Stryi is a small provincial town with a population of about 60 thousand people located in the Lviv region. The exact date of the town foundation is not known. It was first mentioned in 1385.

Today, Stryi is a major railway hub of western Ukraine, and, at the same time, it is a cozy and quiet town. Let’s go through the center of Stryi – the most picturesque part of the town. Photos by: Igor Golovach.

explore the town of Stryi

Tags: Stryi city

Pidhirtsi Castle, sponsored by the Polish Hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski and built by Wilhelm Beauplan in 1635-1640, is a well-preserved Renaissance palace surrounded by fortifications. It is located in the east of the Lviv region, in the village of Pidhirtsi.

The castle has a square shape. From the east, south, and west it is surrounded by a deep moat and ramparts. The park, laid out around the castle, belongs to the monuments of landscape art of national importance. Pidhirtsi Castle on Google Maps. Photos by: alexdoomer2009.

take a walk around the castle

Tags: fortress · Lviv oblast

Let’s take a look at the central part of Lviv, known as the “capital” of Western Ukraine, from a bird’s eye view.

The historic center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lviv has the largest number of monuments of architecture in Ukraine. It is one of the most attractive cities for tourists in the country. Photos by: Oleg Stelmakh.

Rynok Square.

fly over the city

Tags: Lviv city

An elegant hunting castle-palace of the Counts Schonborn is located 10 km north-east of Mukachevo, in the Zakarpattia region.

In 1728, the Austrian Archbishop L.F. Schonborn received the vast land near Mukachevo as a gift from Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The new owners chose a picturesque Beregvar tract for hunting and built a wooden hunting lodge. In 1890-1895, E.F. Schonborn built a beautiful stone castle-palace in its place.

explore the castle-palace

Tags: Mukachevo city · Zakarpattia oblast

Neo-Gothic Church of St. Clare, located on the shore of a small pond in Horodkivka (Zhytomyr region), can easily be mistaken for a tiny medieval castle.

This architecture is unusual for Central Ukraine – close intertwining of Romanesque and Gothic styles with a combination of natural stone with a red brick.

beautiful church

Tags: Zhitomir oblast

Svirzh Castle is a castle located in a small village of Svirzh in the Lviv region. It is a unique monument of defensive architecture of the 15th-17th centuries. The castle, originally built as a fortress, lost its original appearance after the reconstruction made in the 17th century.

Despite its favorable defensive location – on Mount Belz, surrounded by impassable swamps and lakes – the castle with moats and a drawbridge could hardly have any significant defensive value because of the palace style of its architecture.

take a look at the castle

Tags: Lviv oblast

This is a great video to enjoy the beauty of ancient Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine.

Tags: Kiev city

Dzembronya is a small village located on the steep slopes of Chornohora Ridge in Verkhovyna district of Ivano-Frankivsk region, near the border with Romania. It is the most high-altitude village in Ukraine and probably one of the most picturesque ones.

Despite the fact that the population of Dzembronya is only about 250 people, the length of the village is about 10 km. There are no enterprises, collective farms, industrial facilities here.

beautiful mountain village

Tags: Ivano-Frankivsk oblast · landscapes

This wonderful landscape park was founded in the village of Buky in 1996. The village is located in Skvirsky district of the Kyiv region, approximately 110 km from Kyiv.

It all started when a local entrepreneur Ivan Suslov bought 2.7 hectares of land which was used as a dump. It cost him only 20 thousand USD. He was able to turn this land into a beautiful landscape park. It attracts thousands of tourists who come here to admire the beautiful countryside. Photos by: Igor Golovach.

visit the park

Tags: Kiev oblast

The building of the railway station in Chernihiv is a monumental structure built in 1950, in place of the building destroyed during the Second World War.

The station, designed in red colors, has visible elements of the Russian style of the early 20th century. At the same time, the entrance has some elements of Ukrainian Baroque. Photos by: camrador.

Stalin’s era architecture

Tags: Chernihiv city