The poetic and tranquil land of Zhytomyr region seems to hide from the rest of the world behind its forests and lakes. Such peacefulness promotes writing and thinking, and perhaps this is why it has inspired so many writers who gave rise to works of world significance. Two such writers are Honoré de Balzac and Joseph Conrad

Balzac’s Northern Star

On the facade of St. Barbara’s Church in Berdychiv (in today’s Zhytomyr region) there is a remarkable tablet. It states that 160 years ago, on 2 March 1850, this very church affirmed the marriage of Honoré de Balzac to Ewelina Hańska. A legend has it that when a local tailor saw Balzac’s wedding suit, he asked the writer where it was made. Balzac’s answer was “In Paris”. The tailor exclaimed shocked: “So far from Berdychiv, and so well-made!” The marriage, however, shocked literary bohemia even more.In 1832 Balzac, the author of La Comédie humaine and other admirable works, received a letter signed by someone calling herself L’Étrangère (“The Foreigner”). The note said, “When I read your books, my heart beats most rapidly: you depict the true dignity of women.” Could there be a man who would not be flattered by such an appraisal of his work?This led to the beginning of a letter-writing affair between the French genius and a Polish noblewoman from Volhynia – Ewelina Hańska. They met for the first time a year later, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and the meeting exceeded all of Balzac’s expectations: his correspondent was young, beautiful and rich. Henceforth the writer began living a double life: one for the public and the other totally devoted to Ewelina. In December 1840 Balzac originally saw the Hański family estate in the village of Verkhivnia, near Zhytomyr, in a painting given to him by Ewelina. “You did not tell me you own the entire Louvre”, he wrote in his reply. Though impressed, Balzac first visited this Ukrainian Louvre seven years later. On his way he stayed at the Wiśniowiecki family palace in the town of Vyshnivets (Ternopil region) and dubbed it the “Polish Versailles”. In Verkhivnia, Ewelina gave Balzac his very own office – the first in his life – and here he penned the plays La Marâtre, The Member for Arcis, Mademoiselle du Vissard and The Petty Bourgeois. And Balzac’s novel The Peasants is based on his impressions of a Ukrainian rebellion.Since 1921, the Hanski’s Imperial-style palace in Verkhivnia has hosted the village’s Agricultural Secondary Technical School. The burial vault chapel where the daughter of Honoré and Ewelina who died at birth, once rested, stands nearby. In 1959, the local authorities founded the Literary-memorial Museum of Honoré de Balzac here to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the birth of the French novelist.The museum includes a table with candlesticks where Balzac wrote Lettre sur Kiev and the short novel The Seamy Side of History. A harpsichord on display is the one Ewelina would play for him. As to an intriguing device made by local craftsmen for the writer when his health weakened, it is actually a cane that could unfold into a chair so Balzac could sit for a rest when walking through the park.In different corners of the once magnificent park many memorable spots remain: the Alley of Love and the Alley of Separation, Balzac’s Bench and Ewelina’s Arbor. There is also an impressive Tree of Love in the park: two trunks intertwined forever which cannot be separated.

Old Sea Wolf from Berdychiv

Berdychiv also gave the world another literary genius: in 1857, the novelist Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) grew up in an impoverished Polish family of the nobility. Biographers remain unsure where exactly Conrad was born, however: whether in Terekhove, a village near Berdychiv (where he definitely grew up), or in Berdychiv itself. Despite this, the first Ukrainian Museum of Joseph Conrad opened in 1987 in Terekhove, and in December 2008, another museum dedicated to the famous writer was established in the lower chapel of Berdychiv’s Discalced Carmelites Monastery (where he was christened).From Berdychiv Conrad moved first to Chernihiv, then to Krakow and Lviv. In 1874, the young man left for England, changed his name to Joseph Conrad, and became a sailor. Conrad’s contemporaries used to say that he spoke French, wrote in English and dreamt in Polish. He travelled around the world, became a navigator and then a captain, his life always full of adventure. Conrad wrote his first novel relatively late, at the age of 37, and the number of books he wrote eventually exceeded the number of ships he piloted (32 versus 19).Today his biographers see Typhoon, Nostromo, Lord Jim, Youth, Heart of Darkness and The Duel as harsh treatises devoted to the sea, solitude and freedom. The influence of his works on the writing of Hemingway, Faulkner, Graham Greene and John Galsworthy is undeniable. The novelist never returned to Ukraine, but he wrote to his uncle Tadeusz Borowski from England: “Take care of our Motherland. There is no such land, like ours anywhere else”.

