This project was created to explore and promote the architectural, natural and cultural heritage of Ukraine — from widely known landmarks to nearly forgotten places that survive only in local archives, community memory and little-known documents.
We gather materials on castles, manor houses, natural phenomena, sacred architecture, abandoned fortresses and living travel routes across the regions of Ukraine: Podilia, Galicia, Volhynia, Zakarpattia, Slobozhanshchyna, the Black Sea coast, Bukovyna and other historical territories.
For us, heritage is not just architecture. It is a way to understand:
- how people lived and defended themselves in different eras;
- why a particular castle or monastery arose in a specific place;
- how geography, politics, religion and trade shaped the landscape and its people;
- how places preserve the memory of events that long ago became history.
We aim to show Ukraine as deeper and more varied than common tourist stereotypes suggest. That is why the project focuses not only on well-known fortresses, but also on obscure ruins, natural anomalies, abandoned estates, cave monasteries, industrial landscapes and sites on temporarily occupied territories that must not be forgotten.
In our work we draw on:
- local history and academic publications;
- archival and cartographic sources;
- materials from local communities and museums;
- accounts from eyewitnesses and heritage custodians;
- contemporary research in architectural and natural heritage.
We pay particular attention to places that have suffered or are at risk because of the war and occupation. For many communities, preserving the memory of their home places has become a way of maintaining a connection to home and to their own identity.
The goal of the project is to create a space where Ukrainian heritage is documented, reexamined and made accessible to a wide audience: travellers, researchers, local historians, communities and everyone who wants to know Ukraine more deeply through its places and their stories.
We are open to collaboration, new materials and regional stories. If you would like to share information about a heritage site, a local legend or a local history find — we would be glad to hear from you.