Sivershchyna Travel Guide

address: Trostianets village, Ichnya district, Chernihiv region, Ukraine Tel.: +38 04633 2-47-58

open hours: daily from 08:00 till 17:00 avaliable excursions in foreign languages:

Dendrology Park “Trostyanets ” is a magical nook of landscape art and a living museum which is well-known far beyond of Ukraine.

In 1820 a descendant of Hetman Skoropadsky, Ivan Mikhailovich Skoropadsky (1804-87) bought the village of Trostyanets in Ichnya district of Chernihiv region and created there a huge regular park that became not worse than that of Peterhof outside St. Petersburg. The place was visited by scientists, nature lovers from all over the world who used to bring with them new seedlings for such a wonderful park which stretched for over more than two hundred acres. The territory of future park initially was a plowed plain and a swampy valley located nearby while the nearest forest plantations were withing 6-10 km.

The planting of groups of pine and poplar trees with lawns in between started in 1836. Later on those lawns were planted with rare species of valuable trees. The collection was enriched with exotic plant species that were brought from Riga, St. Petersburg, Paris, Kiev and Karazinsky acclimatization garden.

Compositional arrangement of Trostianets Park is very original. Apparently it is just a forest on the background of monotonous valley but in the center it is a “mountain” country with large hills and lakes.

Another characteristic of Trostyanets is its rich flora represented by a large number of conifers and deciduous plants. The conifers play a special role in the formation of artistic appearance of the park. Trostyanets dendro is valuable for the abundance of evergreen coniferous trees and shrubs. They create park landscapes of high decorative vividness all the year round. Centuries-old trees are represented in Trostyanets by 119 species and forms of woody plants.
Exotic species play the decisive role in landscape design. They help to convey artistic effect of park expositions and emphasize decorative properties of the main species.

In 1850-ies the area of the park had gradually increased. The project of the park was arranged by well-known Russian masters brothers Yevstigneyevs. In 1857 the Trostyanets gardener became Karl Shlinglof a scientist-gardener who was born in Alsace. He continued the creation of the park.

In 1858 the creation of the park entered a new stage. The park started to extend not only in size but also in the height. High mounds called “Mountains” were built (some of them “Storozhevaya” (Watchtower), Rotunda, “Mokhnataya” (Bushy) have a height of more than 30 meters). There was created mountain landscape with acute peaks that resembled the Alps. Between the “mountains” twisted ravines with bridges over them.

The slopes of the “mountains” were strengthened and decorated with evergreen plants Cossack juniper which people used to call “green flame”. One of the most beautiful sites of the park called “Switzerland” had been created within 30 years.

In the park there are 4 stone Kurgan stelae and the Column of Sorrow called “Broken Hope”. Such columns were typical for many parks of that time. There is no any information when and for what reason the column was placed but one can assume that Ivan Mikhailovich perpetuate in such a way his sorrow about his sisters and brother who died at the age of 16 – 27 years.

A large number of lawns and open space is characteristic for park architecture of Trostyanets. Some lawns have their own names: Vestibule lawn, the Lawn of giant Tui, “Eight Brothers”, Walnut lawn, the lawn “Three Sisters”, Monumental lawn, Sunny Glade, larch avenue etc.

Some trees in the park have turned into real monuments. They are: the fur -tree of a queen, thuja “The Cap of Monomakh and others. There are giant trees, which reach heights of forty meters as well as dwarf trees. Trostyanets park is also known for its fauna. You can see there the muskrat and otter, roe deer are found, fox, marten, badger. Here, there are tens of species of birds and hundreds of species of insects.

Unfortunately the architectural buildings in the park almost have not preserved, but the park itself is a veritable museum of nature, highly artistic example of park creation.