Attractions of Sumy district

The brick one-bath church of the Nativity of John the Baptist with a bell tower is located on the northeastern outskirts of Sumy, which has the historical name of the settlement of Luka.

The church is the main architectural landmark of Luka, it is well visible from the railway, from the Lypen hillfort and from the banks of the Psel River. The territory of the church is surrounded by a wall with two forged ornamental gates of the end of the 19th century.

In 1687, the Sumy colonel Herasym Kondratyev founded the John the Baptist monastery for girls in Luka, in which a wooden temple of the same name was built in 1691. The monastery was closed in 1787.

In its place, in 1837, a stone three-part church with a bell tower was built at the expense of the family of local nobles Lyntvarov as a parish church for Luka and the neighboring village of Baranivka. In 1907, two side altars were added to the church - the Holy Trinity and Saint John.

The Museum of the outstanding lyric poet of the 20th century, Oleksandr Oles (Oleksandr Kandyba), opened in the city of Bilopillia, the poet’s birthplace, in 1998 on the second floor of the Bilopillia Central District Library, which has been named after its famous compatriot since 1993.

A bust of Oleksandr Oles (the work of Sumy sculptor Yakiv Krasnozhon) is installed in the lobby of the library. In two spacious halls with a total area of ​​54 square meters, an exhibition is located, which includes 384 exhibits and tells about the life and work of the poet.

The first hall is dedicated to the Bilopillia period of Oleksandr Oles’s life. Thanks to the local bookseller Kostia Storozhenko, the museum has a photograph of the house where the poet was born in its then appearance. A photocopy of the entry in the church book of the Intercession Church indicates that little Oleksandr was baptized here.

The exhibition opens with a diorama of the central square of Bilopillia from the end of the 19th century. The museum's exposition is complemented by furniture from the end of the 19th century, which was kept in the apartments of Bilopillia's residents. The highlight of the museum is a samovar found in the Kandyba estate in the attic of a barn that has survived since those times.

The most valuable treasure of the museum is Oles's personal belongings transferred from the poet's archive by the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and lifetime editions of his works dated 1909, 1917, 1919, 1923, 1935.

A significant place in the exhibition is given to materials that highlight the life and work of the poet's son Oleh Olzhych (Oleh Kandyba), the stay in the Bilopillia region of Oleksandr Oles' grandson - Oleh Kandyba, who lives in Canada.

Oleksandrivska Male Gymnasium is the oldest educational institution in Sumy. An architectural monument of national importance.

Founded by philanthropist Pavlo Kharytonenko. The main building in the style of classicism was built in 1873. Later, a boarding house for 40 people was built for out-of-town students. Thanks to pointed towers, battlements, a pointed portal and the same windows, this building resembles a medieval castle. The hospital was built in the same style. Unusually beautiful stairs leading to the second floor of the main building and a two-light assembly hall.

Currently, it is the Sumy Classical Gymnasium, specializing in advanced study of the English language.

The Paleontological Museum in Sumy opened in 2025 at the Center for Ecological and Naturalistic Creativity of Student Youth of the Sumy City Council. Its exposition presents authentic objects of natural history of the Sumy region and other regions of Ukraine and the world.

In particular, the museum presents the largest collection of fossil invertebrates of the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene in the region. Also presented is a mammoth femur, found by one of the co-founders of the museum during diving training on the Seim River.

Today, the total number of exhibits of the Paleontological Museum exceeds 700 units.

The Park of Culture and Recreation named after Ivan Kozhedub with an area of 58 hectares is located in the center of the city of Sumy.

There are many attractions in the park, exhibitions, festivals and other cultural events take place regularly.

The modern stadium "Yuvileyny" is located near the central entrance to the park. The city beach on the Psel River is located in the southeastern part of the park.

The Pavlo Hrabovsky Museum was founded in 1964 on a non-profit basis. In 1994, the museum received the status of "People's Museum".

In five halls of the museum with a total area of ​​over 90 square meters, an exhibition is located, telling about the life and work of the poet.

The main place in the exhibition is occupied by stands with collected photographs and materials telling about the poet's life in the village of Pushkarne (the former name of Hrabovske): childhood, youth, populist activities, exile to his native village, as well as sending to the army, arrest on the way, meeting with Nadiia Syhyda in Butyrka prison, correspondence with Ivan Franko, years of exile (Viliuisk, Yakutsk, Tobolsk).

The most valuable exhibits of the museum are the personal belongings of Pavlo Hrabovsky, which were donated to the museum on the centenary of the poet's birth by the wife and daughter of his son Bohdan: a towel embroidered by his mother, a small bowl for his wife, and a toy mushroom for his son, all made by Hrabovsky.

A separate hall of the museum is dedicated to the ethnography of the region. It presents objects of ancient Ukrainian life: shirts, towels, embroidered shirts, jugs, pots, irons, combs, mortars, etc.

