Shydlovsky Palace, Staryi Merchyk
A palace of 1776–1778 above a park of 1724, which burned down in April 2018.
The estate above the river Merchyk was founded in 1724 by Colonel Lavrentii Shydlovsky, and the palace was built in 1776–1778 by Hryhorii Shydlovsky — the architect most often named is Petro Yaroslavsky, a pupil of Bazhenov. The two-storey building with curved end walls is classicism that still remembers the Baroque; the English landscape park covers about 50 hectares. In the 1830s the estate belonged to Count Orlov-Denisov, in 1871–1918 to Yevhen Dukhovsky, and from 1920 it housed an agricultural school and a veterinary college. In 1999 the monument was entered in the State Register, and in 2001 it was sealed. On the night of 16 April 2018 a fire destroyed the roof and floors; the region lacked funds for conservation, and as of 2025 the palace stands as an unfenced ruin.
30 km from Kharkiv: bus from Kholodna Hora or suburban train to Merchyk station and 3 km on foot. Do not go inside — the building is unsafe.