Attractions of Kharkiv

The Church of the Annunciation of the Ozeryanska Icon of the Mother of God was founded in 1892 on the former outskirts of Kharkiv. Since 1874, there was a chapel at this place, where prayers were served during processions with the Ozeryanska Icon of the Mother of God (Hodigitria).

The new majestic Holy Ozeryanska Church designed by Volodymyr Nemkin was made of red unplastered brick in the eclectic forms of the Byzantine-Rus style. The facades of the building are full of architectural details borrowed from ancient Rus cult architecture. A slender four-tiered belfry with a height of about 40 meters is connected to the western vestibule.

In 1938, the temple was closed by the Soviet authorities, the episcopal chair was transferred to the Kazanska Church on Lysa Hill. Services in the Holy Ozeryanska Church in Kharkiv resumed in 1942.

A high-rise apartment building in the center of Kharkiv in the style of the "Stalin Empire" is called "House with a Spire".

It occupies an entire block on the corner of maidan Konstytutsiyi. It was built in 1950-1954 according to the project of the architect Petro Oreshkin for the employees of the Kharkiv Turbine Plant.

The main 7-story part of the building with an 11-story tower is topped by a spire, which gave the building its name.

According to the voting results in 2008, the "House with a Spire" was included in the list of "Seven Wonders of Kharkiv".

The memorial apartment museum of the Hryzodubov family is dedicated to the pioneer of Kharkiv aviation, pilot-aircraft designer Stepan Hryzodubov and his daughter - an outstanding pilot, world record holder Valentyna Hryzodubova. 

The Museum is a branch of the Famous Kharkiv Residents Museum.

The museum opened in 1970 in a three-room apartment, where from 1922 to 1965 the first Kharkiv aircraft designer Stepan Hryzodubov lived and his daughter, pilot Valentyna Hryzodubova, spent her youth. The museum's exposition presents almost 5,000 exhibits of the main fund, memorial items of the Hryzodubov family and personal belongings of other prominent people in aviation and cosmonautics, pilots, engineers, scientists.

The Memorial Museum-Apartment of the Hryzodubov Family is a branch of the Famous Kharkiv Residents Museum.

The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Recovery of the Dead" was built in 2006 in memory of fallen soldiers participating in local wars. The initiator was the Kharkiv Regional Union of Veterans of Afghanistan.

Initially, it was planned to build a chapel near the monument to internationalist soldiers who died in Afghanistan, but later it was decided to build a temple for 250 people. It was named after the icon of the Mother of God "Recovery of the Dead" - a revered image before which mothers pray for their dying children.

In the future, the temple complex should also include a bell tower and a church park.

Kharkiv Art Museum is one of the oldest and most valuable art collections in Ukraine.

It is located in two old houses in the style of classicism with elements of baroque and modernism, built in 1912 by the famous Kharkiv architect Oleksiy Beketov for the merchant and industrialist Ivan Ihnatyshchev.

The museum's collection was started in 1805 by the founder of Kharkiv University Vasyl Karazin, who bought for the university 2477 graphic works by Albrekht Dyurer, Anton van Deyk, Fransua Bushe and other Western European masters.

The Department of Ukrainian and Russian Art of the XVI-XX centuries is based on the collections of the Kharkiv Art and Industrial Museum and nationally used private collections.

Now the funds of the Kharkiv Art Museum have more than 20 thousand exhibits. Works by Ivan Ayvazovsky, Ivan Shishkin, Mykola Ge, Vasyl Surikov, Mykola Pymonenko, Fedir Krychevsky, Oleksandr Murashko, Yuriy Narbut, Tetyana Yablonska, etc. are exhibited.

A separate hall is dedicated to the work of Illya Repin. In particular, one of the versions of Illya Repin's painting "Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish sultan" is presented.

The museum offers audio guides for people with visual impairments, tactile replicas of exhibits for touch viewing (4 works from the collection) and a video tour in sign language.

The Kharkiv Children's Railway "Mala Pivdenna" is located on the territory of the Central Park of Culture and Recreation and the Lisopark.

The first train passed through "Mala Pivdenna" of Kharkiv in 1940. The length of the road is 3.6 kilometers. Initially, two stations were built: "Park" and "Lisopark". To celebrate the anniversary of the road in 2000, the railway station, track management and other buildings were reconstructed. The "Memorial" platform was also built. Two diesel locomotives - TU2-054 and TU7A-3198 - and two trains with six passenger cars each are currently in operation.

