May comforted with holidays. One of them was the European Day of Parks – a good occasion to mention so dear to Zhytomyr citizens City Park of culture and rest. Someone notices familiar: sweet cotton, attractions and suspension bridge. But there is something more interesting.

1. Park is a jewel in Zhitomir since before the Revolution of the last century. Well-known philanthropist Baron de Chaudoir built it in the XIX century in his estate, and it has created park with Baroque marble statues, pavilions and exotic plants. He became the basis for modern fleet.
2. According to statistics, every third man in Zhytomyr appointed first date “at Pushkin.”
3. Pedestal itself was rescued in times of occupation: bust miraculously disappeared when the Nazis wanted to install a bust of Hitler instead. “Zhytomyr Pushkin” was found after the war in 1946 in one of the city’s basements. Actually, it is the memory of the courage of ordinary Zhytomyr citizens.
4. Park just leads to romantics; there is rare ginkgo tree that blossoms on the planet for almost 350 million years, has heart-shaped leaves and is called the “tree of love”.
5. White colonnade in Tuscan style, which is ended by three avenues, has a unique feature – an odd number of columns. Cool place for selfie: background fountains or cascades, or wonderful views of the river Teteriv.
6. There is a wonderful park and a soft spot, which has long been “no man has gone before” place – pavilion for playing chess. In Soviet times, it has seen major battles where hundreds Zhytomyr-players gathered together.
7. Lonely statue of the goddess Artemis in the middle of the park for almost two centuries contemplated in Zhytomyr. It is the only one of all the sculptures that survived war and restoration.
8. Since 1982 the park has its Tu-104. The last time it saw the sky in 1957 and finally “landed” in Pioneer Park. That is called the part where is the plane and attractions.
9. Chaudor’s staircases lead from the promenade of Teteriv River to the park. They are built in the early twentieth century by mason Dlouhi. And if the famous Potemkin’s Steps in Odessa are known worldwide, ours are much less known, although the length is almost not inferior, smaller only half a dozen steps.
10. Another jewel – snow-white arbor that during 64 years of its existence has become a symbol of Zhytomyr.
I wonder what will be in the park in two hundred years?
Translated by Aliona Matushevich