Verkhnii Dorozhiv
The aim of the trip to the village of Verkhnii Dorozhiv in the Drohobych district of the Lviv region was to see the ancient wooden churches. The village lies 24 km from Drohobych and has been known since the 12th — 13th centuries. The road to Lviv passed through the village, and in the old days goods were carried along it. Travellers used to halt in this locality. The goods were expensive, and the place received the name Dorozhnia, later Dorozhiv. The point of departure was the town of Stryi, a district centre of the Lviv region and a railway junction.I set out on the journey by the Stryi — Sambir electric train. The ride took 1.5 hours, and along the way I admired the autumn landscapes through the not very clean window glass. There were few passengers, mostly residents of the surrounding villages of the Stryi district returning from the market with their purchases. As we drew near Drohobych the carriage emptied. The stop at the station of the district centre of Drohobych lasted about 20 minutes. In that time the train filled up with new passengers returning from the Drohobych market. People were briskly discussing who had bought and sold what. The stations were not always announced over the loudspeaker, and not very distinctly. So I turned to my fellow passengers with a request to tell me when my station came. It has to be said that people always answer the questions «How do I get there?» and «Where is it?» willingly, whatever language you ask in, Russian or a Russian-Ukrainian mix, it makes no difference. They always try to help. A few minutes ahead I was warned that my station was coming and was wished a good journey.
On the platform I asked how to get there and received an exhaustive answer to my questions. A narrow path ran through vegetable gardens and a meadow where cows graze in the summer. Here and there haystacks stood. There was fog, but through it the gleam of the golden domes was visible, and this added grandeur to the church, while my own pace quickened. I entered the grounds without hindrance; there was no service and the church was closed at that hour. But I had come to look at the sanctuary in the quiet of an autumn morning, so that cars and people would not get in the way. The Church of the Ascension of the Lord was built in 1887 on the site of an older one, also of wood. In Soviet times, from 1960 to 1989, it was closed. The church stands beside the road, on a slight slope. Immediately next to the church is the cemetery, with monuments in the form of crosses and sculptures of saints.
Next to the church stands the monument to the Fighters for the Freedom of Ukraine. A small mound has been raised with a cross set upon it, a symbolic grave of all who died for the glory of the Fatherland. I wanted to take a photograph, but I was hindered by the turkeys grazing by the monument. To my appeals to leave the territory they responded with unfriendly loud gobbling — the masters of the place. I had to wait and change the angle.
Then I continued my route along the narrow, crooked little streets.
The road is stony, one pothole after another; you cannot hurry along it, you have to choose where to place your foot. Nor did I pass by the little village shop I came across on the way. A small room with the usual set of necessary provisions. But it seemed to me that there were too many alcoholic drinks for a shop of that size. There were 2 customers inside; they were buying nothing, just talking to the shop assistant. They told me where to go next.
Having walked a little further, I saw a monument. As I was looking at it and photographing it, I heard someone ask: «Pani, which newspaper are you from?». I answered that I was not from a newspaper, that I am interested in monuments of history and architecture, and asked what this monument was. «Pani, can you not see, it is a sculpture», the man corrected me. «If it is on a pedestal, then it is a monument», I objected. The passer-by told me that the sculpture of Jesus Christ had been put up by a resident of the village as a gift to Verkhnii Dorozhiv. There is also a monument in the village to General Hrytsai, his stryiko (his uncle on his mother's side). If I wanted to hear the historical details, I could ask his mother, the general's sister, who lives over there behind those big trees. Just in case, he wrote down his telephone number for me, in case I needed to find something out in unfamiliar country. Having thanked him, I hurried on, still finding time to admire the handsome houses, the well-tended homesteads, the flowering chrysanthemums.
And here is the centre of the village: the church, the school, the village council.
I climbed the steps up to the Church of St John the Baptist, which belongs to the Orthodox community. It was built in 1895 and restored in 1922. Boards and building materials lay on the church grounds. A pity, but otherwise it is probably hard to preserve wooden buildings. And so the granny-church has been clad in panelling and covered with a metal roof.
Opposite the church stands a monument to the UPA general Dmytro Hrytsai, a native of Verkhnii Dorozhiv, chief of the UPA Staff and a political prisoner.
Beside it a foundation stone has been laid for a monument to the heroes of the UPA, and it has already become overgrown with guelder rose all around. I made my way with difficulty through the thicket in order to photograph the plaque.
All the village services are housed in the village council building. Here are the police, the outpatient clinic, the people's hall and the veterinary surgery. Convenient: you have been to the doctor, you drop into the library. Here too it is quiet, no cars and no people. Everyone is at their workplace.
