Yasinia. An Easy Short Route to Heredzhivka (818 m)

The village of Yasinia lies at the crossroads of tourist routes between the Svydovets and Chornohora ranges. The Yasinia railway station is the terminus for trains from Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kharkiv, and travellers from various regions of Ukraine choose this distinctive Hutsul village to master mountaineering skills. When, on long hikes with significant elevation changes, the wisdom of the trail has been absorbed, the backpacks are packed and there are 2-3 hours left before the train departs, an unhurried ascent of Mount Heredzhivka near the station will be the farewell chord of a Transcarpathian holiday.

 

Yasinia, Mount Heredzhivka. View of the Chornohora range

Mykulychyn. Church of the Ascension. Hutsul Architecture

Mykulychyn is the largest village in Ukraine, made up of several uchastky — uchastky precisely, not mere plots — located on the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains. In the centre of the village rises a church with the status of an architectural monument, consecrated in 1868 in honour of the Holy Trinity. The church could not hold all its parishioners, the people of Mykulychyn and visiting guests, while for the residents of the mountain village districts it was not always convenient to reach services along mountain dirt roads and trails. In 2003, on the remote uchastok of Polumystyi at the foot of the emerald ridges (gruni), in the valley of the Prutets Chemyhivskyi River, a new Church of the Ascension of the Lord was built.

Mykulychyn. Church of the Ascension of the Lord. 2003. UGCC

Yaremche. The Probiy Waterfall and Other Hutsul Wonders

Yaremche – a climatic and ski resort in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and a centre of green tourism – enchants visitors with its landscapes and its natural and man-made landmarks. 

Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast

Yablunytsia. Forest, Mountains, Landmarks and Fishing

Every Carpathian village has its own characteristic features and differs from its neighbours in microclimate, the availability of roads and infrastructure, and tourist appeal. The village of Yablunytsia in the Nadvirna district of Ivano-Frankivsk region lies in the protected zone of the Carpathian National Nature Park, and mighty green massifs surround the village like an emerald necklace, shielding it from winds and cold. The mountain peaks Mykulinka, Horishky, Shcherbaniv Verkh, Dovhyi Grun, Yablunytsia and other thousand-metre heights shaped the relief of this Hutsul village, which stretches for 9 kilometres along the valley of picturesque hills.

Yablunytsia. Ivano-Frankivsk region

Tatariv. A Carpathian Resort and Health Retreat

Tatariv is a well-known Hutsul village in the Nadvirna district of Ivano-Frankivsk region. The village stretches out in branch-hamlets and homestead-kolybas with breweries and cafes along the Prut River from Mykulychyn to Yablunytsia and Vorokhta. Back at the end of the 19th century, the area was known as a low-mountain balneological climatic resort and was listed in European travel guides. In modern Ukraine, the natural landscapes of Tatariv are known to experienced travellers and novice tourists, lovers of cycling and hiking trips, mushroom pickers and gatherers of forest berries. Even some of the powerful have chosen the valleys and slopes of Tatariv's hills for their residences and dachas.

 

The Lazeshchyna River. A Hutsul Mountain Stream

Ukraine has about 30,000 mountain rivers, and we admire the overwhelming majority of these watercourses in the Carpathians. The Lazeshchyna is a typical small mountain river with a stony bed and a swift current; it is 21 km long and flows within the Rakhiv district in Transcarpathia.

The Lazeshchyna River. Transcarpathia

Vorokhta. The Church of the Nativity. Hutsul Architecture

Everyone knows it, writes about it and grieves – it is no longer possible to see a wooden church in the Hutsul lands in its pristine form, untouched by radical repairs. But to our good fortune, harmony and perfection, a caring attitude to the spiritual heritage, still live in our villages and small towns. And you need not climb far into the mountains to be struck by the beauty of proportion and the craftsmanship of our forefathers. The church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God is considered the talisman of Vorokhta and the spiritual calling card of the popular Carpathian resort.

 

Vorokhta, Ivano-Frankivsk region. The church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God

Mount Yablunytsia. A Three-Hour Walk with a Kolyba Lunch

                                                                  And from the Carpathian summer floats the voice of the trembita

Mount Yablunytsia is one of the eleven peaks that shape the landscape of the high-mountain resort of the same name — Yablunytsia, in the Nadvirna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

 

Mount Yablunytsia near the Yablunytsia Pass, in the village of Yablunytsia

Yasinia. The Museum of Local History

Every town or village ought to begin with a museum of local history or at least a museum room. Local history exhibitions preserve our traditions and cultural heritage, our historical records and objects of the past; they shape the national ethnic code and touch the state of the soul. In Yasinia, in the Zakarpattia region, one of the finest museums of local history in the district has been running since 1966.