GETTING THERE

UIA offers direct daily flights to Kyiv from most large Western European capitals and the Gulf. Use your Panorama Club Card to earn miles on all UIA flights and the flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines and TAP Portugal.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com.For more information, call us in Kyiv at 0-44 581 5050.

KyivStar, MTC, life:) and Beeline cellular service subscribers can dial 566. The call costs UAH 1,00 per minute for KyivStar and life:) subscribers, UAH 0,95 per minute for Beeline subscribers, and is billed as a call to a city line for MTC subscribersGetting there from Kyiv:To get to Berdychiv, take one of the frequent trains or buses from Kyiv. Regular buses then run from the Central Bus Station in Zhytomyr to Berdychiv and Verkhivnia (towards Ruzhyn and Yahnyatyn).

USEFUL INFORMATION

The Literary-memorial Museum of Honoré de Balzac is based at the Agricultural Secondary Technical School in Verkhivnia, Ruzhyn district, Zhytomyr region (a department of the Zhytomyr State Literary Museum).Tel.: 04138 95 646.The Joseph Conrad Museum is set in the lower chapel of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Discalced Carmelites Monastery (25 Soborna Square), Berdychiv, Zhytomyr region.

Many countries boast beautiful mountains, and Ukraine is no exception. Besides the Carpathians and the peaks of Southern Crimea, there is a unique mountain range in Ukraine that takes a deserved place among Ukraine’s seven natural wonders: the Podilski Tovtry. These picturesque mountains of organic, not tectonic origin are a petrified coral reef from a sea that no longer exists. In fact, nothing similar can be found anywhere else in the world!

Spanning the distance between the Lviv region and Moldova, the dragon-like spine of the Podilsky Tovtry follows an arch-shaped ridge that stretches for 250 km northeast to southwest.

This ancient “beast” recalls how 15-20 million years ago the Sarmatian Sea washed the shores of the present day Podillia geographic area and explains why the green hills of Tovtry resulted not from tectonic upheaval but as the remains of a petrified coral reef. Evidence can be found right under foot: here and there amidst limestone boulders you may find petrified shells of different sizes and shapes. Layer by layer, the skeletons of corals and shellfish that once inhabited the Sarmatian Sea for millions of years formed what is today the world’s only mountain ridge of organic origin. The Carpathian Mountains, though not related to the Tovtry, made their contribution to this process: tectonic changes accompanying the rise of the Carpathians forced the sea to retreat to the southeast, leaving behind an enormous 5-kilometre wide coral reef.

The origin of the word “tovtry” is unknown, though scientists continue to examine this coral formation. In order to preserve it, in June 1996 the Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park was established, covering three districts of the Khmelnytsky region and some adjacent districts of Ternopil region. The park covers over 260,000 hectares and includes 160 hills.

Visitors need not be alpinists to climb the Tovtry since the hills are not very high. The highest hill, Nyzhniy Kamin (Lower Stone), rises 431 metres. Second-highest and the most popular peak is Bohyt (417 metres), located near Lychkivtsi village in the Ternopil region. This hill used to host a statue of the pagan idol Svyatovyt, which Christians later threw into the Zbruch River. Archaeologists discovered that a pagan temple already existed at this place in Scythian times, which reached its peak during the 9th-13th centuries. Surprisingly, pagan gods were worshiped here until the 17th century.