The school looks like hundreds of other such schools in the country. But the building has been adorned with a mosaic panel showing Jesus with children. A teacher led the younger pupils out to the school bus, giving them her last instructions. A few children stayed to wait for the minibus by the road, because they needed to go the other way.
I decided to take a ride too. I always ask children whether it is hard to study. Yes, it is hard. They are given a lot. The children told me about their school, not interrupting one another but listening to each other too. A girl in the third form told me that she had started a little notebook in which she writes down all the subjects and the first names and patronymics of the teachers. And when she finishes the 11th form, the whole notebook will be full of entries as a keepsake of the school.
Opposite the school is the wooden building of the former school, now the library.
Having ridden the minibus to the stop «Bilia dubyny» (By the oak grove), I saw the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which was built in 1887 on the site of a previous one, also of wood. From 1960 to 1989 it was closed. The sanctuary is surrounded on all sides by fields. Before the gates into the yard stands a figure of St John the Baptist.
In the village of Verkhnii Dorozhiv there is one more wooden church, St George's of 1855. But it was further for me to walk there than to the village of Hrushiv. And so, Hrushiv!
Hrushiv
The road is just as stony, with fields and vegetable gardens all around. Some have already been ploughed, some still have their maize and cabbage ungathered. When I caught sight of the domes of the Church of the Synaxis of the Holy Mother of God, the way seemed shorter to me. It was built in 1923 by the master Vasyl Turchyniak from Deliatyn. In Soviet times it was closed. The sanctuary stands on the slope of the right bank of the Bystrytsia, and to the west of the church a wooden three-tiered bell tower was built. Several crosses have survived in the church yard, and also figures of the Holy Mother of God. Beside them is a symbolic grave to the Fighters for the Freedom of Ukraine.
By the church a woman was clearing away the fallen leaves. Having greeted her and thanked her for taking care of the sanctuaries, I asked where the bus stop was. The woman told me that at the other end of the village there is another famous chapel-church. And just then a man drove out of the neighbouring yard on a cart harnessed to two horses. The villagers arranged it between themselves very quickly, so that he would give me a lift.
And so I am sitting beside the driver, who tells me about the horses, the churches, the village. The horses race along the broken road. A foal runs behind the cart, sometimes falling behind, and then comes the plaintive but loud neighing of the stallion. We drove along the main street and met 4 or 5 such carriages. Observing the rules of the road, the one going uphill stopped and let the one coming downhill pass. In those few minutes there rushed through my head «coachman, do not drive the horses», and «troikas with little bells», and Mykola Vasyliovych with his fast ride. All the way I held on to the trap, afraid of falling out, so through the noise and the rattling I did not hear very well what this kind man was telling me, the man who had agreed to give me a lift and then refused to take a few hryvnias for the ride: «Pani, you were going to church, after all. I am not a taxi driver ».
And what he was telling me was that by an old willow growing in the pasture a spring of healing water had begun to flow. In 1878 a chapel-church was built over it. After the Second World War the sanctuary stood closed. It was renewed after the well-known events. On 26 April 1987 the Mother of God appeared at this chapel to a 12-year-old girl, Mariia Kizyn. Central Television of the Soviet Union reported on the events in Hrushiv. People came to the village from the Caucasus, Russia, Central Asia and even from Europe. One pilgrim walked here on foot from Sweden and came several more times afterwards. The streets of the village were packed with the cars of believers. They tried to block all the roads leading into the village with police patrols. Despite the actions of the authorities, the pilgrims went round the police cordons, taking roundabout paths.
Now the wooden church has also been covered with modern materials for its preservation. It holds the miracle-working icon of the Hrushiv Mother of God, painted in 1806 by the icon painter Stepan Chapovskyi. Several monuments in honour of the saints stand by the church.
Now all that remained was to find the bus stop and get to Stryi or to Drohobych. And the moment I stepped outside the church grounds, I saw a bus coming along this street, and in the villages they do not even run every hour, only a few times a day. The driver stopped, although there was no stop here. I was very lucky.
On leaving Hrushiv I saw a Way of the Cross with sculptural compositions of Jesus Christ. A pity I did not know about it straight away. Next time I shall come and take a look.
In Drohobych I changed to the electric train for Stryi. It was a Friday, and students were travelling home for the weekend. I thought that such one-day journeys and walks would be interesting, instructive and affordable for young people.
I thank everyone who helped me. I was left well pleased with the trip and I am sharing my impressions with you.
This story is also available in Ukrainian: Верхній Дорожів — Грушів. Туман і дощ цікавій подорожі не завадять
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