Yasinia. Don't Just Pass Through

People come to the Zakarpattia village of Yasinia to enjoy the emerald beauty of the Carpathian expanse and to climb the peaks of the Chornohora range. Since 1894, trains have been arriving at Yasinia station carrying those eager to feel the mountains and see this enchanting land from the height of the mountain summits. Before World War II, Czechs and Germans came here to hunt and to visit. European journalists prepared reports about the authenticity of this multinational settlement, while foreign artists discovered little-known picturesque landscapes.

 

The village of Yasinia, Zakarpattia Oblast

In 2025, you can reach the Carpathian resort by rail with a direct connection from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk.

In the station square, high-clearance off-road trucks pick travelers up and take them to the foot of the famous peaks of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and from there tourists conquer the kychery on their own or with the help of guides. Everyone has their own height and personal records. And in good weather, those traveling on foot should walk through the village and see the local man-made landmarks. From the station to the main road, Taras Shevchenko Street is paved with natural-stone cobbles — durable and aesthetically appealing. The street stretches in a semicircle, and in this district you can see typical Carpathian wooden cottages and modern three-story houses for family living and the hospitable reception of tourists.

Yasinia, Shevchenko St.

To the left, in 1903, the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God was built on the site of the wooden Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit dating from 1642. In the churchyard, in 1909, a temperance cross was erected with a hopeful inscription: «The cross defeated paganism; the cross will defeat drunkenness».

 

Yasinia. Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God. 1903.

Vacationers who stay in Yasinia for a while should visit the Struk Church, which holds UNESCO heritage status. A suspension footbridge over the Black Tysa carries visitors to the western part of the village, to a somewhat remote spot where the abundant chiming of sheep bells rings out from the ridge slopes.

Yasinia. Struk Church

Yasinia. Bridge over the Black Tysa

In the churchyard, the cantor warmly greets travelers and, once again, recounts the history of the Yasinia shrine. The Church of the Ascension (1824) is one of the finest wooden churches in all of Hutsulshchyna. The bell tower of the Ascension Church (1813), by its architectural and artistic qualities, holds a worthy place among the finest creations of Zakarpattia folk architecture. As the time for the service draws near, the priest gives his blessing and allows visitors to climb the 11-meter bell tower to see how the polyphony of the Struk bells is created.

Yasinia. Struk Church

The shrine stands on an elevation that opens onto a panorama of the mountain village and peaks that stay snow-capped until May or June. And ash trees, ash trees, ash trees... Many cities and towns in Ukraine have their own symbol-trees – chestnuts, lindens, apple trees, magnolias – and in Yasinia it is the ash, the tree of protection, the tree of revival and renewal. The tree's name comes from the Old Slavic word «yas» – light, ray, clarity, bright. In the religion of the ancient Slavs, the ash was a symbol of light and of the sun.

Yasinia. View of the village from the churchyard

  

Having felt the spiritual power that awakens the deepest feelings, we again hurry back to the central road. It is impossible not to admire the views on both banks of this water artery of the Carpathians, bearing the color-based hydronym Black, which together with its White sister forms the largest river of Zakarpattia – the Tysa, also called «the river of death for draft dodgers».

 

Yasinia. The Black Tysa

The main street is part of Highway H-09, which links Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Nadvirna, Deliatyn, Yaremche, Mykulychyn, Tatariv, Yablunytsia, Lazeshchyna, Rakhiv, Khust, Mukachevo – Galicia, Prykarpattia and Zakarpattia. Only in Yasinia can you see, at the same time, heavy trucks and horse-drawn carts moving along a road of national importance.

Yasinia. Myru St.

The housing stock consists mainly of the private sector and of the typical homes of Zakarpattia lowlanders and highlanders, with elements of Romanian and Hungarian folk architecture. Two four-story buildings in the Hutsul style were probably built for the workers of the timber-processing plant.

 

Yasinia. Residential development

The first Roman Catholics in Yasinia were lumberjacks resettled from Lower Austria during the reign of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. In 1814, the present small masonry church was built at the expense of the royal treasury.

 

Yasinia. Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. 1814.

The center of the village is shopping complexes, stores, cafes, pizzerias. Everything here is created to restore the strength of arriving guests – hot-tub restaurants, kolyba homestead lodges, skis, sleds, snowboards and other varied attractions for comfortable leisure. Every Friday the central square turns into a market square, and merchants with all kinds of goods take up all the free space.

 

Yasinia. The village center

The wood-carver's shop is open every day, located in a wooden cottage with carved decoration. Here you can watch the colorful life of the Hutsuls in full swing and admire the skill of local craftsmen. Wooden wares, Carpathian teas, honey and embroidered shirts will remind you of these mountain-ski resorts.

 

Yasinia. The wood-carver's shop

An information post by the bridge orients travelers toward further routes to the historical landmarks of Yasinia. A sign gives the bridge's name, «tridtsiatka» (the thirty), which may indicate the 30-kilometer distance to Rakhiv.

 

To reach the kirkut, the Jewish God's acre, you have to climb a dirt road up a high mountain. Jews buried their dead on the heights to be closer to the sky and so that the spring waters and currents of the mountain rivers, the Black Tysa and the Lazeshchyna, would not destroy the cemetery.

Yasinia. The Jewish cemetery

Another sacred landmark of Yasinia lies east of the village center. In this military necropolis are buried soldiers who fell on the mountain pass during World War I. Granite crosses stand on the graves of Hungarian soldiers who died during the First and Second World Wars. Along the edge, stone crosses without plaques have survived.

 

Yasinia. Cemetery of Hungarian soldiers

The soldiers were buried at the foot of Mount Kostyrivka, while the gently sloping hillside was used by fans of skiing and snowboarding. At present, the surface lift and the 200-meter run are not in operation. On the mountaintop there is a wooden chapel, and the village lies spread out as if on the palm of your hand.

Yasinia. Mount Kostyrivka and the ski lift

You can learn about the cultural traditions and development of the village, notable historical events, and also see tools of labor and daily life and rare artifacts at the local history museum at 21 Hrushevskoho St.

 

Yasinia. The local history museum

For the final stop on the excursion route, I suggest the confluence of the Black Tysa and the Lazeshchyna. The Carpathian resorts are famous for several kinds of extreme sports, and the rapids-filled riverbed is used for water sports and for rafting on an inflatable boat.

Yasinia. The Black Tysa River

Related stories: Uzhhorod. Mysterious, welcoming, romantic, wonderful · Yasinia. A Cultural Centre of Transcarpathia · Yasinia. The Strukivska Church, a UNESCO Heritage Site · Halych. A Modern Ancient Princely Town · Syniak. A Balneological and Ski Resort of Zakarpattia

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