Differing in height and covered with forest or bald, all Tovtry hills have one common feature: their south-western slopes are steep, while on the north-eastern side the slopes are gradual. Many hill peaks are covered with white limestone boulders, resembling flocks of sheep when viewed from the side. According to a local folk legend, a Gypsy shepherd once punished his evil landlord and hid his lord’s sheep in the underpasses of a ruined castle, leaving the landlord with nothing but boulders.

The Tovtry are steeped in legends. One says that near an old mill not far from the city of Kamyanets-Podilsky the folk hero Ustym Karmaliuk once dated a beautiful girl from a nearby village. The mountain overlooking that mill today bears his name. Another legend has it that peasants from the villages of Nihyn and Cherche hid in a hill cave from Tatar raids. The Tatar siege lasted several weeks, during which milk ran down the cave walls, providing life-saving nourishment to the locals.

The flora of the Podilsky Tovtry is diverse and unique, in particular its areas of steppe and rock-steppe vegetation where various endemic plants grow, protected by Ukrainian legislation. Local fauna is represented by foxes, hedgehogs, ferrets, martens, deer, wild hogs and even moose. There are also many caves and grottoes along the Tovtry chain inhabited by bats. Ornithologists come here to watch and take photos of hawks, owls, falcons, eagles, black storks and grey cranes.

Because of the significant length of the Podilski Tovtry, most tourists are advised to explore the ridge one section at a time – for instance Karmaliuk Mountain or Samovyta Tovtra on the outskirts of Kamyanets-Podilsky. The latter, being a city-museum, itself is perhaps the ultimate attraction of the Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park. This ancient city serves as a gateway to the park and makes any trip to Podilski Tovtry a true adventure! We wish you lots of such adventures in the coming New Year!

GETTING THERE

UIA offers direct daily flights to Kyiv from most large Western European capitals and the Gulf. Use your Panorama Club Card to earn miles on all UIA flights and the flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines and TAP Portugal.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com.For more information, call us in Kyiv at 0-44 581 5050.

KyivStar, MTC, life:) and Beeline cellular service subscribers can dial 566. The call costs UAH 1,00 per minute for KyivStar and life:) subscribers, UAH 0,95 per minute for Beeline subscribers, and is billed as a call to a city line for MTC subscribers

Getting there from Kyiv:
Take one of the frequent overnight trains from Kyiv to Kamyanets-Podilsky (380 km) from Kyiv’s main train station (metro “Vokzalna”).

USEFUL INFORMATION

Management board of the Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park:

9 Piatnytska St., Kamyanets-Podilsky, Khmelnytsky region.

Tel.: 0-3849 239 45, 0-3849 231 16.
Website: www.tovtry.km.ua

Tours to Podilski Tovtry:

Unique Ukraine travel agency (Kyiv):
tel.: 0-44 353 3001
email: info@uu-travel.com

Terra Incognita travel agency (Kyiv):
tel.: 0-44 279 4961;
email: info@terraincognita.info

Travellers come to Svitiaz Lake for its golden sandy beaches, warm crystalline waters, clean air, forests and scrubland teeming with mushrooms and berries, and even for the excitement of sport fishing. The lake is part of the Shatsky National Nature Park founded in 1983 at a picturesque borderland straddling Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. The park includes 22 lakes – each unique in its own way.

Svitiaz Lake, however, is the largest freshwater lake at Shatsky NNP, its deepest, and perhaps the most beautiful and renowned among all the Shatsky Lakes. It is also quite isolated in that it is only fed by underground springs. The lake covers 26 km2, is 9 km long by almost 5 km wide, and has a coastline over 30 km long.

Impressively, the transparent waters of Svitiaz Lake mean its visible depths reach 8 metres, while its maximum depth is 58.4 metres. Not even Lake Balaton in Hungary or the Azov Sea in Ukraine can compare. At the same time, the lake’s shallow coastline, where children splash and play along throughout the summer, makes it easy to forget the lake’s imposing depth.

