Day trip to Mezhyhirya
Mezhyhirya Grounds, Honka House & Garage
(Car, ESG, admission tickets and electric car services included)
Short 30 min drive to a village of Novyie Petrovtsy to the North of Kiev to the former residence of President V.Yanukovych. Upon arrival boarding an electric car for a private tour with a professional English-speaking guide. Mezhygorie occupies an enormous area of about 140 hectares and has been transformed into the Museum of Corruption or the Museum of Kitsch. Together we’ll explore a beautiful park with well-groomed lawns, beds with wonderful exotic plants and flowers, amazing clear water ponds with decorative fountains and other water features.
Found in the grounds close to the house are fine sculptures and numerous ponds (one with 50m long restaurant in the form of a pirate ship!), the extravagant waste was also extended to the ducks of the complex, they were provided with several specially designed duck houses! Private zoo once housed numerous exotic animals but most of these animals have been transferred to state zoos. In the days of V.Yanukovych this huge territory was served by about 2,000 persons and every day up keeping required approximately $75,000!
After exploring the grounds we arrive to the main feature of Mezhygorie – a wooden palace, which is called the “Honka” and in which V.Yanukovych lived for several years. The interior of the Honka was styled as an elegant English castle, with suits of armor lining the “Knightly Hall”. The interior is excessively decorated with all sorts of very expensive and mostly golden things and represents a real kitsch. Numerous valuables include pictures by famous painters; a great many 17th-century icons and ancient manuscripts and books were taken or simply stolen from various Ukrainian museums and Churches, have been returned back to the rightful location.
And at the end of the tour we visit the former garage to view the extensive collection of classic cars which includes an ultra-rare Horch 855 Special Roadster, one of only seven made. In addition to automobiles there are many old and modern bikes, such as, BMW R69S (1965), Harley Davidson Road King Classic (2009) and Boss Hoss (2012).
