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.

Yablunytsia. Mount Mykulinka, 997 m. A Walk to Recharge

To feel the energy of the Carpathians and replenish your reserves of positive emotions, you do not necessarily have to choose many-hour routes to ultra-distant peaks. You can see romantic mountain views not in a picture but with your own eyes even on thousand-metre ridges or thereabouts, such as Mount Mykulinka, 997 metres above sea level.

 

Mount Mykulinka. The village of Yablunytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk region

Yasinia. The Strukivska Church, a UNESCO Heritage Site

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Yasinia is one of the eight wooden churches in Ukraine featured on the UNESCO World Heritage lists, and one of two in the Zakarpattia region.

Yasinia, Zakarpattia region. The Strukivska Church

Yablunytsia. The Souvenir Market and Folk Craftsmen

Souvenir markets in Western Ukraine resemble ethnographic displays with a rich collection of works by local craftsmen. The spectacular selling-exhibitions of folk-art objects can be considered a national brand. Tourists include visits to colourful fairs in their routes and are sure to buy goods useful in daily life or simply curious little things that can be seen only in the Carpathian land. 

Yablunytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk region. The market on the pass

Sheep Farming. A Folk Craft of the Carpathians

"Oh sheep, my sheep, some black and some white,

Who will drive you along the holy Sunday?"

A merry band of curly-fleeced lambs jingles like a swirling stream down the mountain slopes. Devouring the young shoots of shrubs and the grassy cover, the brotherhood moves at a brisk pace from one pasture to another.

 

The Carpathians. Sheep

Yasinia. The Kirkut, a Monument of Jewish History

Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine hold historical, cultural and artistic value. According to Jewish traditions and rites, burials are not relocated and are regarded as inviolable. Jewish cemeteries have their own features and distinctions.

Yasinia. The Jewish cemetery (Kirkut)

Bakhmut. A Tour of an Old Donetsk Town Before the War

Bakhmut, which in 2021 marked the 450th anniversary of its founding, is listed among the historic settlements of Ukraine. In a city with such epoch-spanning roots, tourists are frequent guests. At the sparkling wine factory off-site excursions are arranged regularly, with visits to the alabaster mines and a tasting of the sparkling drink, while spelunkers choose routes through the abandoned Ivanhrad gypsum adits. Connoisseurs of antiquity and of historic buildings will be surprised by the fact that Bakhmut boasts a far greater number of examples of civic architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries than other cities of the region.

 

Bakhmut. Nezalezhnosti Street, 60. The former Azov-Don Bank. 1902.

Mezhova. The Railway Station and the Station Settlement

Mezhova station of the Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway is located in the settlement of the same name in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

 

Mezhova railway station

Barvinkove. A weekend trip, or the secret landmarks

For a hike along unknown tourist trails, a single day off or a few hours is enough. In small towns and villages there are hidden, unusual finds that can stir up all sorts of emotions - from delight to regret. Unpopular places are always close at hand; it is worth looking at a map and plotting a route. Barvinkove - a small town in the south of Kharkiv region - will mark the 370th anniversary of its founding in 2023. A town with a rich history and a Ukrainian name deserves tourist recognition. The tour begins at the railway station, opened in 1869 on the initiative of the novelist H. P. Danylevsky, a native of the Barvinkove area.

 

Barvinkove, Kharkiv region. The railway station

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