It works from May to the end of October (only on weekends in May and September-October).

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

During the Russian full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops repeatedly shelled the children's railway in Kharkiv. The attacks damaged the railway's rolling stock and buildings. For security reasons, train service on the children's railway in Kharkiv was suspended for the duration of martial law.

The Museum of the History of the Kharkiv Municipal Enterprise "City Electric Transport" was founded in 1976 to mark the seventieth anniversary of the enterprise. In 1978, it received the status of "People's Museum".

The exposition illustrates all stages of the development of electric transport in Kharkiv - from the first horse-drawn tram to the present. Photographs, documents, models of tram and trolleybus cars of Kharkiv that previously operated on routes, travel tickets of all times, composters are presented. You can also see a diagram of Kharkiv transport with promising lines in the museum.

The Kharkiv Fire and Technical Exhibition was founded in 1967. Has four branches: in Bohodukhiv, Izium, Kupyansk, and Lozova.

The exhibition, which presents exhibits from almost 200 years of the existence of the regional fire service in ten thematic halls, introduces the history of the Kharkiv region's fire service, the work of the modern State Emergency Service units, and allows you to gain knowledge that will help you act correctly in an extreme situation. The museum presents the uniform of firemen (chiefs of fire departments) of the past, old horse-drawn fire trucks, the uniform of firemen (chiefs of fire departments), special equipment, a signal bell that signaled an alarm, etc.

The Kharkiv Historical Museum is named after Mykola Sumtsov, a Ukrainian folklorist, ethnographer, literary critic and public figure.

It was on his initiative that the Museum of Slobidska Ukraine named after Hryhoriy Skovoroda was created in Kharkiv in 1920, which is where the history of the current museum began.

In Soviet times, the museum was located in the premises of the Holy Intercession Monastery, but in 2003 it finally moved to the building of the former pawnshop, built in 1908-1912 according to the project of architect Borys Korniyenko. During the reconstruction in 2021, a glass pavilion was added to it.

Currently, the stock collection of the Kharkiv Historical Museum includes more than 330,000 items. Archaeological finds from the excavations of Bronze Age settlements, a set of objects from the Ancient Rus period from the Donets Hillfort of the XI-XII centuries, numismatic collections, ethnographic collections, collections of weapons, flags, etc. are collected in four departments. In particular, the only Ukrainian hetman flag of the 17th century, which belonged to Ivan Mazepa and two other Ukrainian hetmans, is presented. Another key exhibit is the "Kharkiv Fortress" diorama, which shows the appearance of the city in the 17th century.

The outdoor area displays military equipment, including the British Mark V heavy tank from the First World War and the Soviet T-34-85 from the Second World War. The nearby metro station "Historical Museum" was named in honor of the institution.

The Kharkiv Holocaust Museum was established in 1996 on the basis of materials and documents from the personal archive of Larysa Volovik.

The museum`s exposition presents leaflets, posters of the occupation period, resettlement orders, various actions against Jews throughout Ukraine.

The names of 52 Righteous of the World - Kharkiv residents who saved Jews during the war, risking their own lives, are immortalized in the Kharkiv Holocaust Museum.

The mansion of the family of Kharkiv architect Oleksiy Beketov has been occupied by the Center for Science, Culture and Art "Kharkiv House of Scientists" since 1934.

Academician of architecture Oleksiy Beketov is considered a luminary among Kharkiv architects. In his work, he gravitated towards classical architecture, although he worked mainly in the Art Nouveau style. During more than half a century of work, he built about 40 buildings in Kharkiv, which largely determined the current architectural appearance of the city.

His own house in the former Myronosytskyi Lane is particularly elegant. The date of the start of construction - 1897 - is carved on the frieze under the pediment. The eclectic architecture of the building uses the forms of ancient Greece of the Hellenistic era. To the right of the entrance on the second floor there used to be a loggia, the entablature of which was supported by three caryatids. Multi-figure high-relief inserts are placed above the windows of the first floor. The second floor is framed by a colonnade of the Ionic order.

The ceremonial hall is decorated with stucco molding and a painted ceiling on the ceiling by the artist Mykola Uvarov. The dining room is painted in the style of ancient Russian terems by the artist Mykhaylo Pestrykov. Beketov's office is decorated with carved oak.

A central wooden staircase with carved oak handrails, lit by a large stained-glass window, connects the rooms.

The Kharkiv airport began operating in 1932 after the completion of the construction of the "Osnova" airfield and the airport's service buildings.