Svitiaz Lake is surrounded by birch and oak forests that grow very close by, their reflections mirrored on the surface of the lake. An island in the centre of the lake has a romantic name, the Island of Lovers, and is rather large, covering 7 hectares. On the island, according to a local legend, a young couple in love turned into sycamore and linden trees.
The soft water of Svitiaz Lake has long known fame for its healing properties: in the Middle Ages legend has it that its waters were capable of fighting cholera. Aristocrats, mostly women, from Warsaw were known to order it for their own baths, since bathing in Svitiaz’s waters makes the skin baby-soft and wounds heal faster. Following World War 2, the waters of Svitiaz Lake were used to treat wounded Soviet Army officers and soldiers. The secret behind the lake’s curative effect has a simple explanation: the local water contains iodine, silver and glycerine. Additionally, the water is 20 times cleaner than that from the Moscow River system.
Another marvel of the lake is the fish! The main local delicacy is eel: they say a 5-kilogrammes giant was once caught here. Fishermen also catch pike, catfish, perch, bream and pike-perch here. Passionate fishers feeling down on their luck should head to Big Black Lake in Shatsky NNP. They call it the “Fishermen’s Hope”: at Big Black Lake, the fish are always biting!
The fabulous atmosphere of Svitiaz Lake has given rise to several legends. One of many was recorded by renowned Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz in the 19th century. Once upon a time, at the site of the lake there stood a beautiful city and a stronghold belonging to Prince Tugan. While the Prince was defending the land of his neighbour, Mendog, enemy forces approached the city walls in order to lay siege. Tugan’s beautiful daughter prayed to Heaven, asking to be hid from the enemy. Heaven answered her prayers and hid the castle underground, while in its place a beautiful lake appeared, surrounded by shining prince-like flowers.

The small town of Shatsk is the gate to Shatsky NNP. It offers the relaxed atmosphere and developed infrastructure of a resort. For those preferring more quiet environs, the banks of Pulemetske Lake, the second-largest after Svitiaz with an area of 1,638 hectares, offers a respite from civilization and oneness with nature. As a reminder to visitors, tents are allowed only in designated camping areas within Shatsky NNP.

Roughly 10 percent of the park’s 49,000 hectares form part of a nature reserve. In all, 32 of the 789 species of local plants are listed as protected in Ukraine. Among those included on the protected list are 33 species of Shatsky fauna such as grey cranes, wild bores, moose, black storks and musk beavers.

Every visit to Svitiaz brings opportunities for new and exciting experiences: visit the time-worn log houses in Ostrivya village, enjoy a boat ride in the shallows of Piskove Lake or feed whooping cranes on Looki Lake. Or simply share a meal with friends: a huge, mouthwatering fish caught in this Ukrainian natural wonder.

GETTING THERE

UIA offers direct daily flights to Kyiv from most large Western European capitals and the Gulf. With your Panorama Club card you can earn miles on all UIA flights and those of our partner airlines.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com.For more information, call us in Kyiv at 0-44 581 5050.

KyivStar, MTC, life:) and Beeline cellular service subscribers can dial 566. The call costs UAH 1,00 per minute for KyivStar and life:) subscribers, UAH 0,95 per minute for Beeline subscribers, and is billed as a call to a city line for MTC subscribers

How to get there from Kyiv: Take one of the frequent trains from Kyiv to the town of Kovel (460 km) in Volyn region. From the bus station in Kovel, minibuses go directly to Svitiaz Lake.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Shatsky National Nature Park address and contacts:

Svitiaz village, Shatsk district, Volyn region.
Tel.: 0-3355 295 15
Website: shatsky-ozera.com.ua ; www.shatsk.com.

Holidays at Svitiaz and other lakes of Shatsky NNP:
Numerous hotels, resorts, cottages, private houses and apartments are available for rent just outside Svitiaz to suit any taste or budget. For accommodations and excursions, visit www.svityaz-tour.com.ua.

