Emblem of Tulchyn
Emblem of Tulchyn
Tulchyn is a magical corner of Podillia land. The town is located near Vinnytsia and now houses about 16 thousand people.
The first written information about Tulchyn dates back to 1607. This town was a trading post and played an important role both for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later for the Ottoman Empire.
In the document of the Lviv Magistrate dated July 3, 1648 the town was called Nestervar (Nestervar, in Hungarian) – Nester (Dniester) and – var (castle / city).
The origin of the name Tulchyn itself causes a lot of controversy. Hungarian and Turkish etymological roots seem the most likely. The town is located on the river Tulchynka, from which it got its name.
Famous local historian Dmytro Malakov settled on another variant – the version about the modified word “turchyn”. That is Turkish.
Zofia Potocka
Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki
In 1726 the governor of Kyiv Franz Salez Potocki received Tulcyin from a relative of Stanislav Vladislav Potocki, and even earlier these lands belonged to the Strusov and Kalinowski families. After death of the father the lands passed to his son – Count Stanisław «Szczęsny» Potocki. Thanks to him, the end of the XVIII century Tulchyn became the center of industry and crafts, high European culture. Tulchyn owes much to the Potocki family.
In 1782 Stanisław brings up in Tulchyn a real palace – a park ensemble «Khoroshe». The best designers and artists, builders and mechanics worked on the project. Here were the best varieties of trees, marble baths, and most importantly a theater where chamber baroque operas were played. At that time the Holy Assumption Stone Church (1789) is brought up by the priest Pavel Golubovsky in Tulchyn.
Potocki Palace, modern look
Holy Assumption Stone Church
At the beginning of the 19th century the House of Music School was built on the initiative of the third wife of the owner of Tulchyn Stanisław Potocki, the famous beauty Zofia. Later here was the department of public education, where M. Leontovych worked in 1920, holding the position of inspector of the department of arts.
May 17, 1787, on the occasion of the stay of Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski in Tulchyn, the town was granted the Magdeburg rights.
From 1793, when the second division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place, the town was part of the Russian Empire. From March 1796 to March 1797 the Russian commander Alexander Suvorov was in Tulchyn. And here at his time Alexander Pushkin stopped for the night. The building of the old post office is hardly preserved today. There is an allegation that Pushkin stayed exactly at this house.
Another point of interest for the history of Tulchyn is the mansion «Officers’ Assembly» which is located near the Assumption Church. It was built at the turn of the ХVІІІ-ХІХ centuries, according to the old-timers for the needs of a former officer corps. Now there is a museum of local lore. It visited many interesting personalities of the ХІХ century.
Museum-apartment of M.D. Leontovich
Producers Iryna Frenkel and Pavlo Tretiakov decide to hold an opera festival open-air at the Potocki Palace. For three years in a row, in Tulchyn performed the Kharkiv National Theater «Cxid Opera», Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theater for Children and Youth, for the first time in Ukraine could be heard soloists of Disney Entertainment, stars of German opera Steffi Lehmann and Martin Lattke, in 2018 exactly here the premiere of the opera in Ukraine «Straszny dwór» of the world famous Polish Royal Opera took place and that’s not all.
Valerii Korovii, head of Vinnytsia Regional State Administration emphasizes: «OPERAFEST TULCHYN is a significant event in the artistic life not only in our region, but also all over Ukraine. I call this festival «Podilskyi cultural iPhone», which appeared in the right place, at the right time, when in society there is a huge demand for good, creativity, sincerity. A creative team has been found to bring this incredible project to life. Together this gave an extremely powerful effect on the development of culture and directly to the community of Tulchyn. The great exhilaration, positive emotions and happy eyes of the Tulchyn inhabitants during the preparation for the festival are extremely inspiring. And it is very pleasing to realize that art has become the driving force here».
Thanks to the program of the Government and Ministry of Culture of Ukraine «Small towns are big impressions» in Tulchyn another project took place «Leontovych Art Quarter», which changed the city center.
From April 15 to May 30, 2018, the town of Tulchyn has become a large art workshop, where artists from all regions of Ukraine gathered (through open competitive selection) to create a creative cluster that revitalized town space and increased the tourist attractiveness of the region.
The project for creation of «Leontovych Art Quarter» envisaged work in three directions:
Murals (revitalization of facades of modern buildings);
Outdoor installations (revitalization of yard spaces and adjacent commercial and social properties);
Creating spatial installations on the theme of melody of the song «Shchedryk»;
The quarter was opened on June 8, 2018.
The same year the monument to «Shchedryk» was opened in the center of the town with the participation of Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman.
Third successful project to renovate the town becomes an awarded grant from the Government and Ministry of Culture «Small towns are big impressions» in 2019, within which the Museum-apartment of M. Leontovych is being revitalized into the Melody Museum of «Shchedryk». Thanks to the project the Museum is undergoing repairs and digitization of the museum stocks. The Museum now has a site with a virtual tour and a mobile version with audio guide.