Sivershchyna Travel Guide

The village of Tynnytsya is located in the headwaters of Malyi Romen river, eight kilometers from the district center – the town of Bahmach. For the first time the village was mentioned in written sources in 1659. In 1695 Hetman Ivan Mazepa granted it to the landowner Rebrykovsky, and later on to General Clerk of Cossack Army Vasiliy Kochubey. In the early nineteenth century the manor was already owned by the Galagans, who were in tight kinship with the Kochubeys. It was thanks to the representatives of these two families there appeared a unique landscape park in a picturesque corner of Tynnytsya.

The center of the composition is Kochubey’s manor house. This is a rare example of a country estate of XVIII century in Chernihiv region. The building is one storey, stone, rectangular in plan with a strictly symmetrical facades. The walls are decorated with rustic pilasters and vanes, windows are decorated with cases and sandriks. For the entire length of the walls above the windows of the house there is a profiled cover. The house has two entrances. Log west facade accentuated by rustic pilasters and semicircular niche above the entrance with the radial rustication on the contour. The second entrance is on the southern facade. The eastern facade bears evidence of reconstructions. It has semi-columns with non-traditional forms of capitals and sandriks probably placed around walled-up holes or niches. Here is also the entrance to the basement.
Nearby is a building without windows with loopholes, like a small fortress. People say that owners kept there clothes, books, uniforms, weapons, a portrait of Kochubey and even blood-stained shirt after the death of V. Kochubey.

Not far from the manor house there is a brick depository or treasury house that hid out in dense thickets of the park. It is the sample of civil architecture of the early XVIII century. The square, stone building was constructed in the form of romanticism and has two floors.
In 1917 the building was a fire and only in 1967 it was renovated. The reconstruction has significantly changed the original appearance of interiors and facades of the treasury house. But the facade facing the park has completely preserved the original form.

The manor park was established by Gregory Pavlovych Galagan in the first half of XIX century simultaneously with the park in Sokyryntsi village
Here in general terms has remained a complicated planning system that consists of several park areas with walkways. The architectural structure of the park is quite interesting : four alley – pine, maple, chestnut and lime – like the rays converge toward the center.

The Kochubey’s house is central in park composition. In front of its main facade there is a square regular part of the park. Alleys divide it into 16 small squares and in addition, there are two diagonally intersecting alley. Behind the house lays a landscape part of the park.
The park has a rich species composition of plantations. In addition to the centuries-old oaks, lindens, maples, ashes and chestnut trees one can find there such unique for our climatic zone trees as cedar pines with height up to 20 meters, older than 100 years. There is an ages-old black walnut.

Before the Bolshevik Revolution, the park was guarded and surrounded by an oak fence. Only owners could walk along its alleys as well as their guests, clergymen and teachers. The last owners of the estate were members of the family of countess Mariya Kochubey. In the 2 nd half of XIX century the manor was passed to her from Galagan. In early 1912 a large two-storey stone building was finished in the estate.

In 1921 the Agricultural school was organized on the basis of the estate and in 1979 trade school. One local legend says that in the postwar years when students were planting a new section of the park they dug out the treasure of gold coins. One of the students had disappeared with the treasure the next day.

Formerly the territory of the estate was 70 hectares. Now the park occupies 15 hectares, ponds – 3.7 hectares and a garden – 2,6 hectares.
At present,the estate is abandoned and requires restoration.
In the neglect and even density of the park one can feel a sense of light lyrical and romantic melancholy to irrevocably bygone era. The poetic charm of these places is stressed by surprisingly picturesque ponds, framing the park.