The family whose name this estate carries claimed descent from Prince Sviatopolk the Accursed — the very ruler remembered in history as the murderer of …
The Sviatopolk-Myrsky Estate: A Manor Whose Owners Invented Descent from a Fratricide
Regions
Count Ksido’s Palace: A Castle Built on a Deaf-Mute Countess’s Dowry
A 26-year-old officer, Kostiantyn Ksido, married a 37-year-old countess, Kateryna Levashova — deaf-mute, no longer young, and unattractive by contemporaries’ accounts, but the owner of …
Sharivka Castle: A Neo-Gothic Gem That Treated Tuberculosis for Half a Century
Sharivka Castle earned its nickname “Sugar Castle” the honest way: the estate landowner Olkhovsky began building was later bought out by the Koenig barons, sugar …
The Voronin Castle in Bilokrynytsia: An Estate That Changed Hands Because of Someone Else’s Uprising
The castle in Bilokrynytsia came to Count Oleksandr Voronin not through inheritance or construction, but through a public auction in 1866 — after the previous …
The Tarnovsky Palace in Kachanivka: An Estate Whose Crypt Was Dug Up for Bones
Between 1925 and 1933, the Tarnovsky Palace in Kachanivka housed the Vorovsky children’s commune — and, according to accounts, the children played with bones dug …
The Vitoslavsky-Lvov Palace in Cherniatyn: An Estate Seized Over an Uprising
Ihnatii Vitoslavskyi, a Polish nobleman and crown quartermaster, built one of Ukraine’s rarest examples of Neo-Gothic architecture in Cherniatyn — a palace with crenellated cornices, …
Blazhkov House: A Mayor’s Castle Where He Was Executed in His Own City
Mykola Blazhkov, Kherson’s mayor and a member of Russia’s State Duma, built himself a “castle” near the city park with his own resources — and …
Bohunskyi Quarry: A Lake with a Thermocline Beneath Which Total Darkness Rules
At a depth of 18 ft (5.5 m), Bohunskyi Quarry hits a thermocline — a sharp temperature drop where warm, clear water turns icy cold. …
Yelyseiivka Quarry: Minerals Mined Since the German Occupation
According to one version of events, mining of the pegmatite deposit at Yelyseiivka began as early as the German occupation during World War II — …
Vilnohirsk Quarry: The “Dnipro Maldives” That’s Actually an Industrial Site
The “Dnipro Maldives” isn’t an official recreation zone — it’s an active industrial site: Vilnohirsk Quarry still mines zircon-rutile-ilmenite ore and quartz sand today, and …
Livadia Palace: Where Ukraine’s Fate Was Decided Without Ukraine
In February 1945, in Livadia Palace’s White Hall, the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the USSR held a conference that shaped the borders …