The steppe. An endless sea of grassland stretching north-south from Zaporizhya to Lake Sivash and east-west from Melitopol to Kherson. The great Chapelsky pid (“lowland”) is the real oasis of this steppe desert. Today, the Chapelsky lowland is the largest of the three areas comprising the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve.

The history of the reserve began in 1828, when Russian Tsar Nicholas І sold a plot near the Chapelsky lowland to the Saxon Count Ferdinand Anhalt Ketten. The plot covered 51,000 hectares, the Count paying just eight kopeks for each hectare. The ambitious Count required such vast lands in order to breed gelded sheep, as his intention was to produce wool for the whole of Russia. In honour of his ancestors, the noble House of Askania, Ferdinand renamed the Chapelsky lowland Askania-Nova. Hence residents of Anhalt-Ketten county moved with their flocks of sheep to the steppe halfway across Europe with the promise of exemption from taxes and military service. However, in 1856 the Count declared his project economically unfeasible and sold his estate to German entrepreneur Friedrich Jacob Fein. Fein’s daughter married his business partner, Earl J. J. Falz.

One of the new owners from the von Falz-Fein family, Baron Friedrich Eduardovich von Falz-Fein (1863-1920), was fond of zoology from an early age and created a zoo and a botanical garden in the middle of the steppe. He conquered the dry steppe and in 1887 by establishing the first artesian well in Southern Ukraine. The year after, the residents of the Baron’s zoo (bear, deer, roe, hare and 32 species of birds) were joined by imported animals, including three antelopes, some kangaroos and a couple of ostriches Nandu. The park started attracting both tourists and scientists (biologists and zoologists) who arrived to carry out research.

Already at the end of the 19th century, Baron Falz-Fein realised the environmental importance of this unique plot on Europe’s feather grass steppe and set aside a part of his wild steppe land for its own protection. Even after emigrating to the West in 1917, the Falz-Feins followed developments in their former estate, as they cared much about the steppe and its inhabitants.

Today, 11,054 hectares of the reserve are covered with virgin feather grass and looks especially impressive in summer and early autumn. In spring, the reserve becomes carpeted in tulips, irises and hyacinth. More than 400 species of herbs and flowers exist in the Askania-Nova steppe area, 85 of which only grow here and nowhere else.

In 1919, Askania-Nova was proclaimed a national park. Later, the Institute for Acclimatisation and Crossbreeding of Animals was founded in the area. Sheep, cows and pigs more adjusted to the hot steppe climate are still bred here.

But this is not what tourists come looking for: a large part of Askania-Nova is used as grazing land for the animals, which live close to as they would in the wild. With 2,250 species of animals in Askania-Nova, the prospect of having a great photo-safari in Southern Ukraine comes to life! Here, you can see Saiga and Oryx antelopes, American bison and Andean llamas, Shetland ponies and Kudu antelope, African waterbuffalo and zebras, ostriches and blue wildebeests. The pride of the reserve is its numerous herds of Przewalski’s horses, whose breeding started in Askania-Nova back in 1899. More than 150 species of trees and bushes grow in the beautiful park, covering 200 hectares in all. It is also a paradise for ornithologists: swans, flamingos, pheasants, peacocks and peahens, larks, pallid harriers, partridges, bustards and cranes – the total of 270 species of birds live here. Since 1985, the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve is listed in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme. Regular excursions are offered in the reserve, including visits to the local zoo and park, horseback riding and minibus tours, and much more.

Today, the oldest heir of the Falz-Fein family is Baron Eduard Oleksandrovych von Falz-Fein (born in 1912), the nephew of the reserve’s founding father. Since 1936, he has been a citizen of Lichtenstein, where he resides now in a villa unsurprisingly called Askania-Nova.

This October, a bronze monument to the founder of the reserve, Baron Friedrich von Falz-Fein, will be inaugurated in the reserve. Another great reason to visit Askania-Nova!

