Attractions of Rivne region

The majestic church of John the Baptist in the mature baroque style, which stands in the center of Dubrovytsia, was built at the beginning of the 18th century, after the wooden Catholic church built in 1684 at the expense of Yan Dolsky burned down.

According to other sources, the current church was built in 1695-1702.

After the Second World War, the church was closed by the Soviet authorities, but in 1992, after Ukraine gained independence, it was returned to the Catholic community of Dubrovytsia.

The Church of John the Baptist is an architectural monument of national importance. Restoration has been carried out.

The Amber Museum was opened in Rivne on the basis of the Rivne amber factory - the state enterprise "Amber of Ukraine".

The museum is located in the premises of the Rivne House of Scientists - a two-story mansion of the beginning of the 20th century in the Art Nouveau style.

Among the exhibits of the museum are pieces of amber up to 40 million years old, found at different times in the Rivne region, as well as jewelry and works of art made from it. In particular, the oldest amber product in Ukraine is exhibited - a disk-amulet approximately 2.5 thousand years old.

Stones in which ancient insects have crystallized are considered to be the decoration of the museum. A piece of wild amber weighing about 2 kilograms is presented.

The exhibits tell not only about the history of amber mining in the region, but also about the only enterprise in Ukraine that is engaged in its processing.

The Ulas Samchuk Museum is located in the same building.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary arose in Ostroh as a result of the development of the Orthodox Church, founded in the 15th century by Prince Fedir Ostrozky.

In 1442, the church was transformed into the church of the Dominican monastery. In those days, it was the main Catholic church in Ostroh, which had a large parish. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the church was repeatedly rebuilt and decorated with magnificent baroque altars.

In 1897, after a big fire, the church was rebuilt again at the expense of Roman Sangushko, this time in the classicist style with the construction of a bathhouse.

After the deportation of Poles by the Soviet authorities, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was emptied and closed; services were resumed recently.

The former church of the Bernardine monastery is the oldest church in the city of Dubno. The monastery was founded by Yanush Ostrozky in 1614. The temple complex in the early Baroque style was completed in 1630, already under the Zaslavsky princes.

Surrounded by defensive walls, the Bernardine monastery was part of the system of city fortifications of Dubno together with the Lutsk Gate. After the third partition of Poland in 1784, the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Bernardine monastery was transformed into an Orthodox church and rebuilt in a pseudo-Rus style.

In Soviet times, the building was used as a production facility. Currently, it is the Saint Nicholas Church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has been partially restored.

The Lutsk Tower in Ostroh was a key defensive element of the lower city, also serving as the entrance gate to Lutsk. This is one of the two surviving towers of the outer city fortifications.

Currently, the room is adapted for the exposition of the Book and Printing Museum (in 1580 Ivan Fedorov created a printing house in Ostroh, which published the first "Reading Book" and the first complete Slavic Ostroh Bible). There are also temporary exhibitions.

The complex of buildings of the Carmelite monastery was built in Dubno in the early Baroque style during the time of the Zaslavsky princes.

The church and cell building are connected by side facades, an arched gallery runs along the main facade.

In 1890, the Carmelite monastery was closed by royal decree. Subsequently, it temporarily resumed activity in 1921-1936. During the Soviet rule, the monastery finally ceased to exist.

In 1946, a cancer dispensary was placed in the former monastery buildings. Currently, it is an oncology hospice under the care of the Dubno Medical College. In 2004, with the consent of the head of the oncology dispensary, rooms were allocated here for the house church and for cells for the residents of the Holy Barbary Monastery of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Cultural and archaeological complex "Peresopnytsia" is a three-level constructivist building that resembles a temple.

Here is the Museum of the First Book, dedicated to the history of the creation of the Peresopnytsia Gospel, as well as a conference hall and rooms for archaeologists.

In particular, the exhibition presents a 9-kilogram facsimile copy of the Peresopnytsia Gospel and a model of the ancient Rus settlement of Peresopnytsia.

Nearby is the open-air museum complex "Prince's town": a reconstruction of a residential estate and fortifications of the 12th-13th centuries, when Peresopnytsia was the capital of a separate principality.

There is a permanent archaeological expedition in the village, which students and even tourists can join. The found rarities will complement the exposition of the First Book Museum.

The "Peresopnytsia Gospel" museum is partially adapted for people with disabilities: parking, mnemonic scheme, ramp.

The family castle of the princes Ostrozky was built in Dubno in the 15th century, then it belonged to several more aristocratic families: Zaslavsky, Sanhushsko, Lyubomyrsky, Baryatynsky.

For centuries, the Dubno Castle remained impregnable - the fortress walls withstood repeated sieges by the Crimean Tatars in the 16th century, the Cossack units of Maksym Kryvonos, and the Russian army in the 17th century. During various wars of the 18th and 19th centuries, hetman Ivan Mazepa, the Swedish king Karl XII, tsar Peter I, generals Suvorov and Kutuzov visited here.

The Dubno castle is surrounded by a defensive moat, over which a bridge leading to the gate and the gatehouse is overturned. On the right is the Ostrozky Palace (XVI century), and on the left - the Lyubomyrsky Palace (XVIII century), in which the stucco work of the Italian master Domeniko Merlini has been preserved. In the 17th century, the castle was fortified with two bastions with towers designed by the engineer Voban. The "Maiden's Tower" is associated with the legend of Princess Beata and her successful shot from a cannon at the tent of the Tatar Khan, who was besieging the castle.

There is a whole system of basements and underground passages. They are, in particular, described by Mykola Hohol in the novel "Taras Bulba", the main action of which unfolds around the Dubno Castle. In one of the basements, there is an exposition of the museum of torture. Theatrical tours are held.

In 2024, the museum room "Reviver of Ukrainian Castles" was opened, dedicated to the outstanding Ukrainian art critic, long-time director of the Lviv National Art Gallery Borys Voznytsky, who at one time contributed to the restoration of the Dubo Castle.

There is a souvenir shop and a cafeteria.

Dubrovytsia Historical and Ethnographic Museum was established in 1957 as the Museum of the Armed Uprising of 1917.

The exposition in 4 halls tells about the origin and development of Dubrovytsia in chronological order: "History of the ancient city", "Life and tools", "Our land during the Second World War", "Modernity".

Among the exhibits are works of art by potter Yevtukh Kulyk, master of folk art Ulyana Kit, photographs of the Counts of Plyater, copies of the pages of the Peresopnytsia Gospel.

The ruins of Korets Castle with a distinctive tower over the gate of red brick are the hallmark of the city.

The first wooden fortification was built in the 15th century above the Korchyk river by Prince Ostrozky. Later, the castle passed into the possession of Volyn Voivode Bohdan Koretskyi, who strengthened it with stone walls with towers and bastions, surrounded by an earthen rampart and a moat filled with water from the river.

In the 18th century, the fortress buildings became the basis for the construction of the palace complex of the Chartoryskyi princes. In 1832, the palace burned down and has not been rebuilt since then.

The three-level gate tower, the adjacent ruins of the outer walls of the palace buildings, and the three-pylon four-arch bridge (reconstructed in recent years) have been preserved.

Ladomyriia Ethnopark has been under construction since 2019 on the revitalized industrial territory in the town of Radyvyliv, Rivne region. It bears the historical Latin name of the Volyn Principality with the capital in the city of Volodymyr – Lodomeria, Ladimerie.

"Ladomyria" is an ethnographic complex, which presents three restored by authentic technologies wooden peasant houses aged about two hundred years, ancient looms and their new copies, elements of national costumes and costumes of different regions of Volyn region.

During the excursions, guests can visit the open-air location, the exhibition hall, which presents reproduced authentic costumes of historic Volyn, a weaving workshop, photo areas. Visitors are offered workshops on weaving and knitting traditional hats.

In 2024-2025, the exhibition "Schooling and Bookwriting in Volyn in the 11th-19th Centuries" was created in "Ladomyria". The interior of a classroom of a rural school of that time is recreated in an authentic hut. Old desks, a blackboard, an abacus, school textbooks, historical documents and photographs are presented. The interiors of the teacher's room and the scriptorium are also recreated.

There is also an Austeria cafe on the territory of Ladomyriia, where you can taste branded catfish dumplings.

The estate of the Lenkevychi-Valevsky landowners in Hoshcha is an outstanding monument of palatial modernism in the residential architecture of Volyn in the 19th century, the embodiment of modernist aesthetics in Volyn garden and park construction. The palace is an architectural monument of local importance.

At the end of the 18th century, Stanislav Kostka Lenkevych of the Lenkevych-Ipochorskyi family, to whom Hoshcha had belonged since the beginning of the 18th century, founded the Hoshcha estate with an English-style park and a one-story wooden house. In 1852 the estate became the property of Oktaviya Lenkevych, who married Count Mikhal Valevsky. Around this time, the current palace was built in the style of a Swiss chalet - an alpine house with half-timbered facades, an attic floor, a decorative tower and a balcony over a porch in Art Nouveau style. The last owners were the Russian landowners Isakov.

In Soviet times, the palace was greatly modified by adding a second floor, completing the second wing instead of a decorative tower and partially covering the facades with ceramic tiles, but the main facade remained close to the original. For a long time the building was used as a district library.

In 2017, the Lenkevych-Valevsky estate was transferred to the balance of the Hoscha village council, and restoration work began. Now the exposition of the Hoshcha Historical and Ethnographic Museum "Pohoryna" is unfolding here.

Hoshcha Park with an area of ​​7 hectares is a monument of landscape art of national importance. Among its greenery you can find a relict ginkgo tree, which is also called the "dinosaur tree". Also growing are marsh oak with a pyramidal crown, Schwedler's red-leaved maple, Weymouth pine with small silky needles and long narrow cones, Japanese sophora, which resembles white acacia but has no thorns.

