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

Yurivka, Varvarivka. People live in the backwaters too

It is traditionally held that travel means visiting popular tourist locations with famous landmarks. In connection with the latest events on a global scale, travelling pioneers devote themselves and their time to active recreation not in toxic zones, but in corners far from the crush of crowds. Journeys through the rural backcountry are an acquaintance with an unknown tourist space and with people who have changed the life of their region for the better. Arriving in the countryside, you see for yourself that everything depends on the activity of the local residents, and that it is not the place that graces a person, but the person the place. Hikes through the peripheries are special routes bound up with the natural surroundings, springs and ponds, single-storey buildings and places of worship, ethnographic museums and village clubs and, of course, sincere, hospitable people, always ready to give a traveller directions or to talk with him about everyday things.

Yurivka, Dnipropetrovsk region. The floodplain of the Mala Ternivka River

The Mills of the Dnipropetrovsk Region. Needed or Not?

The first steam mills appeared on the territory of Ukraine at the end of the 19th century. Most often they were built by foreign specialists using European technologies and were equipped with a steam boiler and machinery of foreign manufacture. The flour was produced of a finer grind than at water- and wind-powered structures. Merchants and landowners approached the construction of flour-milling enterprises not only from a practical point of view; they adorned the buildings with architectural decorative elements.

 

Pavlohrad. The former 4th-class mill with a production capacity of 625 thousand poods of finished output per year. Now an administrative and residential building

Slovianka. Villages of the Dnipropetrovsk Region

Slovianka is one of the oldest villages in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It received its name in 1777, when, on the instruction of the governor of the Azov province, the settlement of the fertile lands on the bank of the Byk river began. Slovianka lies 125 kilometres from the regional centre. Before the Mezhova district was abolished, 14 km of asphalt road separated the village from the district centre. After the amalgamation of the communities, the residents of the Mezhova area have to cover more than 100 kilometres in 2 hours to reach the district centre of Synelnykove. There is no bus service between the settlements.

Slovianka, Dnipropetrovsk region

Pysmenna Railway Station and the Village of Pysmenne

The Pysmenna railway station is located in the village of Pysmenne, Vasylkivka district, Dnipropetrovsk region, which was founded with the opening of the station in 1884.

The Pysmenna railway station. Vasylkivka district, Dnipropetrovsk region