Izium and Its Highlights

Izium is one of the oldest towns in Slobozhanshchyna and the third-largest in the Kharkiv region. The town's official date of birth is considered to be 1681, but the settlement arose much earlier. The town's coat of arms and flag depict bunches of grapes, and one version of the toponym's origin is linked to dried kishmish berries. But it is not vineyards, but expanses of pine forest, that frame Izium, the Oskil Reservoir and the blue ribbon of the Siverskyi Donets.

Izium. Kharkiv region. A view from Mount Kremenets

Sviatohirsk. A November Album. Routes and Landmarks

My excursion to the northernmost city of Donetsk region began at the railway station. Sviatohirsk station was opened in 1911; you can get here by train from Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Bakhmut. Suburban trains run through the station from Izium, Kramatorsk, Fenolna, Lyman, Kharkiv.

Sviatohirsk. Donetsk region. Railway station

Kramatorsk. Street Art, or a Street of Murals

Since October 2019, huge pictures have adorned the walls of buildings in Kramatorsk, executed so masterfully that they are indistinguishable from photographs. Dull pre-war buildings on Marata Street and two buildings on Akademichna Street were chosen for the street art. The large-scale wall paintings were created by professional artists, true wizards, invited to Ukraine from various countries.

Bila Tserkva. Historic, Touristic, Enchanting

Bila Tserkva is the economic, cultural and educational centre of Kyiv region. Travellers include this district centre in their route to see the largest and oldest arboretum in Ukraine, 'Oleksandriia', which has amassed the country's biggest collection of plants. But it is not only this man-made green expanse that draws tourists to one of Ukraine's most ancient cities. Bila Tserkva has about a hundred architectural monuments, fifteen of them with the status of national significance.

Bila Tserkva. Church of St. John the Baptist. 1816. Hall of organ and chamber music. Architectural monument of national significance