The National Historical and Memorial Reserve "Field of the Battle of Berestechko" was founded in 1912 on the site where the largest battle of the Liberation War took place in 1651 under the leadership of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

A 100,000-strong Cossack army supported by 30,000 Tatars of Khan Islam III Girey fought near Berestechko with a 300,000-strong Polish army of King Jan Casimir II. Due to the betrayal of the Tatars, the Zaporizzhhia were defeated, losing according to various estimates from 10 to 30 thousand killed. As a result of the defeat in the Battle of Berestechko, Khmelnytskyi was forced to conclude the unfavorable Bilotserkivsky Peace with Jan Casimir.

In 1912, in memory of the tragic battle, the wooden Saint Michael's Church (XVII century), in which Khmelnytsky prayed before the battle, was moved to Zhuravlykha Island. According to the project of architects Volodymyr Maksimov and Oleksiy Shchusev, a magnificent temple-monument to Saint George was built in the style of Cossack temples with nine baths and an iconostasis brought outside (artist Ivan Yizhakevych). The so-called "balcony" church of Borys and Hlib is located on the second floor.

An underground passage connects the Saint Michael's Church with the underground chapel-tomb of Paraskeva Pyatnytsya under Saint George's Church, where the remains of the dead Cossacks are buried (in particular, they fill the hollow central pillar).

In 1966, the museum-reserve "Cossack Graves" was created. Today it is the National Historical and Memorial Reserve "Field of Battle of Berestechko". The museum of the complex presents finds made by archaeologists on the battlefield.

In 1991, a monument to Cossacks and rebel peasants was opened (sculptor Anatoliy Kush).

The Saint George Men's Monastery of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine operates here.

Lake Nobel is located in the floodplain of the Prypyat River in the north of Rivne Region.

Its area is 5 square kilometers, the depth is more than 10 meters. The lake divides the peninsula from north to south, on which the village of Nobel is located. The eastern (large) part of the lake is narrow and elongated from north to south, the western part is more oval.

The shores and bottom are sandy, very fragmented. There are four islands. There are crucian carp, tench, pike, perch, catfish, and crayfish. On the banks - nesting of wild geese, ducks and other birds.

Ostroh Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy is the first higher educational institution in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

It was founded in 1576 by Prince Vasyl-Kostyantyn Ostrozky and Princess Halshka Ostrozka (a memorial sign has been erected in Shevchenko Park next to the castle where the academy was originally located). The first printer Ivan Fedorov opened a printing house there in 1580, where the first "Bukvar" and the famous "Ostroh Bible" were published.

The first rector of the academy was Herasym Smotrytsky. Among the graduates are Hetman Petro Sahaydachny, the Nalyvayko brothers and others.

In 1624, after the founding of the Jesuit College in Ostroh, funding for the academy ceased, and in 1636 it was disbanded. Revived in 1994 as a state university. Today it occupies the premises of the former Capuchin monastery with the Trinity Church (1778, architects Paolo Fontana).

Simultaneously with the revival of the educational institution, the Center for the Study of the Heritage of the Ostroh Academy was established and the collection of materials for the creation of an exposition began, which was the beginning of the creation of the Museum of the History of the Ostroh Academy. Currently, the museum complex includes 6 exposition sections.

The iconographic collection of the museum is located in the restored university church. The collection is based on samples of Ukrainian and European iconography of the 18th-19th centuries, as well as works by the famous modern painter Yuri Nikitin and graduates of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. The icons, being exhibits of the academy museum, are also part of the interior of the temple.

During 1998-1999, the dungeons located under the temple and used as crypts (burial places) during the period of the monastery's operation were cleared. The interior of the crypts was recreated, the premises were museumified, and the dungeons became part of the museum complex.

In 2000, an exhibition of the history of the premises in which the modern Ostroh Academy operates was formed in the old monastery building (the former building of cells of the 18th century). The central exhibit of this hall was the discovered and restored monastery well.

During 2005-2014, an exhibition of old prints and rare books was formed in the museum. Since 2014, the collection has been located in the student and teaching church. It presents publications of the largest Ukrainian printing houses of the 16th-18th centuries (Lviv, Kyiv, Pochaiv), as well as rare books of the 19th - early 20th centuries.

The museum's art collection has been formed since 1997. These are mainly paintings by modern Ukrainian artists, as well as sculptures, artistic textiles and glass. Most of the paintings are presented in thematic collections and are exhibited in the corridors of the central building of the National University "Ostroh Academy".

Since 2009, the most dynamic exhibition unit of the museum has been operating – the underground art gallery, located in the basement of the former 18th-century Capuchin monastery.

A separate exhibition unit of the museum is the private ethnographic collection and a collection of rare books of the famous Ukrainian scientist, academician Mykola Zhulynsky.