Sofiyivka National Dendrological Park is a park, a research institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, located in the northern part of the city of Uman, Cherkasy region of Ukraine, on the banks of the Kamenka River. Today it is a place of rest. About 500 thousand people visit it every year. The area is 179.2 hectares.

Sofiyivka Park was founded in 1796 by the owner of the city of Uman, the Polish magnate Stanislav Pototsky, named after his wife Sophia Witt-Pototsky and presented to her on her name day in May 1802. The Polish military engineer Ludwig Metzel was appointed the author of the topographic and architectural design and the leader of the construction of the park, and all the work in the park was carried out directly by the serfs of Uman.
The park was created in an almost treeless area, divided by the Kamenka River, ravines and canyons that cut into the granite, which often came to the surface. When creating the park, the relief was skillfully used, but without a predetermined plan. In the process of completing the work, local and exotic trees and shrubs were planted in some areas, at the same time the first architectural structures were built and decorations were created in the form of sculpture, mostly antique. The main composition of the park runs along the channel of Kamenka, where a number of independent pools and ponds have been built: the Upper one is over 8 hectares, the Lower one is about 1.5 hectares and others, waterfalls (one of them is 14 m high), gateways, cascades, the underground river Acheron ( length 224 m).

The park is decorated with rocks (Levkadskaya, Tarpeiskaya), grottoes (Venus, "Nutlet", "Fear and Doubt"), pavilions (Flora, Pink), gazebos, sculpture. Thanks to the composition of different tree species, their combination with reservoirs, rocks and architectural structures, views and perspectives of different plans were created (Main Alley, English Park, Champs Elysees and others).
When Ludwig Metzel completed the construction, the entrance to the park was from the side of the greenhouses (that is, from the courtyard of the Agricultural Academy). Then they came to "Sofiyivka" on horseback along the current streets of Tyshchik and Kievskaya.

In 1832, after the Polish uprising, all the Potocki's possessions were confiscated and transferred to the Kiev State Chamber. In the same year, Nicholas I presented it to his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna.

In 1836-1859 "Sofiyivka" was subordinate to the Office of Military Settlements. During this time, the park has undergone significant changes compared to what Ludwig Metzel built in it from the very beginning:

* In 1838, Sadovaya Street appeared. She connected the park with the city.
* Expanded and paved Main Alley
* Water is discharged from the center of the park to the Main Entrance.
* In 1844, two towers in the Gothic style were built here, which, at the direction of Nicholas I, who visited here in 1847, were demolished, and instead of them, under the guidance of the Uman architect Makutin, according to the project of the architect A. I. Shtakenshneider, they were built in 1850— 1852 towers in antique style.
* On the terrace of the Muses, the grotto of Apollo is covered up and the Eagle obelisk is erected.
* In 1841, the arbor "Fungus" and the Chinese arbor were built.
* In 1842-1845, the Pavilion of Flora was built according to the design of the architect Rapponet.
* In 1843-1845, the Rose Pavilion was built on the island of Anti-Circe.


During this time, the bust of Tadeusz Kosciuszko and the sculpture of Jozef Poniatowski are removed from the park. During this period, Sofiyivka was called the "Tsarina's Garden".
The gardeners at that time were P. Ferre, who created a terrace on the shore of the Lower Lake in 1840 and the terrace of the Muses on the north shore near the Hippocrena spring, and Bossier, who opened a distant perspective from the amphitheater to the Lower Lake by cutting the tops of several trees. On March 30, 1859, by royal decree, Sofiyivka was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Main School of Horticulture of Russia, transferred from Odessa to Uman. The park continued to be called the "Tsarina's Garden", although by decree of the tsar it was called the "Uman Garden of the Main School of Horticulture". Since 1899, under the guidance of Professor V.V. Pashkevich, the park has been replenished with new plantations (English Park), where more than a hundred species and forms of rare trees and shrubs were collected. At this time, sanitary cuttings of vegetation are carried out. At the beginning of the 20th century, well-known specialists in the field of fruit and vegetable growing in Russia, V.V. Pashkevich and P.G. Shitt, worked at the school, F.A. Kryukov was the assistant to the chief gardener.

