Ukraine is blessed with utterly unknown places not only for foreigners, but also for local inhabitants. How unlikely is that? I mean, pshhh. How about trying out?
More than 20 places throughout the country have been gathered in this article, You have a great opportunity to visit them on the weekend. There is every likelihood, you haven’t even heard of some of them. Let’s decide a route and begin our journey 🙂
The Kyiv region
The Geonaut cave
The largest, and likely the only, cave in the Kyiv region Geonaut is located near the village of Khodosivka, 60 m long.
The Geonaut Cave is located between the cottage village (according to some sources the name of the village is “Golden Gate”) and the ravine.
Address: the Kyiv region, Khodosivka village
Khoetsky’s estate-turned-museum
An elegant building of the Art Nouveau style was erected in 1903 according to the V. Kulikovsky project for the Khoetsky nobleman family owning Tomashovka since 1810.
The building housed a secondary school during Soviet times. Nowadays both estate premises and territory are at the disposal of the Rizopolozhenchesky Monastery.
A mini-zoo, where ponies, ostriches, and various birds are kept, was organized by monks on the territory. Visitors are asked to wear a quiet style of dress (long skirts and headscarves for women, trousers for men) withholding from taking photos.
Address: the Kyiv region, Tomashovka village
The Flooded church
Some villages in the Rzhishchev surroundings were flooded during the Kanev reservoir creation in 1972. The half-flooded Transfiguration Church with a bell tower has been preserved on the site of former Gusintsy village.
It was built by the local landowner Gusinsky in 1812 (or in 1822, according to other sources).
The only way to get to it in the summer was water, but there was an opportunity to come across the ice from the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Rzhishchev in winter (intricate access if choosing the forest way).
The church remained dilapidated for a long time. Bank protection works began in 2009, the island level has been raised, and the temple reconstruction has been carried out. Nowadays there are some interior design works.
A long bridge links the island with the coast, where the Nicholas monastery has been recently established. There is a great opportunity to arrange a trip to the island using a motorboat from the Rzhishchev berth in summer.
Address: the Kyiv region, Gusintsy village
The Underground Monastery
It is officially considered that the Buda village was founded in 1755.
There was a cave monastery near the village anciently. Local residents believed that the monastic treasures were hidden in the caves in the 19th century. Some caves have been found the other day. Excavations are carried out in these caves at present.
Address: the Kyiv region, Buda village
Zhytomyr Region
The Uvarova’s palace
The Tereshchenko sugar manufacturer estate (1899-1900) — a palace of the Neo-Renaissance style (being currently a vocational school), a utility building, a fence with a gate, a park and a pond are in a fine state of preservation being located in a small village of Chudnovsky district in Zhytomyr region.
The palace is a dowry for the Fedor Artemyevich daughter Natalya, who married graph Sergey Uvarov, being the leader of the Berdichev district nobility.
The Tereshchenko estate is located in the village center. It is surrounded by an old park, stretched out in rugged terrain. The territory of the estate is railed with a metal fence having three-span brick gates.
Address: the Turchinovka village, Zhytomyrska Str., 6
The well-known Baranovsky porcelain
There are more than two centuries in the “Baranovka” porcelain factory history. The company has been producing tableware and related products from porcelain and ceramics since 1802.
The Baranovka porcelain factory often takes part in international exhibitions held in different countries: the USA, Canada, France, Germany, and the company’s products worthily receive the highest scores from both specialists and consumers.
The main ceramic factory products of the porcelain factory in Baranovka are canteens, tea and coffee sets made of porcelain. The manufacturing of other porcelain products is also possible on request.
The museum, representing the eventful history and enterprise products, also operates at the plant, introduces both rich history and enterprise products.
Address: the Zhytomyr region, Baranovka village
The Hanska and Honore de Balzac Palace
The Empire style palace with antique decor motifs was built in 1800 according to the Italian architect Bleriot project the Italian architect Bleriot graph V. Hansky, inheriting the Verkhovna estate from his father Jan Hansky.
The palatial manor-house with both palace and outbuildings, a large landscape park and a church-tomb was presented by the graph to his young wife Evelina from the Rzewuski family, being considered as one of Polands’ first beauties. Evelina kept up a secret correspondence with Honore de Balzac here, signing herself with the alias “Foreign woman”.
Presently, their first meeting took place in Switzerland, but the writer was able to come to Verkhovna only 15 years later, after Evelina’s husband had died. There is a table where Balzac wrote “The Deputy from Arsi”, “Petty Bourgeois”, “Theater as It Is” and the “Stepmother” drama in his preserved work-room on the second floor of the palace.
Unfortunately, the interior of Balzac’s bedroom has not survived — novelist’s portraits performed by his contemporaries are now exhibited there.
The rest of the palace premises are occupied by the agrotechnical college, where restoration is also underway.
Address: Zhytomyr region, Verkhovnya village
Neo-Gothic Church of St. Clara
The Тeo-Gothic church of St. Clara is located on the bank of a small pond in the Horodkivka village. It can be mistaken for a medieval castle from a distance.