Yasinia. Museum of Local History

Mykulychyn. Holy Trinity Church and Bell-Tower Museum

It conforms to the canons of wooden Hutsul sacred buildings, it has kept a refined interior, its parishioners preserved the shrine through the years of wartime calamity and Bolshevik atheism, restored it after a flood and created a museum. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Mykulychyn, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, has been granted the status of an architectural monument of national significance.

 

Mykulychyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. The Church of the Holy Trinity. 1868. UGCC

A Carpathian Hike. An Abandoned Cabin on the Polonyna

One of the most popular ways to relax and spend free time in Ukraine is hiking, combined with exploring natural and architectural landmarks. Usually people choose weekends or holidays for a trek across the Carpathian slopes and peaks. But short-term opportunities are worth taking too, to stroll along the picturesque trails, to fill up on positive impressions and to immerse yourself in the kingdom of Carpathian nature. In mushroom season you can pair the admiring of the scenery with a spot of quiet hunting and, in a couple of hours, gather a certain amount of forest produce to vary your diet.

 

The Carpathians. Ivano-Frankivsk region

Lazeshchyna. Three Wooden Churches in a Hutsul Village

The picturesque village of Lazeshchyna, so attractive to tourists, lies in the foothills of the main peaks of the Ukrainian Carpathians - Hoverla and Petros - to which marked routes have been laid. From Lazeshchyna trails lead to the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, up to the Chornohora massif and to protected natural tracts.

 

Lazeshchyna, Rakhiv district, Zakarpattia region

Mykulychyn. Mount Kostel (Gorgany) and the Stone Garden

If fate has cast you into Mykulychyn and you feel the need to take a fresh gulp of the picturesque Carpathians, a one-day hike up Mount Kostel will be a wonderful choice, with a sense of soaring over the folds of the mountain ridges and the dense forest expanses.

 

Mykulychyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. Mount Kostel (Gorgany)

Yablunytsia. Wooden Churches and Chapels of the Carpathians

A church in a Carpathian village is a beacon that shines without cease; it is the guardian of Divine light, of prayer and of joy. The greatest adornment of the village of Yablunytsia in Ivano-Frankivsk region is the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, which for almost 130 years has delighted the eye with the perfection of its forms, the richness of its interior and the living nature of the wood of the Carpathian forest.

 

Yablunytsia. Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. 1895. UGCC

Yaremche. A Walk in the Park of Miniatures

Parks of miniatures enjoy great popularity with tourists and have an educational purpose. Adults and children feel like Gullivers in the land of the Lilliputians as they walk among the scaled-down copies of palaces, castles and natural landmarks. In Ukraine, parks of miniatures have been created in Kyiv, in the Crimea, and since 2015 in Yaremche in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. This small open-air museum presents the architectural and natural landmarks of the Carpathian land.

 

Yaremche. Ivano-Frankivsk region. The park-museum of miniatures

Vorokhta. The Ski Jump. A Sports and Tourist Magnet

Here they fly like birds. In Vorokhta, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, a complex of ski jumps has survived, and it is only in Vorokhta that there is the possibility of holding the Ukrainian ski-jumping championship for adult athletes. Ski jumping is a spectacular sport, and those who make the longest jumps compare it to flight and feel themselves to be birds.

Vorokhta. Ivano-Frankivsk region. The ski jump

Mykulychyn. The Museum of Hutsul Customary Symbolism

The only museum of the customary symbolism of the Hutsul region in Ukraine is located in Mykulychyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, almost in the centre of the village on the main street, and all travellers on the Yaremche-Bukovel route are sure to drive past this unique local-history, ethnographic, historical and spiritual landmark.

 

Mykulychyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. The Museum of the Customary Symbolism of the Hutsul Region

Rakhiv. Burkut Park, a Monument of Landscape Art

City parks, recreation areas, green oases - these are gifts of nature and man-made landmarks in industrial centres that have accumulated the inconveniences of crowded traffic and engineering structures. One of the most picturesque parks of culture and leisure in Zakarpattia is located in Rakhiv, in the north-western part of the town.

 

Rakhiv. Zakarpattia region. Burkut Park

Mykulychyn. The Market: Range, Prices and Features

Mykulychyn is a low-mountain resort located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region in the picturesque valley of the mountain river Prut and its tributary the Prutets Chemyhivskyi. As is well known, travellers on their hikes along endless walking routes across the Carpathian ridges love to eat heartily and tastily, and they drag an enormous supply of food up into the mountains with them, anticipating the process of devouring the dishes on the conquered peaks. There is no need to buy groceries in the town supermarkets; it makes good sense to pick up local treats at the Mykulychyn market.

Stebnyi. A Non-Tourist Route in the Touristic Carpathians

How do we, residents of the eastern and central regions of Ukraine, picture the Hutsul region - a historical-ethnographic land located in the centre of Europe? A picturesque area in the forest tracts of the Ukrainian Carpathians, with fast rivers, flocks of sheep in the mountain valleys, with the music of waterfalls, trembitas and cymbals, with the taste of bryndza and banosh, with wooden houses on the slopes.