After the revolution, "Sofiyivka" began to be called the "Garden of the Third International."
By the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR N26 / 630 of May 18, 1929, Sofiyivka was declared a state reserve. The greenhouse, greenhouses and, accordingly, part of the park territory remained under the control of the Agricultural University. The park was given an independent status, and until 1955 it was reassigned several times to various departments, such as the Narkomos, the People's Commissariat for Land Protection, the administration of reserves, the administration of architecture, which were created under the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1945, the park received the full name "Uman State Reserve "Sofiyivka"".

In 1946, the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a special resolution "On the renewal and improvement of the Uman State Reserve "Sofiyivka"". 1 million rubles are allocated for the repair and restoration of the park. In 1948, the general plan for the renewal and development of the Sofiyivka reserve was approved.
In 1949, a decorative nursery was created on an area of ​​20 hectares. Work is actively carried out to repair and restore small architectural forms, the road and alley system, and park sculptures. An inventory of tree and shrub species is being carried out, scientific works on the history of the park, its dendroflora, sculptures, and small architectural forms appear. In the same period, the original marble sculptures of Apollo Belvedere, Venus the Bather, Mercury were lost, from which copies in organic glass remained, and the statue of Cupid, like the bust of Stanislav Trembetsky, disappeared without a trace, although later marble wings from the statue of Cupid were found, which are now in the museum. On September 26, 1955, the Sofiyivka arboretum, on the basis of the Decree of the Council of Ministers of Ukraine N 1184, was transferred to the system of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and subordinated in its scientific activities to the Central Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. During this period, significant work is being carried out on the restoration of park facilities and their renewal, the expansion of the park. So, in 1958, according to the decision of the Cherkasy Regional Council, 6.19 hectares of land were allocated to Sofiyivka at the expense of the lands of the Uman City Commissariat and 9.5 hectares at the expense of the lands of the Uman Agricultural Institute. In the park, the staff of workers has been updated and even increased due to the scientific department compared to 1836, when the largest amount of work was carried out here.
In 1972, a territory of 5.1 hectares, which previously belonged to a military unit, was added to Sofiyivka. At this time, all wooden stairs are replaced with granite ones, while the integrity of the parterre amphitheater as a park composition is violated, since instead of serpentine paths, it is crossed in the center by granite stairs from the Semistruy fountain to the greenhouses of the Agricultural Institute. The Rose Pavilion is being overhauled and the granite foundation is being replaced. At the Main Entrance, instead of a wooden fence, an openwork metal fence with granite columns is built on brick columns. On the Main Alley, according to the project of E. Lopushinskaya, the Silver Streams spring was built in 1974. In the same years, the paving stones of the park from the Main Gate to the gate of the Agricultural Institute were asphalted. At the same time, they remove the round flower bed, which was in front of the Flora pavilion. From the bridge to the island of Anti-Circe to the dam along Internatsionalnaya Street, they create a well-maintained alley with water outlets and granite steps.
The largest restoration, repair and restoration work in Sofiyivka was carried out after the natural disaster in 1980, when more than fifty objects were restored in four months. During the period from 1980 to 1993, according to the project of E. Lopushinskaya, the Acherontiysky lake was put in order, the Gribok gazebo was built. Beginning in 1980, the territory of the former military unit with an area of ​​5.1 hectares began to be developed, where the administrative and economic zone of the park was organized. Here, 25 garages for cars, tractors and old carriages, which are purchased in Poland, are being practically rebuilt. The equipment maintenance point was overhauled, a small laboratory building with rooms for visitors is being completed. On the basis of the former ammunition depots, where during the war the Germans organized a hospital for Soviet prisoners of war from the Uman pit, a library with a reading room, a canteen for workers and employees with a rest room, a meeting room for 90 people, storage rooms were built, in 1996 a boiler room was gasified , a water tower was built, where water is supplied from a well drilled in the western part of the park. Since 1993, the park has been guarded by a police unit. Since 1991, the park has received the status of a research institution of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
By the 200th anniversary of the founding of the park in 1996, the work of the Iron Rura spring was resumed, its historical name was returned. The water of this spring comes from the grotto "Diana". At the entrance to the park from the street. Sadovaya, on the left, immediately behind the entrance tower, there is a hill planted with junipers, thujas and firs. There is a pool in this hill, from which water flows to the Iron Rura and a waterfall with a small saucer of water, built according to the project of the architects of the UkrNIIInzhproekt Institute V. B. Kharchenko and O. P. Humenny. In the same year, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative 2 hryvnia coin dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the park's foundation.