Myropillia. St. Nicholas Church. Preserving the Spiritual, Historical and Architectural Heritage

Like rays from the sun, the streets of Myropillia radiate out from the market square, where weekly fairs once bustled. Each street ended in a church. After the revolution, nationalisation, dekulakisation, Bolshevik reforms and the destruction of the spiritual heritage, the town turned into a village with a considerable decline in population. The only church that survived the upheavals of the 20th century is St. Nicholas Church in the Studenok suburb on Sumska Street.

Myropillia. Sumy region. St. Nicholas Church. 1885

Brailiv. A Cultural and Spiritual Centre of Podillia

The tourist sites of Brailiv are among the winners of the regional contest 'The 7 Wonders of the Vinnytsia Region'. I arrived by suburban train at this small settlement, located forty kilometres from Vinnytsia and seven from the junction station of Zhmerynka. The railway in these parts was laid at state expense — and colossal super-profits were made from it — by the railway magnate Karl von Meck. The financial tycoon acquired the town in 1867, owned a brick factory and a sugar factory here, did not stint, and built in Brailiv a snow-white palace in which his enterprising wife, the mother of 18 children, unfolded her patronage of the arts.

Brailiv. The palace of Nadezhda von Meck. Brailiv Vocational Lyceum

Zapsillia and Myropillia: Two Border Villages on the Banks of the Psel

Myropillia — a village in the north-east of Ukraine, in the east of Sumy region, 40 kilometres from the regional centre. This small settlement in the Sumy area has more than a dozen architectural monuments, but there are far more unique buildings that deserve attention and protection. St. Nicholas Church of St. Nicholas Monastery has an unusual design, the tallest bell tower in the eparchy and a rich history.

Myropillia. Sumy region. Krasnopilskyi district. St. Nicholas Church. 1885.

Poltava. The Ivan Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum. A Photo Tour and Video Review

The works of the writer and enlightener Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevskyi remain relevant and, in the 21st century, still find their way to the reader's heart. More than 200 years ago, in his much-criticised "Eneida", the Ukrainian playwright voiced a protest against the advance of the imperial forces of the northern neighbour and mocked the people's powerlessness to resist the enthronement of great-power ambition and the loss of Cossack autonomy. The classic of new Ukrainian literature was born, studied, worked and died in Poltava, and he wrote in the Poltava dialect of the Ukrainian language.

The Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum