In the Donetsk region, sources of mineral water are not encountered all that often, so deposits of this most valuable natural resource in the ground, in an industrial region, are worth their weight in gold. A village in the Dobropillia district earned its well-deserved name, for its life-giving spring has been famous throughout the whole district for a fourth century now.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz, Dobropillia district, Donetsk region |
The signpost depicts the famous sweep-well and a hospitable resident of Zolotyi Kolodiaz.
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| The signpost at the turn into the village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz |
Administratively, another 7 small settlements also belong to the village, together with which it numbers about 1,350 people, 90 of them children.
The villagers cherish the precious spring, which in recent years has also become a tourist landmark and the calling card of Zolotyi Kolodiaz.
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| The coat of arms of the village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz |
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| The coat of arms of the Dobropillia district, depicting a well |
The village made it into the TOP 10 of the III All-Ukrainian competition "Incredible Villages of Ukraine 2018".
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. The signpost |
This is the largest ancient settlement on the territory of the Dobropillia district. Its founders settled near a Cossack sentry post and a spring.
The Chumak Way passed through this place, along which traders carried salt, grain and other goods. In those days the settlement was called Chumatska Krynytsia. The Chumaks would stop by the smithy to shoe a horse and lay in a supply of water.
According to legend, Emperor Peter I was returning from the campaign against Azov and slaked his thirst from the healing spring in the midst of the boundless steppe. The All-Russian autocrat gratefully threw a gold coin into the well.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. Peter I in 1696 at the healing spring, with a ladle in his hands. Author — sculptor Yu. Artemov |
Perhaps it was this event, or perhaps a careful and reverent attitude to the water, that gave the village its name.
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| "Golden water!" — Peter I exclaimed, took a gold coin from his pocket, threw it into the well and pronounced loudly: "From now on let it be the Golden Well!" |
During enemy raids, Zolotyi Kolodiaz was repeatedly burned, and the frame over the spring was filled in with stones.
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| A wooden sculpture of a warrior on the grounds of the historical and cultural complex |
But the life-giving spring broke through the stones and gushed forth with new strength.
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| A wooden sculpture of Berehynia on the grounds of the historical and cultural complex |
In the first half of the 20th century, in the ravines surrounding the village, small-scale artisanal mining of coal seams was carried out. The flows of water, which could not be pumped out fast enough, did not allow the extraction of the black gold at deeper horizons. Zolotyi Kolodiaz developed in an agricultural direction, and its remoteness from industrial centres made it possible to keep the springs ecologically clean.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. A pasture |
After the war, geologists of the "Artemheolohiia" trust discovered underground lakes in the vicinity of the village, which splashed geysers of mineral water up to the surface.
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| The historic well frame on the grounds of the historical and cultural complex |
In 1953 the Dobropillia municipal water utility's water intake, 20 km long, was built, through which the miners of the towns of Bilozerske and Dobropillia received 10,000 cubic metres of healing water daily.
The beneficial effect on the human body of the Zolotyi Kolodiaz water was noted; it contains useful substances — chlorides, bicarbonates, sulphates, magnesium, sodium and calcium — which give the body strength and health.
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| The sculpture of the Most Holy Mother of God |
At that time the first industrial borehole appeared, and in 1967 a small water-bottling workshop.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. The mineral water spring |
Later, in Bilozerske, the "Zolotyi Kolodiaz" mineral water plant was built, with automatic lines of a total capacity of 16,000 bottles per hour.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. The spring of healing water, tidied up by the efforts of the local school's pupils |
In 1998, one of the best table-and-medicinal waters of Ukraine received a European quality certificate in Paris.
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| The spring of healing water |
The "Zolotyi Kolodiaz" mineral water can be drunk every day to slake thirst and replenish the body with minerals.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. The mineral water spring |
The healing water is also recommended for use in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. The healing spring |
The water flows from underground, from a depth of 51.2 metres.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. A bench by the spring |
The spring is located next to the Hruzka ravine — a botanical reserve of local significance.
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| The village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz. The views near the village |
And although the area around the wells has been declared a sanitary zone, two kilometres from them clay is being extracted at the "Hruzkyi-1" quarry, which may affect the level of the underground waters and lead to the disappearance of the springs.
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| The "Hruzkyi-1" quarry. Dobropillia district |
You can get to Zolotyi Kolodiaz from the bus station of the district centre, Dobropillia, in the direction of
Sloviansk or
Kramatorsk.
By your own transport along the T-05-14 highway to the turn with the "Zolotyi Kolodiaz" signpost.
The village's coordinates: 48°31'41"N 37°13'55"E
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