Attractions of Sumy

Anton Chekhov's Memorial house-museum was created in Sumy in the noble estate of the Lyntvarov family (XVIII-XIX centuries), located in the Luka district.

In 1888-1889, the writer lived in the western wing of the estate - a one-story white house with six columns and a porch. The Chekhov used his Sumy impressions in the stories "Birthday", "Sad History", plays "Forester" and "Seagull". He wrote about the Lyntvarov estate: "The abbey and the Adriatic Sea are wonderful, but Luka and Psel are better."

The Chekhov Museum was opened on the anniversary of the writer's birth in 1960. The memorial exposition tells about Chekhov's life in Luka, about his medical care for local residents, about his creative work and trips to Ukraine.

The interiors of the living room and dining room, the guest rooms and the "Antosha's room", which served as Chekhov's bedroom and study, were restored.

Museum staff conducts local history tours.

The large eastern wing of the Lyntvarov estate, where the writer's family lived when Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin in 1890, has also been preserved.

Children's park "Kazka" is located in the central part of the city of Sumy.

On its territory, in addition to children's attractions, there are fairy-tale buildings and figures of fairy-tale characters.

In addition, a mobile zoo and a circus are regularly opened in Kazka Park, as well as city-wide entertainment events.

The Museum of History of Sumy Regiment of the Slobidske Cossacks was created in 2003 at the initiative of the public organization "The Sumy Regiment of the Slobidske Cossacks named after Herasym Kondratyev".

Located in a small office on the 2nd floor of a corner building on Voskresenska. The exposition of the museum reveals the Cossack history of Sumy region of the 17th - early 20th centuries. In particular, a fragment of the wooden palisade of the Sumy fortress, found during the reconstruction of Voskresenska Street, is presented.

You can also see a fragment of forged window bars from the All Saints Church of the Sumy Dormition Monastery, fragments of equipment of the entrance gate of the Sumy Fortress, weapons and equipment of the Sumy Hussar Regiment.

The pride of the museum is a color portrait of the founder of Sumy, Colonel Herasym Kondratyev.

A monument to the entrepreneur Ivan Kharytonenko stands on one of the central squares of Sumy.

A successful sugar factory and philanthropist, one of the richest people of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, Ivan Kharytonenko had a significant impact on the development of the city of Sumy. He and his descendants built hospitals, educational institutions, and other infrastructure facilities in the city.

In 1899, a monument to Ivan Kharytonenko by the sculptor Oleksandr Opekushin was erected on Pokrovska Square. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, but was restored in 1996.

The Kharytonenko estate in Sumy is located on the bank of the Psel River at the confluence of the Sumka River on the opposite bank from the city center.

The famous sugar factory and philanthropist Ivan Kharytonenko bought this plot in the 1860s. The estate built by him consisted of three buildings: a residential building (a little in the depth of the estate; Kharytonenko's house in Moscow, where the British embassy is now located, was built on the model of this mansion), and two service buildings. In addition, the estate included a fountain in front of the residential building and a park above the Psel. In 1912-1913, the office building of the trading house "Kharytonenko and Son" was built, which housed a polyclinic in Soviet times.

Currently, the Kharytonenka estate belongs to the Ukrainian Academy of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine, which is going to build a Palace of creativity and leisure for students here.

The museum-workshop was founded in Sumy in 2006 by the famous Ukrainian artist Leontii Kostur. The artist works in a style that he called his own surname - "kosturism". His mainly clay works, kosturs, tell about the everyday life and traditions of Ukraine.

The workshop is located in a house that Leontii Kostur inherited and converted into a museum-workshop. The museum exhibits more than 300 sculptures ("kosturs") and a significant number of paintings.

Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Sumy is the historical and administrative center of the city.

The city began from this place in the middle of the 17th century, when its founders, Colonel Herasym Kondratyev of the Sumy Slobid Cossack Regiment and Voivode Kyrylo Arsenyev, began to implement their plans for the construction and arrangement of the Sumy Fortress and its post.

In 1694, a wooden Mykolaiv church was built, which has not survived to this day. Already after the death of Colonel Kondratyev in 1702, the construction of the Resurrection Cathedral was completed, which is now the main decoration of the square. Mykolayivska and Voskresenska squares, formed around the churches, later merged into one.

For a long time, the square was called Petrivska because Tsar Peter I visited it on the eve of the Battle of Poltava. After the Second World War, the square was reconstructed, at that time it was named after Lenin. In 1991, it was renamed Maydan Nezalezhnosti.

The buildings are dominated by high-rise buildings of the regional council and the Sumy hotel.

The People`s Museum of the History of Mountaineering has been operating in the Sumy Palace of Children and Youth at the Abalakovets Club since 1977.

The museum's exposition is divided into 21 thematic sections, which present more than 8 thousand exhibits. These are photographs, newspapers, personal belongings of climbers, equipment, awards, flags, pennants, signs of the most outstanding ascents, memoirs, autographed books, reports, maps, diagrams, stones from the peaks.

All of them demonstrate the history of the development of mountaineering. In 2000, a new section "Ukrainian climbers on eight-thousanders" was opened.

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.

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 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.

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.