The Historic and Cultural Reserve was created on 29 January 1993 in place of the existing Vasylivka museum of local history.

[citation needed] On March 7, 2022, during the military invasion of Ukraine, the Popov Manor was fired upon by Russian troops.

[3][4] On April 19, 2023, it became known that the occupiers began to remove property from the historical and architectural museum-reserve located in the building of the once famous European palace and park ensemble-estate of General Vasyl Popov, which was built in 1894.

[5] The lands near the future city of Oleksandrivsk were donated by Empress Catherine II to General Vasyl Popov.

The general's grandson, Vasyl Popov, started a large-scale construction project in the second half of the nineteenth century.

At a certain period, in the midst of career ups and downs, the count left the service due to health problems and began to arrange his estates.

The October Revolution and the First World War prompted the owner of the estate, Yurii Popov, to save the property.

The castle, the park, and the surrounding oak tree, which was cut down for firewood, suffered the greatest losses.

In 1954, by the decision of the Soviet authorities, the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, also built by the Popov family in Vasylivka, was destroyed.

The carriage barn was added to the second floor, and a dormitory for a local technical school was built on the vacated territory.