Getty Images/iStockphoto

Central Ukraine

Layered with dark fertile soil, Ukraine's breadbasket heartlands are split between forested Polissya to the north and the endless agricultural flatlands of Podillya to the south. Life isn't complicated in these parts; people work the land and fish the streams and, when it's time to relax, they head to the woods or, in winter, the banya (bathhouse). Some say this region epitomises the 'real Ukraine' and, frankly, it would be hard to argue with that.

The highlights include a clutch of fortresses, a missile museum, two seriously elaborate fountains, and the show-stopping island town of Kamyanets-Podilsky. In the 19th century the region was the heart of Catherine the Great’s Jewish Pale of Settlement, birthplace of both Hasidism and the Jewish shtetl. The Nazis obliterated most traces of Jewish culture, although a few old Jewish cemeteries and synagogues remain.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Central Ukraine.

  • Fortress

    Kamyanets-Podilsky Fortress

    Built of wood in the 10th to 13th centuries, then redesigned and rebuilt in stone by Italian military engineers in the 16th century, K-P's fortress is a mishmash of styles. But the overall impression is breathtaking and the view from the Turkish Bridge leading to the fortress would certainly make a short list of Ukraine's most iconic front-page vistas. The fortress is filled with museums and cafes, and in the summer concerts frequently take place in its vast courtyard.

  • Museum

    Wehrwolf

    Between May 1942 and July 1943, Adolf Hitler paid several visits (accounts vary) to his regional military headquarters in a vast bunker 8km north Vinnytsya. Code-named Wehrwolf, it was a top-secret facility under the protection of the Fuhrer's personal escort battalion. The Germans blew the whole place up on their retreat in 1944, and for decades it lay derelict. Now it has been turned into a fantastic walking museum, where informative sign-boards guide you through this disturbing period of history.

  • Museum

    Museum of Strategic Missile Forces

    It’s not easy to find, but deep in Ukraine’s agricultural heartland, 25km north of Pervomaysk, lies one of Ukraine’s coolest museums. Better known as the Nuclear Missile Museum, this was formerly a nuclear-missile launch facility. The highlight is the journey taking you 12 storeys underground in a Brezhnev-era elevator to the control room (extra 200uah).

  • Church

    Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul

    The Old Town's most prominent church perfectly illustrates how the Polish and Turkish empires collided in Kamyanets-Podilsky. Built in 1580 by the Catholic Poles, the Turks took over in the late 17th century, converted it into a mosque and built a 42m-high minaret. When the town was handed back to the Poles by treaty in 1699, the Turks stipulated that the minaret could not be dismantled. So the Poles topped it with a 3.5m-tall golden statue of the Virgin Mary.

  • Church

    Church of St George

    The historic Polish section is dominated by the 19th-century Orthodox Church of St George, with its five spires painted a brilliant azure. One gets here the way one always did: via a bumpy road leading down from the Vitryani (Windy) Gate in the northwest section of the Old Town.

  • Cemetery

    Jewish Cemetery

    Levi Yitzhak's mausoleum is in Berdychiv's huge Jewish Cemetery. For decades, with the exception of Yitzhak's mausoleum, the cemetery was overgrown and neglected, but these days it's well tended to by a Stakhanovite team of weed-whacker-wielding caretakers. What will strike you is the odd, boot-like shape of the tombstones, most of which bear barely legible Hebrew inscriptions and lie hideously askew or flat on the ground – evoking images, all-too-common in this region – of humans toppled en masse by Nazi bullets.

  • Park

    Sofiyivka Park

    Sofia Pototsky was a legendary beauty, and Uman's stunning park is her husband Count Felix's monument to her physical perfection. Having bought Sofia for two million zloty from her former husband (she had been sold into slavery at an early age by her parents), the Polish count set to landscaping this 150-hectare site with grottoes, lakes, waterfalls, fountains, pavilions and 500 species of tree. The result, completed in 1802, was Ukraine's answer to Versailles.

  • Museum

    Korolyov Cosmonaut Museum

    Named after acclaimed Soviet rocket engineer and local lad Sergei Korolyov, this surprisingly well-curated museum is famous across the former Soviet Union. Suitably space-aged music plays and fake stars glimmer as you walk around a dark hall packed with assorted mementos of the Soviet space program, including several satellites, a lunar ranger and an actual Soyuz rocket.

  • Fountain

    Roshen Fountain

    Ukraine's original big-time spray show (since 2011), the Roshen Fountain lights up the Pivdenny Buh River every night in the mild months. Built by the Roshen chocolate company next to its shiny new factory (billionaire owner Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's Willy Wonka before he became president, was brought up in Vinnytsya), it's the biggest floating fountain in Europe. It features lasers, holograms and dozens of water jets – a truly amazing spectacle when in full son-et-lumière mode.