Guide · Walks

Walking routes

Four walks, each with a map, numbered stops and a short story at every one. Distances are approximate, measured on the map rather than on foot.

Important

Before you go

Sumy is hit by guided bombs, drones and artillery every day. If you are in the city now, install an air-raid alert app, know where the nearest shelter is and don't linger by damaged buildings. If not, save these walks for peacetime: the city is worth exploring on foot.

The walks

The old centre in two hours

≈ 3.5 km · 2 hours · 10 stops

From the Trinity Cathedral down to the Psel through every century of the city: Cossack Baroque, Classicism, the sugar barons' Art Nouveau and the Soviet Teatralna Square.

The art and local history museums and the Shchepkin Theatre were damaged in the strike of 13 April 2025 and are only partly open.

Trinity Cathedral 24A Troitska St
A smaller copy of St Isaac's, 1901–1914, with paintings by Nesterov and Petrov-Vodkin.
Church of the Annunciation 6 Troitska St
Neo-Gothic, 1901–1911, the city's only Catholic church.
Kharytonenko mansion 4 Troitska St
The main house of 1890–91, cared for since 2021 by the Hlukhiv reserve and awaiting restoration.
Resurrection Cathedral 19 Nezalezhnosti Sq
The oldest building in Sumy, consecrated in 1702. On 11 September 2025 a drone hit it during a service; no one was killed.
Transfiguration Cathedral 31 Soborna St
Its 56 m clock tower is a landmark visible from all over the centre.
Soborna St and the Sadko fountain 33–48 Soborna St
A pedestrian street with the old town hall, a commercial bank, the girls' gymnasium, a 1903–07 hotel and a 1910s cinema.
Pokrovska Square and the Altanka Pokrovska Sq
The carved 1900–05 gazebo over a former well, the symbol of the city.
Onatsky Art Museum 1 Pokrovska Sq
Founded by Nykanor Onatsky in 1920: Repin, Aivazovsky, Shishkin and Ukrainian artists.
Teatralna Square and the Shchepkin Theatre 1 Teatralna Sq
The 1980 theatre and the fountains renovated in 2020.
Kozhedub Park and the Psel 13 Kustovska St
58 hectares above the river: a Ferris wheel, the Student Beach and a footbridge.

The Kharytonenko mansions and sugar barons

≈ 5–6 km · 2.5–3 hours · 8 stops

In the footsteps of the family that made Sumy the sugar capital: a cathedral, mansions, a monument, the family necropolis and the cadet school.

The cadet school building is damaged and the school has worked from Khmelnytskyi since 2022. View it from outside only.

Trinity Cathedral 24A Troitska St
Commissioned and paid for by Pavlo Kharytonenko.
Asmolov estate arboretum 14 Troitska St
The park of a merchant's estate, about a hundred tree species.
Kharytonenko mansion 4 Troitska St
The head office of the sugar empire was here.
Ivan Kharytonenko monument Pokrovska Sq
Townspeople paid for it in 1899; the Bolsheviks destroyed it and it was recreated in 1996. Opposite stands a sugar cube.
Sukhanov-Sumovsky mansion 56–58 Petropavlivska St
Another sugar-making family, with a late 19th-century fence.
Philharmonic (Assembly of Nobility) 63 Petropavlivska St
The 1890–91 building where the local gentry met.
Central Cemetery and St Peter and Paul Church Sumskoi Artbryhady St
The 1851 church, the Kharytonenko family monument (1894), Antonin Croisy's 'Two Angels' over Zinaida Kharytonenko and the Sukhanov graves.
Cadet school Herasyma Kondratieva St
Founded in 1899 with Ivan and Pavlo Kharytonenko's money. Fighting took place here on 24 February 2022.

Chekhov in Luka

≈ 2 km · 1–1.5 hours · 3 stops

In the summers of 1888 and 1889 Chekhov and his family lived at the Lintvarev estate on the Psel. Luka's landscapes later appeared in The Seagull and The Wood Demon.

The museum closed in 2022 and its collection was moved. Phone before visiting: +38 0542 25-11-96.

Chekhov House Museum 79 Chekhova St
The estate's west wing where Chekhov lived; a museum since 1960.
Main house and east wing 92 Chekhova St
The main house of the late 18th to early 19th century and the 1820–21 east wing.
Luka and the Psel bank
A former village, now part of the city, where Chekhov fished and met local doctors and landowners.

The Psel embankment and parks

≈ 4–5 km · 2 hours · 7 stops

A green walk along the Sumka and the Psel: the children's park, Druzhba Park, Teatralna Square, the city's biggest park and Lake Chekha.

Kazka children's park Shevchenka Ave
Opened in 1985, with fairy-tale sculptures.
Druzhba Park along the Sumka
Laid out along the Sumka river from 1972.
Pokrovska Square
A break in the centre, with the Altanka and Soborna's cafés nearby.
Teatralna Square
Fountains renovated in 2020.
Kozhedub Park 13 Kustovska St
Given to the city by the Leshchynsky family in 1905; 58 hectares.
Student Beach Kozhedub Park
The city beach on the Psel. Check water-quality reports before swimming.
Lake Chekha across the Psel
32 hectares and up to 14 m deep: anglers and quiet 15 minutes from the centre.