In 1933, he was given the name of Pavo Postyshev. In 1936, Kharkiv Airport was recognized as the best airport in the USSR. In the pre-war years, it was an independent self-supporting unit directly subordinated to the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation. Air routes leading to the Crimea and the Caucasus pass through the airport. The largest passenger plane of those years - the six-engine giant P-124 (ANT-20bis) made a landing in Kharkiv on its way to Mineralny Vody airport. In 1941, a concrete runway was built at the airfield. With the beginning of the Second World War, the personnel of the airport became part of the Kyiv and Kharkiv special air groups of the Civil Air Fleet.

The existing airport terminal was built in the post-war years according to a typical project developed by the Moscow Research Institute "Aeroproject" in 1951 (architects Elkin, Kryukov, Mitkevych). This project was applied in Lviv, Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Chelyabinsk and other cities of the USSR. The construction of the airport began in 1951, and its opening was dedicated to the pompous celebration of the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. From the outside, the building of the air terminal is distinguished by the increased grandeur characteristic of the "Stalinist" architecture of the 30s - 50s. The central entrance is decorated with an eight-column portico with a high parapet of a complex outline. An elegant octagonal turret with a slender tent and a spire topped with a gilded wreath rises above the building. The interiors are richly equipped with stucco architectural details and paintings.

In 2010, a new international terminal "A" was opened, and the old one was reconstructed and turned into a VIP passenger service terminal.

Kharkiv Literary Museum was opened in 1988 in an old mansion of the beginning of the 20th century.

The core of the collection consists of exhibits from the 1910s-1930s from the archives of Ivan Dniprovsky, Mariya Pylynska, Andriy Chernyshov (autographed books, correspondence of writers, photographs, personal belongings), original paintings by Kharkiv avant-garde artists (Nina Kosareva's collection), copies and originals of documents , which were transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (Khotkevych's criminal case, Les Kurbas's passport, etc.), memorial exhibits "Vaplite" and others.

In addition to exhibitions, tours and interactive programs, Litmuseum offers events in the evening hours: presentations, cultural discussions, meetings with artists, master classes.

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

On the night of March 1, 2025, as a result of the Russian attack on Kharkiv, the building of the Kharkiv Literary Museum suffered significant damage.

The Kharkiv Municipal Gallery began its activities in 1996 and became the first gallery of municipal status in Ukraine. The main direction of activity is work with contemporary Ukrainian artists.

In its exhibition policy, the gallery combines programs and exhibitions of masters of traditional painting, graphics, sculpture, photography with projects of contemporary art, new media. Artists of the gallery: Borys Mykhaylov, Vitaliy Kulikov, Viktor Hontariv, Serhiy Bratkov, Viktor Sydorenko, Pavlo Makov, Vachahan Norazyan, Eduard Yashyn, Oleksandr Ridniy, Hanna Ivanova, Volodymyr Kochmar and many others, as well as a team of young authors: Alina Kleytman, Anton Tkachenko, Artem Volokitin, Vitaliy Kokhan, Hamlet Zynkivskiy, Hanna Bykova, Konstyantyn Zorkin, Olena Polyashchenko, Olha Fedorova, Roman Minin.

The gallery has two exhibition spaces: the main hall (more than 100 square meters) and the ARTbasement (140 square meters), which specializes in youth and experimental art.

Kharkiv National University named after Vasyl Karazin is one of the oldest and largest universities in Eastern Europe.

It was founded in 1805 as Kharkiv Imperial University. The initiator was the outstanding scientist and educator Vasyl Karazin, whose name the higher educational institution bears today.

Count Severyn Potoski became the first trustee of the university, he formed the teaching staff. Initially, the university was located in the Governor General's house, later it was moved to new buildings on Svobody Maidan.

Over two centuries, Kharkiv University became the center of Ukrainian national cultural revival, played an important role in the development of modern Ukrainian science and culture, and turned Kharkiv into one of the leading intellectual centers of the country. Today, 15,000 students study at 20 faculties of Kharkiv National University.

The University includes the Botanical Garden, the Museum of Nature, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, the University History Museum, "Landau Center", "Yermilov Center", Henrikh Semyradsky Art Gallery.

From the first days of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian forces bombarded Kharkiv. Karazin University, which is one of Kharkiv's landmarks, was no exception to Russian missiles and projectiles. Some of its hulls are badly damaged. By the beginning of 2023, 25% of the university buildings have been destroyed.