There is a close interweaving of both Romanesque and Gothic styles, emphasized by the combination of wild stone with red brick in the building architecture, being quite non-relevant for Central Ukraine. The Church of St. Clara the construction initiator was the Polish writer-memoirist Yevgeny Ivanovsky, living in Halaimgorodok (the former name of Horodkivka).
The writer had a desire to build a temple in honor of his mother’s K. Ivanovskaya celestial protectress. He never fulfilled his promise, but bequeathed to do it when dying.
The Church of St. Clara was still built in 1912.
Nowadays the temple belongs to the Roman Catholic order of the Discalced Carmelites.
Address: Horidkovka, Shkolnaya Str., 40
Poltava region
Family tomb of the Zakrevskyy family
The pyramid in the Berezova Rudka village in Piryatinsky district of the Poltava region was built in 1898.
Such a family tomb was built by Ignatius Platonovich Zakrevskyy on his estate, who worked as the Russian ambassador to Egypt under the Emperor Alexander III for a long time. It was the employment in Egypt that gave him a great opportunity to become earnestly interested in the Egyptian pyramids’ history, as well as in the culture of this astonishing country.
A great deal of things was brought by him when coming back to his estate in Berezova Rudka: elements of both furniture and dishes, as well as a goddess Isis statue for the future ancestral pyramid-tomb.
The height reached 9 meters after the pyramid construction was completed in 1898. The entrance was guarded by a goddess Isis statue, a symbol of family fidelity. The inner surface was painted with quotes from the Bible on one side, and with Egyptian frescoes on the other one.
An altar with a large stone cross was in the center of this chapel. The iron brother stood at the top.
Thereby, the symbiosis of ancient Egyptian culture and Christian culture gathered head in the Zakrevskyy pyramid-tomb.
Neither the inscriptions, nor the frescoes on the tomb walls, nor the goddess Isis statue, nor the cross on the altar have survived to this day. Both frescoes and inscriptions were torn down in 1917, and the statue ended up in a landfill.
The mortar holding the bricks together was made according to old recipes, holding the masonry tightly. Thence, this monument was not completely destroyed.
Address: Poltava region, Berezova Rudka village
Pottery Center
The pottery glorified masters have both lived and worked on this land from century to century. About a thousand potters worked in Opishnya in the late 19th — early 20th centuries, whose products were exported to many countries.
The Museum of Pottery was founded in 1986 here, on the basis of which the State Museum-Reserve of Ukrainian Pottery creation took place. A unique scientific and educational complex, having no analogues in Ukraine, has been formed in recent years in Opishnya.
Such a variety of souvenir products as in Opishnya cannot be found in any country museum or preserve grounds.
Address: Poltava region, the Opishnya village
Cherkasy region
Maksym Zaliznyak oak tree
Maxim Zaliznyak’s oak in Kholodny Yar is one of the oldest oaks in Ukraine.
It is from 1000 to 1200 years old, according to various estimates. The Patriarch Oak grows on the southern slope of the Kirikovsky Yar in the Kholodny Yar tract on the outskirts of the Buda village.
It is the largest tree in Ukraine and one of the ten largest trees in Europe. Its girth is 8.9 m, height is 24 m. The trunk was hit by lightning six times. B. Khmelnitsky, S. Nalivaiko, T. Shevchenko took repose under its crown, but the tree was named after M. Zaliznyak, the leader of the Haidamak uprising who lived in these places.
The Zaliznyak oak is considered a symbol of the Cold Yar, as well as one of the symbols of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Address: Cherkasy region, Buda village, Kirikovsky yar natural boundary
Zamkova Hora in Chigirin
The remains of XVI Chigirin’s fortifications have been preserved on the Zamkova (Bogdanova) Hora (Hill) in the city center.
The small Chigirinska fortress, founded in the 16th century, served as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth outpost, later serving as a Cossack fortress. A stone fortification 200×150 m in size was surrounded by walls with both towers and bastions.
In 1677, the 120,000-strong Turkish army besieged the Chigirin fortress for 3 weeks unsuccessfully, and the Turks managed to recapture it only the next year, when they returned with reinforcements, 200,000 forces. Later, the Hetman I. Samoilovich Cossacks recaptured Chigirin with the help of the Moscow army of the governor G. Romodanovsky.
The fortifications were almost completely dismantled for building materials in the XIX century, when a quarry was set up on Castle Hill.
Now there is a park where there are reconstructed Doroshenko bastion (XVI-XVII centuries), a stone cross in honor of the Chigirinsky bastion defenders (1912), as well as the Kobzar monument at the foot along with other well-favoured sculptures.
The imposing monument to Bogdan Khmelnytskyi is installed on the top of a mountain 18.6 m high.
The Chapel of the Intercession Church is located at the bottom of a mountain, where the remains of the Cossacks are reburied.
The complex is a part of the Chigirin National Historical and Cultural Reserve.
Address: Cherkasy region, the Chigirin city, Zamkova Str.
Shevchenko Estate Museum
The Morinsky Museum Complex is a reconstructed rural estate where the coming Kobzar was born in 1814.
The original wooden outer storeroom was transferred to the estate from the neighboring Kerelovka (Shevchenkovo). The humble Shevchenko family lifestyle has been recreated in the residential buildings’ interiors.
