Lilac Garden

Viktor Kochubey, a native of the famous Little Russian Cossack family, a well-known Russian diplomat treated very gently to the place where he was born - the village Dikanka Poltava province.

It was he who in the early 19th century, became manager of the estate Dykanka. On the outskirts of the village he built a small brick factory, next to which was dug decent size hole from which the clay was mined. Yama eventually grew to 5 meters in depth and area of ​​2 hectares. The factory was soon closed, and in its place was a pit.

And in 1822 the owner of the land Viktor, on the territory of the clay pit, which produce raw materials for its brick factory, decided to plant a lilac grove - a gentle beautiful flower garden, which is still in the spring of happy people with its freshness and beauty. However, the reason for this action is not so joyfully, according to legend, the prince wanted this act a little to please his seriously ill with tuberculosis young daughter Anna.

40 varieties of lilac in the form of seedlings brought to Dikan`ka from all over the world, take care of them staff of gardeners. The girl was shocked and went quickly, was on the mend. But lilacs bloomed, and Anne became worse. She died at the age of 14 years.

Until now, each year more than 200 years in early May and fragrant flowers in a lovely lilac grove Dikan`ka, becoming a place of tourist pilgrimage. A similar number of lilacs can not be seen in any corner of the world.

Dikansky lilac admired by many celebrities. Here, under the lilac bushes, the great composer Mikhail Glinka gaining local children in their chapel. Vladimir Gilyarovsky - writer and historian collected in these places folklore, stayed here Nikolai Gogol.

Alas, after the revolution Kochubiy emigrated. For lilac bushes was no one to care. Many varieties lost.

Today Lilac Grove Dikanka covers an area of ​​about 4 hectares. Since 1969, here on the shores of a beautiful lake, in early May, a festival "Songs of Lilac Grove." It is under the protection of the Office and the regional landscape park " Dikansky . "