GETTING THERE

UIA offers up to four flights a day to Kyiv most of Western Europe’s largest cities.. With your Panorama Club Card you can earn miles on all UIA flights and flights of our partner airlines.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com.For more information, call us in Kyiv at +38 044 581 5050.

KyivStar, MTC, life:) and Beeline cellular service subscribers can dial 566. The call costs UAH 1,00 per minute for KyivStar and life:) subscribers, UAH 0,95 per minute for Beeline subscribers, and is billed as a call to a city line for MTC subscribers

Panorama Tours offers tailor-made packages to Crimea. For more details, please visit www.panorama-tours.eu or contact us at reservations@panorama-tours.com.ua.

How to get there from Kyiv: Take the Kyiv-Kherson train to Nova Kakhovka (75 km from the park), Novooleksiyivka (74 km) or Armyansk (60 km) train stations.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Address of F. E. Falz-Fein Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve:

13 Frunze St., Askania-Nova village, Chaplynsky district, Kherson region

Tel.: +38 05538 612 32/86. Website: www.ascania-nova.org

Best time to go: From late April until early November.

Admission: Entrance tickets to the zoo and the reserve cost UAH 15. Minibus tours are UAH 35 per person. Cart safari across the reserve steppe (previous booking required): UAH 120.

Accommodation: Hotel Kanna (www.askania-nova-kanna.com.ua; rooms from UAH 250) and Fortuna Camping Ground, tel.: +38 05538 615 86 (from UAH 35 per night).

Crimea’s karst plateau Chatyr-Dag, with its near-lunar landscapes, has more than 160 caves, wells and grottos. The temperature in this underground world is constant all year round at a cool +9 to +11ºС. Many local caves are worth exploring, such as Emine-Bair-Khosar, Thousand-Headed and Cold, but the best-known of them is the Marble Cave. Speleologists of the Onix-Tour Speleotourism Centre of Simferopol discovered this natural wonder in 1987 and opened it to tourists. The Marble Cave is the true jewel in the crown of Chatyr-Dag, covering over 60% of the total plateau area and encompassing 40% of its karst deposits. In 1992, the Marble Cave was added to the International Show Caves Association.

The Marble Cave consists of three distinct parts: the straight Main Gallery (725 metres), the twisting Lower Gallery (960 metres) and the lateral Tiger Passage (390 metres). Local spelunkers believe that Marble Cave deserves inclusion in the list of the world’s five most beautiful caves, and it has a lot to offer: magnificent galleries of subterranean rock formations, huge halls beautifully decorated with stalactites and stalagmites and many inviting bends. Although speleologists have already explored 2,050 metres inside the cave, actual guide routes extend only for just half of that. Those without climbing or caving experience should not worry, as the entrance to this underground marvel begins with a 10-metre long man-made tunnel. The depth of the cave under the surface varies from just 10-80 metres.

Geologists say the Marble Cave takes its name from the surrounding rock in which the cave lies – a part of a block of Upper-Jurassic marbled limestone. They also believe that the Marble Cave is one of the oldest karst caves in the Crimean upland.

The cave “Master” greets guests at the entrance to this underground world. This massive stone block with moustache and helmet on his head is said to weep when warning cave explorers of danger. The scientific explanation for his tears stems from increased humidity inside the cave, which is dangerous for speleologists. So when water condenses on the stones near the entrance enough to make the stone Master cry, it is safer for tourists to postpone their visit.

Inside the cave, you will be awed by the amazing scale and age of the cave. It has taken Nature centuries to cover the cave walls with drapes of limestone and a carpet of sorts that resembles flowers. The cave also presents waterfalls, cascading lakes and picturesque columns that separate the various halls. Many stalagmites in the cave have been given names to describe their resemblance to surface beings: Mammoth, Dragon Head, Princess Frog and even Father Frost (which looks particularly bizarre in Crimea mid-summer). Archaeologists have found bones of pre-historic cave bears in one of the wells, so the Marble Cave has had its share of different visitors over the aeons. Perestroika Hall encloses tourists in perfect darkness – until headlamps are turned on, revealing a simply enormous space of 4,000 m2 with walls 20 metres high, making Perestroika Hall one of the world’s largest cave halls. And only in the Marble Cave can explorers see a unique seven-metre tall stalagmite which does not grow from the bottom, but lies on its side. Guides call this stalagmite the Fallen Tower.

