Attractions of Dubno

The former church of the Bernardine monastery is the oldest church in the city of Dubno. The monastery was founded by Janusz Ostrogski in 1614. The temple complex in the early Baroque style was completed in 1630, already under the Zasławski princes.

Surrounded by defensive walls, the Bernardine monastery was part of the system of city fortifications of Dubno together with the Lutsk Gate. After the third partition of Poland in 1784, the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Bernardine monastery was transformed into an Orthodox church and rebuilt in a pseudo-Rus style.

In Soviet times, the building was used as a production facility. Currently, it is the Saint Nicholas Church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has been partially restored.

It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.The monument needs restoration.

The complex of buildings of the Carmelite monastery was built in Dubno in the early Baroque style during the time of the Zaslavski princes.

The church and cell building are connected by side facades, an arched gallery runs along the main facade.

In 1890, the Carmelite monastery was closed by royal decree. Subsequently, it temporarily resumed activity in 1921-1936. During the Soviet rule, the monastery finally ceased to exist.

In 1946, a cancer dispensary was placed in the former monastery buildings. Currently, it is an oncology hospice under the care of the Dubno Medical College. In 2004, with the consent of the head of the oncology dispensary, rooms were allocated here for the house church and for cells for the residents of the Holy Barbary Monastery of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.The monument needs restoration.

The ancestral castle of the Ostrogski princes in Dubno was built in the 15th century. Later it belonged to several other aristocratic families: the Zasławski, Sanguszko, Lubomirski, and Bariatynsky. Now it is the main object of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.

For centuries, the Dubno Castle remained impregnable - the fortress walls withstood repeated sieges by the Crimean Tatars in the 16th century, the Cossack units of Maksym Kryvonos, and the Russian army in the 17th century. During various wars of the 18th and 19th centuries, hetman Ivan Mazepa, the Swedish king Charles XII, tsar Peter I, generals Suvorov and Kutuzov visited here.

The Dubno castle is surrounded by a defensive moat, over which a bridge leading to the gate and the gatehouse is overturned. On the right is the Ostrogski Palace (XVI century), and on the left - the Lubomyrski Palace (XVIII century), in which the stucco work of the Italian master Domeniko Merlini has been preserved. In the 17th century, the castle was fortified with two bastions with towers designed by the engineer Voban. The "Maiden's Tower" is associated with the legend of Princess Beata and her successful shot from a cannon at the tent of the Tatar Khan, who was besieging the castle.

There is a whole system of basements and underground passages. They are, in particular, described by Mykola Hohol in the novel "Taras Bulba", the main action of which unfolds around the Dubno Castle. In one of the basements, there is an exposition of the museum of torture. Theatrical tours are held.

In 2024, the museum room "Reviver of Ukrainian Castles" was opened, dedicated to the outstanding Ukrainian art critic, long-time director of the Lviv National Art Gallery Borys Voznytsky, who at one time contributed to the restoration of the Dubo Castle.

There is a souvenir shop and a cafeteria.

The first Orthodox church in Dubno was built in the 16th century on Kampa Island near the Transfiguration Monastery, founded by the first owners of the city from the Ostrozky family.

The Transfiguration Church was first mentioned in 1592 in a letter of Prince Kostyantyn Ostrozky as "a creation of our ancestors". In 1643, a stone church was built on the site of the wooden church, which has survived to this day. In 1839, the bell tower was completed.

One of the medieval bells of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior (1572) is presented in the exposition "Our Spiritual Treasures" of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve, located in the Dubno Castle.

The Lutsk Gate is a three-tiered stone building that played the role of the western entrance gate and the forward defense tower - the Barbican, in the medieval system of Dubno city fortification. It was built in 1623 by the architect Yakub Madlayn.

This type of defense structure is typical for Poland and is not found anywhere else in Ukraine. Researchers assume that the Lutsk Gate was connected to the Dubno Castle by a wide underground passage. Later, the building lost its defensive significance, the gate was bricked up, and the street was built next to it. The commemorative plaque indicates that the restoration was carried out in 1785.

