Chatsky's Head Rock
A rock above the Teteriv in which people see a stone profile.
The granite rock on the left bank of the Teteriv in Zhytomyr rises about 30 m above the Zhytomyr Reservoir; together with the neighbouring rocks it forms a sheer wall about 120 m long, and its outline resembles the profile of a human face. According to the local historian Heorhii Mokrytsky, it is not a man-made sculpture but the result of the weathering of granite, and the rock is much older than the city. The name has been recorded in historical and topographical sources on Zhytomyr since the first half of the 19th century; most likely it was given in honour of Tadeusz Czacki (1765–1813), inspector of schools of the Volhynia, Podolia and Kyiv governorates and founder of the Kremenets Lyceum. Legend: the Cossack Chatsky, fleeing from Polish soldiers, leapt with his horse into the Teteriv and died. In 1967 the rock received the status of a geological natural monument of local significance. Nearby are the Monument of Glory and an observation deck on the reservoir dam.
Access is from the Monument of Glory via the observation deck on the Zhytomyr Reservoir dam. At the end of September 2026 russian drones attacked Zhytomyr twice: on the night of 29.09 strikes hit the city (Novyny Berdycheva, 29.09.2026), and on 30.09 two people were injured in an attack on the Zhytomyr community (Suspilne Zhytomyr, 30.09.2026).