There is also the Palace Hall, with statues of what look to be a King and a Queen welcoming tourists. Escorting the “royals” are various shaped stalagmite huddled around. Other halls worth visiting include the Hall of Roses, the Hall of Hopes, the Chandelier Hall, the Balcony Hall and the Chocolate Hall, among others.

One visit to the Marble Cave is often not enough for even amateur cave enthusiasts, and you will want to return to visit this quiet underground fairytale world. Meanwhile, you can proudly say, “I have been there!”

GETTING THERE

UIA offers up to four flights a day from Kyiv to Simferopol, as well as flights from Frankfurt to Simferopol on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com.For more information, call us in Kyiv at +38 044 581 5050.

KyivStar, MTC, life:) and Beeline cellular service subscribers can dial 566. The call costs UAH 1,00 per minute for KyivStar and life:) subscribers, UAH 0,95 per minute for Beeline subscribers, and is billed as a call to a city line for MTC subscribers

Panorama Tours offers tailor-made packages to Crimea. For more details, please visit www.panorama-tours.eu or contact us at reservations@panorama-tours.com.ua.

USEFUL INFROMATION

How to get there from Simferopol: It is possible to get to the cave by public transport or by car (look for the Dobre-Tretie or Zarichne trolleybus stops, then head to Marmurove village). Try not to miss the turn near Zarichne at km 17 heading along the highway from Yalta to Simferopol. Buses and taxis run between the highway and the cave (approximately UAH 80 one way).

The eight-kilometres track leading to the cave starts in the Marmurove village and runs through a forest preserve.

Excursions to the Marble Cave: Onix-Tour Speleotourism Centre, Simferopol, tel.: +380 652 256 348, www.onixtour.com.ua

Entrance: UAH 50 per person.

