Attractions of Chernihiv region

Mezyn National Nature Park, also known as "Mezyn Switzerland", was created in 2006 on the basis of several landscape reserves along the right bank of the Desna River.

The area of the Mezyn National Nature Park is 31 thousand hectares. It stretches from Mezyn in the north to Horodyshche in the south and from Ponornytsia in the west to Rozlyoti in the east. In the floodplain of the Desna, many old houses and lakes have been preserved, the largest of which is Lake Khatyn (50 hectares). The park is home to 149 species of vertebrates: 25 species of fish, 9 species of amphibians, 3 species of reptiles, 93 species of birds and 19 species of mammals. Of these, 24 species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Among the monuments of archeology is the Mezyn Paleolithic site, the age of which is estimated at 20 thousand years.

The Mezyn National Nature Park Visitor Center is located in Desnyansk. A nature museum has been created here, where collections of insects, mosses and geological materials are exhibited. Also presented is a panorama of the Mezyn parking lot, a small ethnographic exposition, the museum room of Vasyl Kurylenko, the founder and permanent director of the Mezyn Archaeological Research Museum.

The Military History Museum in Chernihiv is a department of the Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum named after Vasyl Tarnovsky.

His expositions are dedicated to the participation of Chernihiv residents in the Second World War, in partisan detachments, tell about the fate of camp prisoners, the defense of Chernihiv region in 1941 and its liberation in the fall of 1943.

The exposition also reveals the contribution of Chernihiv residents to the liquidation of the Chornobyl accident and its consequences. In the courtyard of the museum there is a small exhibition of military equipment.

During the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the Military History Museum in Chernihiv was heavily damaged by shelling.

The museum "Chernihiv region - a journey through the ages" was opened in the village of Kalitianske in 2018 on the site of the previously established museum of the famous scientist and traveler Mykola Mykluho-Maklay.

The museum exposition highlights the history of Chernihiv Region from the pre-Christian period, Kyivan Rus, the Hetmanshchyna to the imperial and Soviet times, as well as to the present day.

Models of the most famous historical buildings of the region are presented, in particular, the palace and park complex in Kachanivka, the Transfiguration Cathedral, Yeletsky Holy Dormition Monastery, etc.

The museum complex "Cossack Manor" was opened in Baturyn in 2021 as part of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve "Hetman's Capital". It is located in the historical center of the city next to Hetman's Glory Square.

The preserved 20th-century hut recreates the life of a Baturyn Cossack family of the second half of the 19th century, which was engaged in traditional Baturyn crafts (milling, distillery, trade). You can see a four-chamber hut with a porch, a living room and a pantry, a well, and outbuildings (barn, cellar).

The exhibition, located in the barn, tells about the Baturyn milling complex from the times of Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky to the second half of the 19th century. Here are presented millstones from Baturyn mills of the late 17th - early 20th centuries, agricultural implements, carpentry tools, a hand mill that were used by a Cossack family in the 19th century.

In the courtyard of the estate there is a garden of medicinal herbs and a vegetable garden.

The museum complex "Lisohrad" in the forests in the north of Chernihiv region is dedicated to the local partisan movement during the Second World War.

In 1942-1943, the Chernihiv partisan units of Mykola Popudrenko and Oleksiy Fedorov operated in the Yelino forests. Near the village of Yelino, there was a whole partisan town made of dugouts, which was called "Lisohrad". From here, the partisans went on combat operations to destroy enemy garrisons and carry out sabotage on railways.

In 2010, enthusiasts recreated the partisan camp, restoring 3 dugouts and building 2 more. The partisan oven was also recreated, and the partisan well and trenches were cleared.

The exhibits in the dugouts allow you to feel the spirit of partisanship, to see in what difficult living conditions people had to live and defend their land.

The History and Local Lore Museum of the village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske was established in 1987.

The museum's exposition, which includes about 3 thousand exhibits, reflects the history of the origin and development of the village, tells about famous residents of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske and Chernihiv districts.

Separate sections are dedicated to the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske found itself in the zone of occupation of the Russian invaders. Having broken out the windows, the invaders broke into the museum and plundered the exposition of the ATO soldiers, damaged the ancient hand mill in the exposition of ancient household items and smashed everything inside the museum.

A monument to the famous Ukrainian painter Mykola Ge was erected in 1981 on the grave of the artist, who lived the last years of his life in Ivankivskyi farm (now the village of Shevchenka) near Fastivtsi.

Mykola Ge graduated from the 1st Kyiv gymnasium, studied at Kyiv and St. Petersburg universities, the Academy of Arts. He was one of the founders of the Association of Peredvishniks. In 1876, he moved to Ukraine, where he bought a small Ivankivskyi farm. A number of sketches of the Ukrainian peasantry and the nature of Ukraine belong to his brush.

Illya Repin, Lev Tolstoy, and Pavlo Tretyakov visited Mykola Ge's farm. Later, Mykhaylo Vrubel lived and worked on the farm (he was married to the artist's relative).

Mykola Ge died in Ivankivskyi in 1894, buried in the eastern part of the farm.

The monument was erected for the 150th anniversary of the birth of the artist and his wife, who is buried nearby. The current state of the monument raises serious concerns, because in the absence of care, it gradually decays.

The world's first monument to the outstanding writer Mykola Hohol was erected in Nizhyn in 1881.

