Today's tale is about Zhytomyr, an ancient town known since the days of Kyivan Rus. What can you see in the course of four hours, and what impressions were left after an unplanned stroll around this regional centre in the north-west of Ukraine?
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| Zhytomyr. Soborna Square |
Zhytomyr will be remembered as a city of squares and museums, of historic buildings and monuments to famous figures, of fountains and flower beds.
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| Soborna Square |
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| Soborna Square. A flower bed |
A characteristic detail — the town has many street clocks, and that is important information for a tourist and for planning one's time efficiently.
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| Soborna Square. A clock with an electronic display |
The blitz-tour of Zhytomyr started on Soborna Square, from which several streets branch out and where government institutions are located.
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| Soborna Square. A fountain |
Since 1966 the central city square has been home to the Ivan Kocherha Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre. The repertoire of Zhytomyr region's main stage includes classical productions, modern plays, vaudevilles and fairy tales.
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| Soborna Sq. The Ivan Kocherha Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre |
The events in the regional registry office could make the plot of a melodrama, where lavish weddings not infrequently give way to the sad procedure of marital divorce.
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| Soborna Sq. The city registry office, the city court |
Zhytomyr has many monuments of sacred architecture, and from the square you can see the gleaming domes of many of them — it is easy to find your bearings when the excursion runs in the "wherever your eyes take you" style. The Seminary Church of St John of Dukla was built in the 1840s in the baroque style and holds the status of an architectural monument of national significance.
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| The Church of St John of Dukla. The Bernardine Monastery |
The Holy Transfiguration Cathedral, one of the most magnificent Orthodox churches in Ukraine, holds the same status. In the decoration of the interiors, the natural riches of Zhytomyr region were used — granite and labradorite.
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| The Holy Transfiguration Cathedral |
Zhytomyr has its own Podil, spread along the valley of the Kamianka River. A quiet Podil lane led me up onto Podil Hill, with underground passages discovered by local historians that can be compared to ancient fortifications. Right at the edge of the hill rises the Holy Dormition Church, known since 1700. Parishioners turned to the miraculous image of the Podil Mother of God, painted in the 17th century, in 1872 during a plague epidemic, and the rampant disease left the town.
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| The Holy Dormition (Podil) Church |
You can climb Castle Hill by the old narrow Sholom Aleichem Street, but I cut the corner and made my way through the Rudavka tract — sadly heaped with mountains of rubbish, and so there will be no photograph of this ancient part of Zhytomyr with its crystal brook running along the lowland.
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| Podil. Castle Hill. The Holy Cross Exaltation Cathedral |
On the site of the ruined castle, dated to 1392, a public garden has been laid out and a memorial sign put up in honour of the founding of the town in 884.
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| Podil. Castle Hill. The public garden. The memorial sign in honour of the town's founding |
On the Market Square (Soborna Square) a Town Hall was built in the 18th century. During the Second World War it was partly destroyed, but was later restored, preserving the architectural features of the neo-Renaissance and Empire styles.
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| 3 Kafedralna St. The former Town Hall. 18th c. |
I asked a woman walking by with her parcels what is now in the building. I always ask local residents what they know about the town's landmarks. The woman set several heavy bags down on the pavement, gave me an unfriendly look, and answered a question with a question: "And why should I need to know what was there and what's there now?"
The Reikartz Hotel, in the classical style and of "4-star" level, sits in the business and historic centre, on the corner of Kafedralna Street and Zamkova Square.
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| Zamkova Sq. The Reikartz Hotel |
For a long time Zhytomyr was part of states with different religious confessions.
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| Zamkova Sq. The monument to Pope John Paul II |
Alongside the Orthodox churches, services are held in active Roman Catholic churches. The Cathedral of St Sophia was founded in the middle of the 18th century. After the rebuildings it managed to preserve the wall paintings, the stucco moulding and the combination of the baroque, Renaissance and classical styles. The facade is crowned with a sculpture of St Sophia and two pointed towers directed towards the sky.
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| Zamkova Sq. The Cathedral of St Sophia. 1751. |
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| Zamkova Sq. The Cathedral of St Sophia. 1751. The bell tower |
The wooden Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was founded on Castle Hill in the 17th century. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries a stone one was raised in its place, which after the revolution of 1917 belonged to the Renovationists, supporters of the dictatorship of the proletariat. For many years it housed the nature-department displays of the local history museum, with stuffed animals and skeletons of the fauna of Polissia. In 2012 the church was handed over to believers.
