The Chernivtsi region is very picturesque and rich in historical and architectural monuments.
Most often, tourists visit only the city of Chernivtsi, thanks to the well-known Residence of the Metropolitans of Bukovyna and Dalmatia, and don’t go outside the city in vain.
We’ve collected thirteen places in the Chernivtsi region that’ll modify your perception of travel in Bukovyna and the region as a whole.
Fascinating cities and sights of Chernivtsi region
Khotyn Fortress
The most famous, after Chernivtsi University, is a monument of the Chernivtsi region.
Khotyn Fortress was built in the XIII cent by order of Prince Danylo Halytsky on the site of elderly fortifications.
The fortress consists of four defensive towers, a palace, barracks and a church with fragments of the sixteenth cent painting.
For a long time, the fortress in Khotyn belonged to the Galicia-Volyn principality, and served as a defensive point of Transnistria.
A necessary date in the history of the Khotyn Fortress is the triumph of the Ukrainian-Polish army over the invincible Turkish army in one thousand six hundred twenty-first. But even after the victory, the city remained below the regulation of the Turks, who in the XVIII cent with the assistance of French engineers built a new fortress close to the castle, which could accommodate a 20.000-strong garrison.
After the Crimean War, the Khotyn Fortress lost its significance as a military site and, fortunately, survived well.
Its large walls served as scenery in such well-known films as “Zahar Berkut”, “The Ballad of the Brave Knight Ivanhoe”, “D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers”, “Robin Hood’s Arrows”, “Taras Bulba”.
Restoration was carried out to the one-thousandth anniversary of Khotyn Fortress. Mum expositions are open in the barracks: history of artillery, blockage weapons, numismatics, art gallery. There is a souvenir shop on site.
Khreshchatyk: viewing platform on Zalishchyky and Khreshchatyk Monastery
High cliff over the Dniester, which offers the most breathtaking panorama located on the opposite bank of the town of Zalishchyky, surrounded by a steep bend of the river. Here you can look at the road bridge over the Dniester and the dome of the Khreshchatyk Monastery.
Khreshchatyk Monastery was founded in the XVII cent by Orthodox monks who fled the Uniates of the Manyavsky hermitage.
According to legend, on the night of the feast of St. John the Theologian, a miraculous glow appeared over two healing springs. A cross was built on this place, which gave its title to the cave monastery founded here.
In one thousand seven hundred sixty-eighth, the Church of St. John the Theologian was built here and the Khreshchatyk Monastery was founded, which was closed by the Austrian authorities ten years later. In Soviet times, the monastery buildings were d as a campsite, and only in one thousand nine hundred ninety-first the monastery returned to its original form and activity.
Manor of the Orensteins
The estate with a large arboretum was founded in the XIX century by representatives of the wealthy Flonder family. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Flanders sold the estate to the Jewish landowner and patron M. Orenstein, who in one thousand nine hundred-twelfth founded the Storozhynets Arboretum with an area of 17.5 hectares. Since one thousand nine hundred forty-five, the Storozhynets Forest College has been operating on the basis of the arboretum..
Dovbush Cave in Pidzakharychi
A cave on top of a mountain over Pidzakharychi, named after the legendary folk hero Oleksa Dovbush. According to legend, in 1740-41 the boss of the Opryshki acted with his detachment in the area of Pidzakharychi and Rostka. This cave served as one of the rebels’ shelters.
Luzhky Nature Reserve
The Luzhky Nature Reserve is part of the Vyzhnytsia National Nature Park. Here you can see different rocks with vertical detachment of rocks, waterfalls on the river Vyzhenka and its tributaries. Here is a source of sulfate mineral water “Luzhky”.
Zubrovytsia Zoological Reserve
Zubrovytsia Zoological Reserve was established in one thousand nine hundred ninety-third as a space of settlement of a valuable species of wild Bukovynian fauna – European bison.
Currently, the area of the reserve is twenty-seven thousand hectares.
Manescu Palace
A tiny but very kind one-storey palace with a three-tiered turret is one of the most mysterious monuments of Chernivtsi region.
Neither the date of construction nor the title of the first owner of the palace is known. According to official records, the building is listed as “Manescu’s Palace” and dates back to the XIX century. But according to other sources, the estate was founded by landowner Giurgiu in the XVIII century, and the latest owner was the landowner Rutkowski.
Since one thousand nine hundred forty-one, the palace has hosted the Chortory Men’s Psychoneurological Boarding School. A two-hundred-year-old tulip tree grows in the manor park.
Palazzo de Zotte
The palace in the romantic fashion was built in one thousand eight hundred-ninth by the owner of the village, the Austrian Baron de Zotti. A massive two-story building with columns and a jagged tower seventeen meters high resembles medieval European castles. Around the palace is a park with an alley of lovers.
Since Soviet times, there has been a children’s music school, a lib located in the tower.
Rock “Wealthy Bagachka”
The Wealthy Bagachka Rock is located in the village of Ust-Putyla and is a geological pyramidal formation thirty meters high and twelve meters wide at the base.
“Wealthy Bagachka” is a very scarce form of weathering in the Carpathians. The rock actually resembles a human figure, or rather a woman.
Of course, beca of this different shape, the rock has a legend, the essence of which is that a very wealthy woman, having spared money for the peasants who die of hunger, petrified out of greed.
Pierced stones and Falcon’s eye
The “Pierced stones” is a grouping of rocks in the Bukovinian Carpathians close to the village of Roztoky. As a result of weathering, the 40-meter rocks formed many holes, they seem to be perforated.
The most impressive is the arched rock Sokolyne Oko – a scarce form of karst in the Carpathians. The arch at the top of the rock resembles the shape of the eyes, whence the name. At the foot of the cliff is a tiny three-chambered cave.
Huge Hook and Bukovina waterfalls
The cascade of Bukovynian waterfalls is located on the mountain river Smuhariv, which flows into Cheremosh on the outskirts of the village Roztoky.
The lower cascade waterfall is located within the village, four hundred meters above the track. To reach the largest and most pretty waterfall Large Hook (eighteen m) you need to walk 2.5 kilometers through the gorge along the stream. On the approach to the Huge Sound you’ll look at the waterfalls Cowber (3.5 m), Sich (10.5 m), Lower Sound (nine m), Gate (3.5 m) and Center Sound (10.5 m). Bukovyna waterfalls are a landscape reserve.
Shurdyn Pass
Shurdyn Pass is the highest mountain pass in Ukraine, one thousand one hundred and seventy-three meters high, with a stunning view of the Carpathians of Bukovina.
Cave Monastery in the village of Halytsia
Cave Galician St. Nicholas Monastery arose on the high bank of the Dniester in the XIII century.
The monastery is located in natural caves formed in the wall of a steep limestone rock on the slope of the Galician ravine.
This main complex includes twenty rooms carved into the rock with attached exterior walls, reminiscent of fairy-tale houses with pretty wooden windows and doors. The buildings are located on stepped terraces with stairways and arches. In some distance is a hermit’s cave. The terraces propose a stunning panorama of the Dniester.