls and a tower have been preserved from the medieval castle. The complex also includes a landlord's house, a forum, a triumphal arch, and an arboretum.

In Soviet times, the manor house housed a school, and other buildings of the manor were used for economic purposes.

Currently, the Stsybor-Markhotsky manor belongs to a private person. Restoration is underway. The annual festival of laser shows "Otrokiv" takes place here.

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.

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 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 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.

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 Khmelnytskyi Music School is named after Vladyslav Zaremba.

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

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.

The water mill on the Shatavka River in Makiv is an architectural monument of local importance. It was built in 1846, during the period of ownership of the village by the Ratsyborovskys. The Shatavka River, which gave its name to the neighboring village, once provided the work of local enterprises.

In 1966, the mill was rebuilt after a fire. An ancient bas-relief in the form of an animal's head has been preserved, which decorates a stone tablet indicating the date of construction of the mill.

In 1891, landowner Vasyl Zavoyko bought Dunaivtsi from Viktor Skibnyevsky. At that time, the city was considered a large industrial center and had the status of "Podillya Manchester". More than 50 cloth factories, a foundry and mechanical plant of Lellbach, a leather factory, and many manufactories operated in the town. In 1904, Zavoyko took the initiative to give Dunaivtsi city status, but the Jewish community stopped this process.

The palace, wing and park of those times were left as an inheritance from Zavoyko. The modest building of the palace is decorated with a wrought-iron balcony. Many old trees have been preserved on the territory of the park. The complex of lakes is surrounded by willow plantations. In the center of one of the lakes is a small island that can be reached by a footbridge.

With the advent of Soviet power, Zavoyko left Dunaivtsi, and the premises of his estate began to be used for the needs of a local hospital.

The chapel-mausoleum of the Zhebrovsky family is located in the old Polish cemetery of the village of Braha.

A small neo-Gothic church was built in 1905. Three representatives of the Zhebrovsky family are buried in the chapel.

A pentagonal defensive tower on a rock above the river. Zhvanchyk is all that is left of the once powerful Zhvanets Castle.

It was built by the Kamyanets chief Valentiy Kalynovskyi at the beginning of the 17th century, but the first fortifications here arose much earlier. As early as the 15th century, Lithuanians were reconstructing ancient fortifications.

The new Polish fortress, which had 5 towers, competed in size with Kamyanets-Podilskyi. In 1653, during the siege of Zhvanets, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, betrayed by the Tatars, decided to conclude a military alliance with Muscovy and went from there to Pereyaslav for negotiations.

At the end of the 17th century, the castle was destroyed several times during the Polish-Turkish war. The last attempt at restoration was made by the Lianskoronski nobles as their manor. The Russian government planned to build a large fortress here, but these plans were never implemented. Later, the castle fell into disrepair and was almost completely dismantled.

On the eve of the Second World War, the Pillbox "Stalin Lines" was built on the ruins.

The most picturesque view of the preserved tower opens from the opposite bank of Zhvanets.