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| Castle Hill. The Holy Cross Exaltation Cathedral. 1900 |
I did not manage to see the masterpieces of European masters and the other unique collections from the 150-thousand-item holdings of the local history museum, housed in the former mansion of the head of the Catholic diocese, because that day there was a stocktaking. But I chatted with a research fellow of the museum — and, by my observations, beautiful people work in museums — and on her advice I settled on a route for a further acquaintance with the notable sights.
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| 1 Zamkova Sq. The Local History Museum |
From Castle Hill I headed along Kyivska Street, on which the "Ukraina" cinema, built in the 1950s on the site of the governor's house, catches the eye.
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| Kyivska St. The "Ukraina" cinema |
By the cinema stands a charming sculpture of Lariosik, the "cousin from Zhytomyr", a character from M. A. Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard". There is no photo, because tourists always love to be photographed with stone likenesses of famous figures, to which one wants to remark: "It's a monument, after all."
From Kyivska I turned onto the Mykhailivska pedestrian street and then came out onto the large Velyka Berdychivska. On Liatoshynskoho Street, which adjoins Mykhailivska, one cannot fail to note a beautiful building with bas-reliefs and stucco moulding — this is the administration of the NBU of Ukraine in Zhytomyr region.
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| Liatoshynskoho St. The NBU administration in Zhytomyr region |
Velyka Berdychivska — an old highway and an ancient street, 3.2 kilometres long.
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| The corner of Mykhailivska Street and Velyka Berdychivska. The city council |
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| 28 Velyka Berdychivska St |
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| 33 Velyka Berdychivska St |
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| 32 Velyka Berdychivska St. The former Nobility Assembly building. Polyclinic No. 1 |
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| 32 Velyka Berdychivska St. The former Nobility Assembly building. Polyclinic No. 1 |
Today it is home to government institutions, residential buildings and educational establishments.
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| 2 Velyka Berdychivska St. The Motor-Road College (ZhADK) |
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| 40 Velyka Berdychivska St. The Ivan Franko State University (ZhDU) |
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| 46 Velyka Berdychivska St. The Nursing Institute |
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| 52 Velyka Berdychivska St. The Economics and Humanities Institute of "Ukraine" University |
On this street stand bust-monuments to three classic poets — O. S. Pushkin, I. Ya. Franko and T. H. Shevchenko.
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| Velyka Berdychivska St. The monument to O. S. Pushkin |
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| Velyka Berdychivska St. The monument to I. Ya. Franko by the university |
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| Velyka Berdychivska St. The monument to T. H. Shevchenko |
The Lutheran kirche was built in 1896 of red brick in the modernised Gothic style and is an original architectural monument. The building has been restored and belongs to Evangelical Christians. The complex includes a 25-metre bell tower and a new Sunday-school block.
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| The former kirche. The Church of Evangelical Christians. 1896. |
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| The former kirche. The Church of Evangelical Christians. 1896. |
At a bend, Velyka Berdychivska passes through Korolov Square. On it stand administrative buildings, the centre for children's and youth creativity (the former girls' gymnasium), and in the centre, since 1971, rises the monumental figure of the Zhytomyr native Serhii Pavlovych Korolov, the founder of rocket and space technology production.
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| Korolov Square |
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| Korolov Square. An administrative building |
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| Korolov Square. The centre for children's and youth creativity |
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| Korolov Square. The regional state administration and the monument to S. P. Korolov |
Onto Korolov Square runs the New Boulevard, with its "Hundred Jets" fountain and a bowl of ice cream made of granite of various colours.
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| New Boulevard. The fountain |
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| New Boulevard. Ice cream made of granite of various colours |
The Old Boulevard, with its benches and a fountain, adjoins Velyka Berdychivska.
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| New Boulevard. The fountain |
The last stop of the walk around Zhytomyr is at the former mansion of the Zhytomyr lawyer and notary Filippov, built in 1903 in the neo-baroque style.
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| 61 Velyka Berdychivska St. The former Filippov mansion. The Palace of Solemn Events |
This architectural monument served various organisations; it once housed a party school, whose head in 1920 was the future film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko. Before that the classic taught at the officers' school of the UNR, for which he could have paid with his life, but miraculously escaped it. Now the building at 61 Velyka Berdychivska houses the Palace of Solemn Events, and the talisman of these significant occasions — a doll in the national dress of a girl from Polissia.
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| The Palace of Solemn Events. The talisman doll |
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