Trostianets Park, or "Neskuchne", is a park-monument of landscape art of national importance on the western outskirts of Trostianets. It covers 253 hectares of natural oak forest, through which a chain of three lakes stretches. Here grow oaks aged 300–400 years, about 30 meters high and over two meters in diameter, and hidden among the trees is the Grotto of Nymphs.
From the Nadarzhynskys to Koenig
According to the State Register of the Nature Reserve Fund, the park was founded in the early 19th century by the descendants of Tymofii Nadarzhynskyi, the confessor of Tsar Peter I, who hailed from Trostianets. Until 1917, the estate changed several owners — the Nadarzhynskys, the Korsakovs, the Golitsyns, and from 1874 it was owned by the sugar manufacturer Leopold Koenig. The first two lakes on the Trostynka River, from which the name of the town supposedly originates according to one version, were created by dams in the early 19th century, and the third in the 1980s. The total area of the water bodies is 18.4 hectares.
Oak Forest and Science
On the slopes of the park grow more than a hundred species of plants from forty families: oak, ash, linden, maple, birch, elm, and closer to the water — groups of black, Austrian, Scots, and Weymouth pine, spruce, and larch. In 1923, on the northern edge of the forest, Koenig built a house where the Krasnotrostianets Department of the Forestry Institute now operates — the oldest forestry research institution of its kind in Ukraine. Academics Anatolii Zhukov and Petro Pohrebniak began here, and well-known foresters worked.
In 1864, Pyotr Tchaikovsky visited Trostianets, admiring the local nature in a letter to his sister. The Trostianets forests were also described by the writer Anatolii Dimarov. Since 1990, the park has had modern conservation status and is managed by the Trostianets Forestry enterprise.
How to Get There
The park is on the western outskirts of Trostianets, near the village of Luchka. Trostianets is 55 km south of Sumy via the H12 highway, and there is the Trostianets-Smorodynne railway station. In the town, you should also see the 1749 Round Yard, the Golitsyn Palace, and the merchant Kurylos shop.
Things to Consider
Trostianets was under occupation in February–March 2022, and the surrounding forests were checked by sappers. Walk only on the paths. The town is located 35 km from the border with Russia — check the security situation before your trip.
