Near the hotel SPA-complex Akvadar is a tourist pearl of Ukraine – arboretum “Sofiyivka” (Uman). The park has a long amazing and romantic history. Here you can walk along picturesque alleys, where every corner is the embodiment of images from myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, visit mysterious grottoes and waterfalls, see the gloomy underground river.
To numerous visitors and tourists, the arboretum “Sofiyivka” is known, first of all, as a tourist pearl of Ukraine, a museum of garden and park art, a place where you can plunge into the fabulous romantic world of nature, beauty and love. Why love? It’s very simple: the initiator of the park’s construction wanted to immortalize the name of his wife in this way. And he definitely did it. Half a million tourists visit Sofiyivka every year. However, first things first.
Sofiyivka: history of the park
Sofiyivka is a truly unique place, built with great taste and still impressive even to sophisticated tourists.
The park was founded in 1796 by the Polish magnate Stanislav Potocki in honor of his beautiful Greek wife Sofia and presented it on the day of her angel, in May 1802. Romantic, isn’t it? Amazing landscapes, exotic plants, antique sculptures, reservoirs, cascades, fountains, stone grottoes – all this harmoniously combines and creates a unique atmosphere of a fairy tale. The sculptures for the park were brought from different countries, including Italy and France. This masterpiece of park art. has been striking visitors with its beauty for more than two centuries. And it was built in record time – in almost four years.
When creating the park, the relief was used as skillfully as possible. The area is practically treeless, divided, at the same time, by the Kamenka River, numerous gullies and unique canyons. Both local and exotic plants were planted in various parts of the park. Today the collection of flora in the park is absolutely unique.
The main composition of the park, as mentioned above, runs along the bed of the Kamenka, where a number of pools and ponds have been built: Upper Pond (over 8 hectares), Lower Pond (about 1.5 hectares), waterfalls (one of them is 14 m high), locks, cascades, underground river Acheron (224 m long), fountains, and much more. The area of the park today is almost 180 hectares.
Thanks to the masterful arrangement of various types of wood, combining them with reservoirs, rocks and architectural structures, views and perspectives of different plans have been created – the Main Alley, the English Park, the Champs Elysees and others. An oak, about 400 years old, has even survived in the park – a mute witness to many events that took place in these places.
What to do in Sofiyivka?
Here you can book excursions, spend time with your family, for example, ride a segway, carriage or horseback riding. At your service are catamarans, ferries, the ship “Sofia”, boats and gondolas. You can also go by boat through the underground tunnel. There is also a cafe on the territory of the park where you can eat. We strongly advise you to get to Sofiyivka. For a small weekend trip, this is ideal.
It is best to come to Sofiyivka for the whole day – this is the only way to slowly appreciate all its beauty. Guided tours in the park run from May 1 to November 15. A visit to the park is paid, an adult ticket costs 100 hryvnia, a child ticket – 50. Tickets can be bought online on the park’s website. Please note that tickets must be used within seven days of purchase.