Velyki Sorochyntsi

Mykola Hohol, whom the world knows as Gogol, was born at Velyki Sorochyntsi in 1809, and his first collection of stories opens with Sorochyntsi Fair, set in this village. The fair itself has been revived and runs for several days each August, drawing tens of thousands of people to a field of stalls, food, horses and staged scenes from the story. A museum in the village covers his birth and the family, and the church where he was baptised stands nearby.

Background

Records first mention the settlement in the 1620s, and in 1646 it passed to a Polish prince of the Wiśniowiecki family. Danylo Apostol, a native of the village, built the Ukrainian Baroque Church of the Transfiguration in 1732 and was buried in it two years later. The fair has taken place here since the middle of the 18th century, and in the time of the Russian Empire it was held five times a year. A monument to Gogol by the sculptor Ilya Ginzburg went up on August 23, 1911. The name may come from the Slavic soroka, magpie, or sorochka, shirt, and local legends tell of a magpie kingdom or a magic shirt.

Source: Wikipedia, "Velyki Sorochyntsi"

What you'll find

• The August fair - the revived Sorochyntsi Fair, several days of stalls and staging.
• The Gogol museum - the writer's birth and family in the village.
• The Transfiguration church - the eighteenth-century church where he was baptised.
• The iconostasis - the carved screen inside the church, unusually complete.

When to go

Late August is the fair and the only time the village is busy; dates are announced each year. The rest of the year it is quiet. Museums close on Mondays.

Practical notes

Outside the August fair there is very little here beyond the museum and the church. During the fair, accommodation for many kilometres is full and roads are jammed. The fair is heavily commercial.

Nearby

Myrhorod is west, and Dykanka is southeast.

Key facts