The brick Prophet Elijah Church was founded in Zasumka (a district of the city, which was separated from the old part of Sumy by the Sumka River) in 1836 on the site of a burned-down wooden church. After another fire, construction was suspended for a long time and was completed in 1845. In 1851, the church was consecrated in honor of the holy prophet Elijah.

In terms of its architectural composition, it is a common type of single-tiered cross-domed churches of rectangular plan in Ukrainian architecture, built in a classical style with elements of eclecticism. A four-tiered bell tower with the main entrance to the church is attached to the Prophet Elijah Church, which ends with a dome with a high spire.

The monument of refined sugar in Sumy was opened for the 355th anniversary of the city in memory of the former sugar glory of Sumy.

It is located on Pokrovska Square, opposite the monument to the sugar factory Ivan Kharytonenko, thanks to whom the city achieved prosperity in the 19th century. At that time, sugar began to be pressed into small cubes, and it was this form of the monument that was chosen by sculptors Viktor Dovholyuk and Oleksiy Shevchenko.

You can go down to the large refined cube on stone cubes to take a photo at the landmark, which symbolizes the wealth of the region. It is assumed that individual sugar cubes will be scattered throughout the city.

On the same day, on Voskresenska Street in Sumy, the sculpture "Baby Sweets" was opened.

The Church of the Resurrection in Lebedyn is a rare wooden church on the territory of Slobozhanshchyna, which has been preserved since the 18th century, although it has been rebuilt many times.

At first there was a five-chamber, cross-shaped plan, five-headed. Outside, it is sheathed with vertically placed boards with fasteners.

In the 1930s, the Resurrection Church was closed by the Soviet authorities, the bells were removed, the bell tower was destroyed, and the iconostasis was burned. Restoration has recently begun.

The Church of Saint Demetrius was built in Stetskivka in 1835-1846 at the expense of the landowners Savych. The temple is made in the style of classicism.

In Soviet times, the building was used as a granary, but during the Second World War, worship services were restored.

Currently, the Saint Demetrius Church is active. Restoration was carried out in 2002.

Saint Nicholas Monastery in Myropillia is one of the most striking architectural monuments of Sumy Region of the 19th century.

The five-tiered, 56-meter bell tower of the Saint Nicholas Church, which is the tallest in the region, attracts attention. The five-apsed brick temple in the style of classicism has a complex structure and an unusual shape.

Currently, the Saint Nicholas Monastery is active, restoration is in progress.

The ensemble of the Church of the Savior and the Transfiguration was built in the village of Vorozhba during the years 1885-1892 (according to other sources - in the years 1887-1890) according to the project of Kharkiv diocesan architect Volodymyr Nemkin on the site of the wooden church of the same name from 1778.

The Savior and the Transfiguration church is located in the central part of the village. It consists of two large brick buildings - a three-domed church and a separate belfry over the gate. It is a replica of the famous Slobozhansk architectural landmark of the Baroque period - the Church of the Intercession in Okhtyrka (1753-1768).

Currently, restoration works are underway.

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

On March 8, 2022, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the windows of the central church of the Transfiguration Church were damaged by the explosion of a Russian aircraft bomb. Inside, an analog, a throne, and partially destroyed church utensils were damaged.

Museum of History of Sumy State Pedagogical University named Anton Makarenko was founded in 1962 and is a subdivision of the department of social and cultural work of the SumSPU.

The museum has collected more than 8,000 exhibits that tell about the founding of the school in 1924, the periods of World War II, postwar reconstruction and development of education in the region to this day.

A separate exposition is dedicated to the creative heritage of the outstanding teacher, one of the founders of the system of child and adolescent education Anton Makarenko, who was a native of Sumy region.

The sculpture "Sweet Teeth Babies" on Voskresenska Street was installed in Sumy for the 355th anniversary of the city. This is a tribute to the sugar industry of the Khayitonenko family, thanks to which the city achieved prosperity in the 19th century.

The monument was created by sculptors Oleh Prokopchuk and Volodymyr Bukov. A bronze boy is eating sugar from a bag on a chair, and a girl is standing next to him. Any passer-by can join them by sitting down on a free chair.

On the same day, a monument to refined sugar was opened on Pokrovska Square in Sumy.

The village park in Velykyi Bobryk was established in 1815 on the territory of the estate of the landowner Yelyzaveta Rakhmanova.

The dominant feature of the park is a 35-meter-tall spruce tree, planted during the foundation of the park by the landlady's son, General Hryhoriy Rakhmanov, a participant in the war with Napoleon in 1812.

In addition to several 250-300-year-old patriarchal oaks, an alley group of lindens, several spruces, two pines, an ash, etc. have been preserved. The manor house has not been preserved.