There is a lovely view of the yard, planted with an orchard right behind the houses.
Address: Cherkasy region, the Morintsy village, Shkolnyy lane, 19
The Buchak Lake, Buchak
Blue Lake Buchak is a symbol of the all-conquering nature power over the thoughtless arbitrariness of uncomplicated humanity. It arose in the place of a giant hydro accumulator station foundation pit.
The Buchak village, as well as both valuable pre-Christian times’ historical and cultural artifacts, hectares of forests had disappeared under a thick concrete layer in 1987.
However, a lake with clear blue water, having a depth of about thirty meters and being filled not with Dnieper water, but with underground springs, was miraculously formed at this place. It is of astonishing beauty. Therefore, the water in the lake is both cool and spotless even during hot summers.
Lysukha, Babina and Moskovka mountains surround the lake. It was on their slopes that ancient Slavic settlements were excavated, as well as a great deal of ancient burials were found.
Address: Cherkasy region, the Buchak village
The Dakhovsky estate
Both architectural and landscape “Dakhovsky Estate ”complex is located in the Leskovo village, 5 km from the Monastyryshche regional center, Cherkasy region. It is an architectural and landscape monument of regional significance, occupying 89 hectares of land. The castle, an area with a deciduous park on the left bank of the Konelka river and a coniferous part of the park on the right bank, a dam with a reservoir and an “island of love”, a garden, and arable land are included in its complex.
4 generations of Dakhovsky Polish landowners, who owned Leskov and the surrounding villages from the 1770s to 1917, are the creators of this estate.
Address: Cherkasy region, the Leskovo village
The Engelhardt’s estate
The mansion was built by Baron P. Engelhardt in 1828.
Young Taras Shevchenko, serving as a Cossack in 1828-29 served with Engelgardt hid his children’s drawings on the territory of this estate.
Address: Cherkasy region, Budishche Str.
The Simirenko’s estate
The Yakhnenko-Simirenko family estate was founded in the middle of the 19th century by the P. Simirenko entrepreneur, who discovered the famous Renet Simirenko apple variety.
Address: Cherkasy region, Mliev village, Simirenko Str., 9
Shuvalov Palace
The Naryshkin-Shuvalov estate foundation in Talny in 1725 was laid by graph F. Pototsky.
A two-story palace in the form of Renaissance French hunting castles was erected by Peter Shuvalov in the middle of an English park which he laid out at the turn of the XIX-XX
Address: Cherkasy region, the Talne city
Vinnytsia region
Grokholsky-Mozhaisky Palace
One of the most amazing palaces in Vinnitsa region is located in the Voronovitsa village.
The Grokholsky-Mozhaisky Palace is both architectural and park complex built by the Polish magnate František Grokholsky at the end of the 18th century. Frantisek Grokholski was a political and public figure, as well as a great gentleman of virtue.
The Grokholsky-Mozhaisky palace was acquired by the captain of the II rank Nikolay Mozhaisky in 1869, (according to another version, he won at cards).
Sure, there was his brother, Alexander Mozhaisky, who also lived in this palace and invented the first world aircraft model with a steam engine.
Nowadays the Museum of Cosmonautics and Aviation of Ukraine is located on the territory of the Grokholsky-Mozhaisky Palace.
Address: Vinnytsia region, the Voronovitsa village
The Potocki-Sveikovsky estate
All that remains on the place of the once Pototsky-Svejkovsky the richest manor in Pecher is both Pototsky family tomb and a huge park.
There is a descent to the Southern Bug from the park, An amazing view of the water mill and the church on the rock opens.
Address: Vinnytsia region, the Pechora village
Sumy region
The “Round yard”
The “Round yard”, being one of the unique Trostianets buildings, was built in 1749.
It was planned as a defensive structure to protect against the Tatars from the outset.
There is quite a large (over 60 meters in length and 40 meters in width), being almost oval, fortress with blank high walls and four round towers around the perimeter.
The estate passed into the possession of Prince Golitsyn, who adapted the fortress for a summer theater in the middle of the 19th century. The courtyard served as a stage, and serf actors populated the towers. Seats for spectators were arranged along the walls in the ancient Roman amphitheaters’ manner.
Nowadays the “Round Yard” has been restored, and various cultural events are held here. A lovely park with the Golitsyn Palace (XIX century), an arboretum, lakes and wooden sculptures adjoins it.
Address: the Sumy region, Trostianets city
The Apple-plantation
You know, this unique apple tree is over 200 years old!
Local residents call it a “plantation”, “princely”, “twisted” and “lozovka”. The tree lurs tourists as it grows in the bush form – a real plantation of 15 related trees. The apple tree area is 0.1 hectares.
The plantation arised from a once-existing single maternal trunk, which does not currently exist. Nowadays, the main tree peculiarity is a unique reproduction way: the apple tree branches tend to the ground over time, rooting themselves. After that, new trees appear. The apple tree was planted by the gardener of Prince Petr Meshcherskiy, living in the Andreevka village, being buried in the very place.
Address: the Sumy region, Krolevets
Author: Svetlana Bondarenko