Nadvirna. A Meeting with a Precarpathian Town

Nadvirna is called the gates of the Carpathians. And how, indeed, could one drive past these very gates on the way to the mountain peaks and waterfalls? Nadvirna lies in the south of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, 35 kilometres from the regional centre. This Precarpathian town was a popular resort at the beginning of the 20th century, and even now an inquisitive traveller, on a 2-3-hour walk, will find plenty of curiosities that set apart one of the youngest district centres of Western Ukraine.

 

Nadvirna, Ivano-Frankivsk region

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

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

Chynadiievo. Castles, Churches and Other Landmarks

Two monuments of architecture and history in Chynadiievo, Mukachevo district, Sent-Miklosh Castle and the palace of Count Schonborn — two pearls of Zakarpattia.

Chynadiievo. The palace of Count Schonborn

Dubno. From the Castle Along Zamkova Street

Dubno, a district centre of the Rivne region, is known to tourists above all for its castle of the 14th-15th centuries, built on the site of the citadel. A walk through this town of the chronicles brings acquaintance with other landmarks, which can be seen in 3-4 hours in the historic centre of Dubno. Let us begin with the Lutsk Gate, through which the old highway passed to this ancient town of Volhynia.

Dubno. The Lutsk Gate

Zhovkva. The Castle: Residence, NKVD Prison, Museum

Zhovkva is a small town in the Lviv region, the only one in Ukraine to have preserved the layout of an ideal Renaissance town of the 17th century. Fifty-five sites hold the status of architectural monument, all concentrated in the historic core of medieval Zhovkva. The central place in the historical and architectural reserve is held by the residence of the royal court — the castle, founded by the town's founder, Stanislaw Zolkiewski, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Halych. A Modern Ancient Princely Town

Halych is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe, its history reckoned from the year 898. In the 12th century the Galician-Volhynian princes chose Halych as their capital and turned it into a mighty political and spiritual centre. Let us see how modern-day ancient Halych is laid out and what landmarks make this district centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk region so rich.

Halych. Ivano-Frankivsk region. Nativity Square

Zhovkva. A Walk with History

To immerse yourself in the unique atmosphere of the Renaissance and see the historic centre of an ideal town of the early 17th century — welcome to Zhovkva, an old town of Prykarpattia.

Zhovkva. Viche Square. The Town Hall. The fountain

Halych. An Early-Mediaeval Castle in a Modern Reworking

The 14th-century Halych Castle — a mighty stronghold at the centre of the early-mediaeval Galician-Volhynian Principality, an architectural monument of national significance.

Halych. Castle Hill. The Starostyn Castle, 14th c.

Dubno Castle. An Impregnable Aristocratic Residence

Dubno Castle is one of the most impregnable, wealthiest and most legendary European castles. Emperors, hetmans and kings visited this aristocratic residence. The defenders of the impregnable fortress repelled enemy raids, and the stronghold never once submitted — not to the Tatars, nor the Cossacks, nor the Swedes.

Dubno. The castle. The gatehouse

Klevan. The Tunnel of Love and Other Landmarks

Lovers and romantics, uplifted by lofty feelings, name towns and planets, castles and palaces, mountains and lakes in honour of love. And the Ukrainian settlement of Klevan in the Rivne region is known the world over for its Tunnel of Love.

Klevan. The Tunnel of Love

Klevan. The Ruined Czartoryski Castle of the 15th Century

Lovers of hikes to places with fortification structures need to hurry to see Klevan Castle. This 15th-century artefact is part of the treasury of a hundred castles and fortresses of Ukraine, but its condition is deplorable and hopeless.

Klevan. The Czartoryski Castle. 15th century

The Sent-Miklosh Castle of Love. History and the Present Day

The mediaeval Sent-Miklosh Castle in Chynadiiovo is a monument of architecture of the 14th-15th centuries, a popular tourist site, and a venue for festivals and plein-airs. But the events of today were preceded by the centuries-long epic of the palace and its owners, and this chronicle is one of the most romantic and dramatic castle stories of Zakarpattia.

Sent-Miklosh Castle. The settlement of Chynadiiovo, Mukachevo district, Zakarpattia region

Zolochiv Castle: Fortress, Residence, Torture, Museum

Zolochiv Castle together with Olesko and Pidhirtsi is part of the popular tourist route 'The Golden Horseshoe of the Lviv Region'.

The Schönborn Counts Palace. A Zakarpattia Pearl

Would you like to see 19th-century Austria-Hungary? In the Mukachevo district of the Zakarpattia region there is a splendid castle of Count Schönborn

Pidhirtsi Castle: a Plundered Palace, a Haunted Ruin

To see all the castles of the 'Golden Horseshoe of the Lviv Region', from Olesko we went to Pidhirtsi in the Brody district.

Pidhirtsi Castle

Olesko Castle. Stronghold, Residence, Museum, Film Set

Olesko Castle is one of the oldest and most famous structures of its kind in Ukraine. It held great strategic importance, as it was built on the border between Poland and Lithuania, at a crossroads of routes during the period when Kyivan Rus was breaking up into appanage principalities. The first mention dates to 1327. Today it is an architectural and historical monument of the 14th — 18th centuries and a museum-reserve that is part of the "Golden Horseshoe of Lviv" tour.

If you have never been to Kremenets...

Kremenets is a town in the north of the Ternopil region, known since the 13th century. The uniqueness of this town is that however many times you come here, you will always find something new and interesting.

The secrets of Vyshnivets Palace

In the settlement of Vyshnivets in the Ternopil region, a magnificent palace has survived, built in the Classicist style with Baroque elements.

The unforgotten stories of Zbarazh Castle

Many times I had heard of Zbarazh, an ancient town in the Ternopil region, and seen one of Ukraine's most famous castles in Jerzy Hoffman's film "With Fire and Sword".