The Oak. Patriarch of the Forest and Natural Monument

A mighty oak, an age-old oak  

Stands there beside the ravine. 

It has flung out its leafy forelock, 

Its brow touches the cloud.

Its boughs have been bent since time began, 

Its bark is as if of steel. 

In the forest, from afar, to the grandfather 

The trees are bowing down. 

(Mariia Pryhara) 

In the forest, among birches and poplars, it stands out with its mighty trunk, its curly crown and its carved leaves.

Lviv. Enerhetychna Street. A monument oak. Trunk girth 5 m

The Suderman House in Zelene. An Estate That Was Lucky

A love of travel and discovery is born back in childhood, when moral values and spiritual needs are formed. It is very important to preserve cultural and historical heritage for young explorers and pioneers, to cultivate a sense of responsibility for preserving historical monuments. Memory is our strength in creating the future. Sadly, in recent years there has been no careful treatment of architectural and historical gems; many unique buildings and estates left to us by earlier generations have been irretrievably lost or spoiled beyond recognition by rebuilding. Every historical object is individual and carries the memory of a bygone era, and needs to be preserved and protected.

A one-of-a-kind example of cultural heritage has survived in the village of Zelene in the Dobropillia area.

 

Zelene in the Dobropillia area. The "Manor House" architectural-historical complex. The Suderman house. 1897-1914

The Model Shelterbelt. A Green Wall in the Steppe

Among the protective forest plantings in the Ukrainian steppe there is also a model shelterbelt, which holds the status of a botanical natural monument of local significance.

 

Ruda. The Vyhovsky Estate and the Ivan Vyhovsky Museum

The Lviv region has a rich cultural heritage — architectural monuments alone number about 8,500. The centuries-old history of Halychyna is not forgotten; it is preserved, and its glorious past is a source of pride both in the cities and in the small towns. In the village of Ruda, in the Zhydachiv district, in 2004 the first museum in Ukraine dedicated to Ivan Vyhovsky was opened, devoted to the hetman of the Zaporozhian Host and to the history of the Cossacks.

Ruda. The museum of Ivan Vyhovsky

A Holiday in Any Season? Let's Go to Svaliava!

Svaliava is one of the most famous ski and balneological resorts in Ukraine, celebrated for its mineral springs "Poliana Kvasova", "Luzhanska", "Poliana Kupel" and other healing waters, similar in their properties to "Borjomi". To my taste they are tastier than the Caucasian ones, because they are more accessible.

Sviatohirsk: A Historical and Architectural Reserve

Sviatohirsk is rightly called the pearl of the Donbas. For here you can see historical and architectural monuments, churches and monasteries, mountains, a river, and a national nature park.

Bolekhiv. Heritage of a Town in the Boyko Land

The town of Bolekhiv, in Ivano-Frankivsk region, with a population of only 12 thousand people, has been known since 1370. There are no other such towns in Ukraine. The Lviv — Chernivtsi highway divides it into two parts. An endless column of international buses and huge lorries, of course, breaks the quiet and spoils the environment. And the bridge over the river Sukil is simply not designed for such a flow of traffic. If you want to learn more about the town, you need to go to the museum. That is just what I did, having come to Bolekhiv with a friend from Morshyn to take a walk and spend some free time.

Lysiatychi. Landmarks of a Village in the Stryi Area

I ended up in Lysiatychi, in the Stryi district, quite by chance.
Driving through the village, by the monument to T. H. Shevchenko, I recalled a brief conversation at the market in Morshyn with an old woman who was selling apples and prunes.
As I bought her fragrant gifts of autumn from her, I asked, "Where does such wonderful fruit grow?" "In Lysiatychi," — and so the seller of fruit from her own orchard revealed to me yet another place name of the Lviv region.
"And what do you have in your village? Are there monuments to Shevchenko or Franko?" I asked. Her answer simply astonished me and stayed with me for a long time: "Every village has a monument either to Shevchenko or to Franko, child!" — the woman of Lysiatychi replied, with pride and with surprise that I did not know this. In barely 30 seconds I learned so much about village landmarks and the fruitful orchards of the Subcarpathian region. And always, when I see monuments to our people's poets beside village schools and houses of culture, I remember the lesson taught by that seller of vitamin-rich produce.
Later I learned that the greatest number of monuments in Ukraine to the Kobzar (Shevchenko) and the Kameniar (Franko) have been raised in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.