It was here that the future writer received his education, graduating in 1828 from Prince Bezborodko's Gymnasium of Higher Sciences.

The author of the monument to Mykola Hohol was the famous sculptor Parmen Zabila, who himself was from Nizhyn. It is believed that the sculptor immortalized his profile in the folds of Hohol's cloak on the section of the bust, leaving his autograph in this unusual way.

The museum of the historian Mykola Kostomarov was created in the former manor of the landowner Mark Kysil in Didivtsi near Pryluky, where Kostomarov vacationed every summer from 1874 to 1884.

The outstanding historian, writer, ethnographer, folklorist and publicist Mykola Kostomarov came to Didivtsi for the first time at the invitation of his future wife Alina Krahelska, who at that time was already the widow of Mark Kysil, and the following year they got married here.

Here Kostomarov worked on the works "Autobiography", "Ruin", "Ellina Tavrida", "Mazepa" and others. In Didivtsi estate, Kostomarov hosted writers Vasyl Horlenko, Danylo Mordovets, artist Kateryna Junge, and kobzar Ostap Veresay.

In 2016, the Mykola Kostomarov Museum was opened in Didivtsi. The exposition was designed by the Chernihiv monumentalist artist Borys Dedov. The five rooms present the history of Didivtsi village, stories about Kostomarov's life and activities, his feelings for Alina Krahelska, the social and political situation at that time, and the Kyrylo-Mefodiyivske Society.

The memorial museum of the revolutionary-populist and inventor Mykola Kybalchych was opened in Korop in the house of the priest in which he was born in 1853.

Even in his youth, Kybalchych, who was fond of chemistry, became an underground revolutionary, working in the so-called "hell laboratories" where explosives were made. At the same time, he developed a diagram of the world's first jet aircraft, the drawing of which was scratched on the wall of a prison cell. In 1881, he was executed for an attempt to assassinate the Russian Tsar Oleksandr II.

A family of local artists - Olena Lukash and Mykola Hara-Zhuk - stood near the sources of the creation of the Kybalchych Museum in Korop. In particular, the museum exposition presents a model of the Kybalchych rocket.

The National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" unites 26 architectural monuments of national importance in the historical center of Chernihiv. Among them, six monuments of the pre-Mongol period are considered to be among the oldest in Eastern Europe. All of them are of exceptional historical, cultural, artistic and scientific value, which attracts the attention of tourists.

Most of the monuments are located compactly on the territory of the Chernihiv Rampart (Dytynets) and around, as well as on the nearby Boldyni Hills. Some of them house museum exhibitions. The open-air exposition is complemented by monuments to Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Prince Ihor of Chernihiv.

The administration of the reserve is located in the premises of the Chernihiv Collegium, which is an architectural monument of the 17th-18th centuries. The reserve staff conduct sightseeing tours of the territory of Dytynets and other historical places of the city.

The National Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" includes, in particular:
- Chernihiv Rampart (Dytynets);
- Savior and Transfiguration Cathedral;
- Saints Borys and Hlib Cathedral;
- Chernihiv Collegium;
- Regimental Chancellery;
- Piatnytska Church;
- Catherine Church;
- Yeletsky Dormition Monastery;
- Black Grave Mound;
- Boldyni Hills;
- Saint Anthony's Caves;
- Saint Elijah Church;
- Holy Trinity Cathedral;
- Introduction Church.

The Nativity of Holy Virgin Cathedral was built in Pryluky on the site of two ancient Pryluky churches that burned down during a fire in 1781.

Fundraising for the stone temple was announced immediately after the fire, but the construction was completed only after the city received funding from the royal treasury in 1802, as evidenced by a copper plaque with a commemorative inscription.

A new church with three thrones in honor of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God, Varvara the Great Martyr and Saint Oleksandr Nevsky was consecrated in 1817. It was built by a craftsman from Chernihiv region Fedir Zabolotskyi. Remains of oil painting from the beginning of the 19th century have been preserved inside.

Near the central portal stood a stone two-story bell tower, built in the best forms of late classicism (not preserved). Until recently, the building housed the department of the Chernihiv Regional State Archives.

In 2005, the Nativity of Holy Virgin Cathedral was returned to the parishioners of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary was built in Kolychivka near Chernihiv in 1778, completed in 1885.

A five-story wooden building with a vestibule and a two-story belfry. A three-tiered iconostasis with icons of the 18th century has been preserved. Inside the bell tower you can see ancient inscriptions.

The Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin is a little-known example of the wooden monumental architecture of the Sivershchyna at the end of the 18th century.

The wooden church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary is located in the village of Zahrebellia, a suburb of Sosnytsia ("behind the dam").

The single-domed, cruciform church forms a whole with a three-tiered belfry. The carved five-tier altar in the Baroque style was created in the 19th century. Paintings of the beginning of the 20th century, which were worked on by artists Mykhaylo Havrylenko, Yakiv Tymoshenko, Mykola Ovdiyenko, Yevhen Bazylevych, Hryhoriy and Yefym Velychkovsky, have been preserved.

The church is surrounded by water - you can drive up by car only in dry weather.

The brick one-story church of Nicholas the Wonderworker is located on the outskirts of Pryluky - Sorochyntsi district.

The temple was built in the middle of the 19th century in the style of Ukrainian Art Nouveau.