According to legend, at the end of the 18th century, a masonic lodge met in the Lutsk Gate under the leadership of Grand Master Mykhaylo Lyubomyrskyi.

Now the Lutsk Gate is used as an administrative building.  It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.The monument needs restoration.

The Dubno Great Synagogue was built in the 16th century. It underwent reconstruction in the 18th century after destruction during the Liberation War of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

Until the middle of the 19th century, Dubno had the largest Jewish community in Lutsk County, which flourished thanks to the "Dubno Contracts" fairs that were regularly held in the city. There were 15 synagogues and prayer houses, as well as a Jewish printing house.

The Dubno Great Synagogue was badly damaged during the First World War, but has survived to this day. It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.The monument needs restoration.

The Contract House on the market square of Dubno was built in the 19th century. The building is made in the style of classicism.

The place of the famous "Dubno contracts" was the city of Dubno in the 18th century, until they were moved to Zviahel, and then to Kyiv. Grand fairs were held annually during the month immediately after Christmas. Later, fairs were revived on a smaller scale.

Nowadays, the Contract House is a house of children's creativity.

The Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts "Art" was founded in Dubno in 1980 on the basis of the Dubno Higher Art Vocational and Technical School by the efforts of masters of industrial training and students of the profession "Wood and Birch Carver".

Over the long period of its existence, a unique collection of works of art has been collected in its fund - these are sculptures, panels, frames, plates, piggy banks, etc.

The State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno was created in 1993 to preserve the historical, cultural and architectural monuments of this ancient Volyn city on the Ikva River, and primarily the castle of the Ostrogski princes of the 15th century.

Dubno Castle in the late Renaissance style has not been completely preserved, but it still looks majestic, especially from the bank of the Ikva River. It has two powerful bastions with watchtowers, a gatehouse with a bridge over a dry moat, and two palaces - of the Ostrogski and Lubomirski princes. The authentic dungeons-casemates are wonderfully preserved. Fortress cannons, other ancient weapons, military ammunition, and much more are exhibited.

In total, the reserve includes 26 objects. In addition to the Dubno Castle, these are the Lutsk Gate (17th century), the Transfiguration Church (16th century), the Church of St. George (17th century), the Carmelite Monastery (18th century), the Bernardine Church and its cells (17th century), the Church of St. John of Nepomuk (19th century), the Synagogue (16th—17th centuries), the Church of St. Ilia (early 20th century), as well as a complex of administrative and residential buildings of the 18th-19th centuries in the central part of Dubno.

The reserve is engaged in the restoration of architectural monuments, creates museum expositions and exhibitions, conducts excursions for tourists, organizes scientific conferences, and publishes books.

The Cathedral of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Dubno was built in 1905 at the expense of the parishioners.

The ornate temple is made in a bright neo-Rus style, and the belfry is in the Rus-Byzantine style.

Previously, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, donated to the city of Dubno by Prince Kostyantyn Ostrozky, was kept in the Saint Elijah Church, but it was stolen. Now there is a copy in the temple.

It is the central cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the city of Dubno. It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.The monument needs restoration.

The wooden church of Saint George in Surmychi, a former suburb of Dubno, was built in 1700 according to the traditions of the Volyn school of church building in the Ukrainian Baroque style. It is located on a hill near the Ikva River.

The church is three-part, three-nave, on a stone foundation. The iconostasis is of great artistic value, in which there is an icon by the outstanding Ukrainian artist of the late 17th - early 18th centuries, Yov Kondzelevych.

Next to the church is a bell tower from 1869. It has five ancient bells, three of which are still in use.

Saint George's Church is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.

The parish church of Saint John of Nepomuk is the only active Catholic church in the city of Dubno. It was built in 1817-1830 by the local parish priest Aloiz Osiński on the site of an older church. There is a stone bell tower nearby.

During the Soviet rule, the gymnasium of the local sports school was closed and transformed.

In 1991, after Ukraine gained independence, services were resumed in the church. In 1994, the church of Saint John Nepomuk in Dubno was officially handed over to the faithful of the Roman Catholic parish

It is part of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the city of Dubno.The monument needs restoration.