Lychakiv Necropolis. On Your Own or with a Guide

Resting places attest to how the names of those who shaped the history of a village or a town, of a region and a state are preserved, and it is no wonder that necropolises are objects of sightseeing.

 

Loieva. The Landmarks of a Carpathian Village

Loieva is a village in the Nadvirna district of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, 5 kilometres from the district centre and 45 from the regional one. The village stretches out at the foot of Mounts Tatarka, Lysiania and Strahora. According to the tales, the god Perun rode his chariots across these Carpathian peaks, and on the twin-peaked Strahora there was a cult centre and a sanctuary of the ancient Slavs. An observation tower lets you take in the surroundings and the neighbouring mountain ranges. In Loieva you can enjoy not only the living nature of the Carpathians but also the village's other notable landmarks.

Shchyrets. Fortified Churches, a Museum and More

Lovers of independent travel choose unconventional routes, not overloading themselves with information and leaving room for their own preferences. This style of travel always includes a process of searching and discovery. The little town of Shchyrets in Lviv Oblast is an excellent choice for a one-day trip full of exploration and finds.

Shchyrets, Lviv Oblast. Zolota Hora. The Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. 16th century

Komarno. The Lantskoronski Palace. What Do the Ruins Tell?

On the western outskirts of the town of Komarno in the Lviv region there is a place steeped in centuries of historical events, but the impression left by contemplating these man-made masterpieces is a depressing one.

Komarno, Lviv region. The Lantskoronski Palace before 1939

Wherever You're Headed, I'm Off to Semenivka!

A stroll through Semenivka in the Lviv region, known for its architectural monuments, is guaranteed to enrich your knowledge of little-known landmarks. Semenivka lies 20 kilometres south of the regional centre and has its own railway halt, and the Lviv-Mukacheve suburban train, the hugely popular "mukachivka", whisks you to the start of the walking route in half an hour. The settlement arose at the end of the 14th century, and its first written mention dates from the mid-15th century. In 2018 the villagers celebrated the 300th anniversary of the church of St Michael, an architectural monument of national significance, and they continue to preserve its rare 18th-century murals.

 

Semenivka, Lviv region. The church of St Michael. 1718

Truskavets. We Will Come After the Victory

From the first day of the Russian invasion Truskavets turned into a refuge and evacuation haven for Ukrainians who have suffered from the war. The community took in displaced people from the front-line territories, housed them temporarily, and provided food and necessities to those in need. The people of Truskavets united, set up a humanitarian headquarters, and keep receiving refugees and giving every kind of support to those arriving from the hot spots. The number of displaced people has exceeded the local population and the infrastructure is overstretched, but the townspeople are coping and try to help everyone who needs it.

 

Truskavets. Lviv region

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

Tulyholove. The Bal Palace, Then and Now

Only connoisseurs of old villas come to this remote village, and only devotees of aristocratic residences know of it.

 

Tulyholove, Lviv region. The Bal palace

Horbachi. A Ukrainian Village and Its Own Character

In Ukraine every village has its own history, whose roots reach into the distant past and the times of paganism. The churches and houses in villages and small towns preserve the architectural style and the hand of their master craftsmen. It is good when a community keeps its cultural heritage, its unique dialect and its local traditions. The village of Horbachi lies 40 kilometres south of Lviv, and it too has its own masterpieces and singular features.

 

Horbachi, Lviv region. The Church of St Ignatius

Truskavets. The M. Bilas Art Museum and Villa Hopliana

Rest and recuperation at the resorts are synchronised with cultural pastimes, and visiting museums and exhibitions is one of the main occupations of the holidaymakers. The Mykhailo Bilas Art Museum stands in the centre of Truskavets, in its busiest spot — Kobzar Square.

 

Truskavets. The Mykhailo Bilas Art Museum. Interiors

Stare Selo. A Renaissance Castle and Its Residents

Even if you have already seen it, or on the contrary have never heard a thing about it, you will certainly slow down beside this grand castle as you drive along the highway through Stare Selo, one of the ancient settlements of the Lviv region. The road and the railway curve in an arc around the great defensive structure, and in the trains and cars the passengers, pressed to the windows, just manage to admire the surviving remains of the medieval fortress.

 

Stare Selo, Lviv region. The 17th-century castle

Obroshyne. The Archbishops' Palace

To see the true state of an architectural monument, you have to approach it from the rear. More often than not, the front façades are freshened up to pull the wool over your eyes, while in the back yard mismanagement and neglect hold sway. In the fence of the archbishops' palace in Obroshyne, in the Lviv region, the local people, to cut a corner, removed a section of the fence and made a short cut to the centre of the village. Following the Obroshyne folk along the park path, your gaze will open onto a view of this 18th-century architectural monument from a different angle.

 

Chernytsia. The Stefanus estate. Among the lordly ruins

The village of Chernytsia is in the Stryi district of the Lviv region; the distance to the regional centre is 40 km, and to the Pisochna railway station 2.5 km. Today I am a guest at the former estate of the landowner Witold Stefanus; I shall see the manor house whose heyday was 100 years ago.

 

Chernytsia, Lviv region. The Stefanus manor house

Lviv. The Psychiatric Hospital: Architecture and Nature

We live in a hard time, when mental pain is familiar to us all and outweighs physical pain. Some cannot cope with their affliction on their own and end up in a specialised institution that in common speech is called a madhouse or a "loony bin". People have always needed psychiatric support. In Ukraine one of the oldest hospitals for the mentally ill first admitted patients in 1875, on the outskirts of Lviv. Over 150 years this "house for the mad" has grown into a large psychiatric centre with a wide range of treatment and prevention wards.

 

Lviv. The Regional Psychiatric Hospital

The Dobropillia Area. From Sviatohorivka to Dobropillia

The history of our people and our state has been denied and silenced since time immemorial, and to this day the enemy destroys our cultural heritage. Even the smallest village, the humblest of houses, has its own master and its own story, one that bears witness to the past and to memory, to the dignity and the morality of a person. We do not always treat our history with awe and respect; through rebuildings and innovations we destroy our moral bearings and our national traditions, and from generation to generation we pass on a deformed and distorted understanding and perception of our roots. 

Through the example of the villages of the Dobropillia area, let us look at how the historical and cultural monuments are being preserved, and at what the community has managed to keep alongside powerful agricultural and industrial enterprises.

 

The village of Dobropillia. Donetsk region

Pniv Castle. A Stronghold in Need of Restoration

Tourists wishing to plunge into antiquity and to touch heroic legends never pass the old castles by. Witnesses of epoch-making turns, having outlived centuries and the fractures of history, they draw the traveller with their colourful architecture, their unsolved mysteries and the picturesque views that open from a mountain top — for castles were usually built on hills. Pniv Castle is one of six sworn brothers to have come down to our day, all of them set in the super-mega-touristic Ivano-Frankivsk region. More precisely, what has come down are the remains of a defensive structure raised in the second half of the sixteenth century by the Polish feudal lords, the Kuropatwas.

Pniv Castle. Ivano-Frankivsk region

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

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

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

Nadvirna. The Jewish Necropolis, Off the Tourist Route

Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine are little-studied and almost unknown objects of folk culture that form part of the history of our state. Abroad, such places are popular with tourists and are kept in good condition. A city of the dead is not suitable for a stroll, yet to get an idea of the cultural and historical heritage of the Jewish community in the town of Nadvirna in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, it is enough to visit the north-western sector of the Jewish cemetery.