The sea is always quiet here: there are no storms that could get through the twisted meanders of the Balaklava Bay. Birds can enjoy the blue-and-green view of the earth spreading its arms around the sea in the shape of an “S”. Balaklava landscapes are spectacular, and the Fiolent Cape, which has been printed on thousands of postcards, looks even more breathtaking when it appears before your own eyes. However the ancient inhabitants of the bay, the Tauros (who are likely to be prototypes of the scary Laistrygones), did not care so much about the beauty of the sea as they were busy with their favourite occupation: piracy. Who knows, maybe one day they will attain the same screen glory of the famous Pirates of the Caribbean…
Not a lot is left in Balaklava from ancient times; the memories find their roots in mythology rather than in architecture. People say that somewhere around the Fiolent Cape there used to be a Temple of Iphigenia. That may be why ancient Greeks used to call Balaklava Bay “Sumbolon-limne”, or “The Bay of Symbols”. Ancient Romans built the Hercules Temple, the remains of which can be found here. Only thirteen such sanctuaries are known to exist in the world.
The pages of ancient history are followed by those of the Byzantine era. For some time Byzantine monks used to live here.
Next comes the period that can open a whole chapter in the book of Balaklava’s history. In the 14th century, Genoese merchants fought tooth and nail with their competitors, the Duchy of Feodoro, for this cosy narrow bay. However, the Duchy did not want to accept defeat and for a long time tried to recover the Bay of Symbols. This even caused a war in 1433. Then the Chembalo stronghold was built by the Genoese on the 200-metre-high Kastron Mountain to protect the bay. The Turks, who conquered Crimea in 1475, gave their own name to the bay – Fish Nest, or Balyk-Lav in Turkish, which was later transformed into Balaklava.
Chembalo Fortress seemed to have magnetic power over the Zaporozhian Cossacks who invaded it in 1625. The longest the Cossacks managed to stay here was in the 18th century; following the orders by Catherine II they were supposed to protect Crimea from the Turks. The Empress herself visited Balaklava in 1787. She was greeted by Amazons (local Greek women disguised to please the Tsarina); it was a special gift from her favourite Grigoriy Potemkin.
Let us keep turning the pages of our book. The Crimean War of 1853 – 1856 brought the best forces of the British Army to Balaklava’s banks – and sadly covered fields and vineyards with obelisks on soldiers’ graves. The English were the ones who built the first railway in Ukraine in record time in Balaklava, built the embankment and covered it with little shops and casinos. When their work was finished, they called it “Little London”. The Battle of Balaklava took place near Kady-Koy Village on October 13th, 1854. The English frigate “Black Prince” that sank in the bay waters has been rising in the dreams of many local boys. In their imagination, its actual cargo of medication and food has been replaced with dozens of barrels crammed with gold.
In the 19th century, the former village became a fashionable holiday resort where the dachas of Russia’s wealthiest men were built as well as institutions for mud cures. One local civil servant even had a wish to establish an independent Balaklava State, of which he informed Tsar Alexander ІІІ by official letter. The Tsar said “no” in a very diplomatic way: “Bite it”.
Later, Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, painter Ivan Aivazovskiy, and Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka have been attracted to Balaklava by the magic beauty of the bay and adjacent capes of AiYa and Fiolent.
The 20th century has drastically changed the looks of Balaklava. In 1957-1961, Moscow metropolitan engineers drilled the mine for a submarine repair plant in one of the rocks of the western coast. The plant, covering 5 100 square metres (an underground city!), was designed for the simultaneous repair and maintenance of seven submarines. It could shelter 3 000 people in case of attack and could operate autonomously for three years! This unique classified facility was guarded so carefully under Soviet rule that the whole city became a “secret” and disappeared from the world.
Only recently Balaklava, right next to Sevastopol, is getting back its fame as a resort. The underground submarine base is now one of its major attractions and is open for visits. The transparency of the Balaklava Bay waters around the rocky cape AiYa and the size of the local crabs never fail to amaze divers. Cape AiYa defines the southern border of Balaklava, separating Big Yalta and the Sevastopol Region. It has an outstanding climate and flora (28 representatives of the local flora are registered in the Red Book of Ukraine). Dolphins are regularly seen in the bay.
The road from Balaklava to Yalta will take you to Fiolent Cape (“Tiger Cape” in Turkic) hosting the ancient St. George’s Monastery founded in 891AD. From the Monastery, you can walk down to the Jasper Beach down the 800-step stairs. As the adverts say, it is a 2 in 1 deal: exercise for your legs and indescribable pleasure for your eyes. Here you understand how the Cape got its name: its soil is covered with stripes just like the pelt of a tiger. And you should see the amount of sun you can get here! The sun shines above Balaklava for 2300 hours a year!

GETTING THERE

UIA offers non-stop daily flights from Kyiv to Simferopol, as well as Munich-Simferopol flights (Sat) and Frankfurt-Simferopol flights (Thu and Sat).

Ukraine International offers direct daily flights to Kiev from London, Berlin, Paris and other Europe’s largest cities. With your Panorama Club Card you can earn miles on all UIA flights and flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines and TAP Portugal.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com. For more information, call us in Kyiv at +380 44 581 5050.

KyivStar, MTC, Life:) and Beeline cellular service subscribers can dial 566.

The Dnister Canyon, one of the largest (250 km) and most beautiful in Europe, is the list of Ukraine’s natural wonders for good reasons. This wonder-canyon goes through the territories of the Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi and Khmelnytsky regions, draws tourists by its picturesque steep walls and numerous attractions. And all this come with a pleasant bonus: legends about countless treasures well hidden in the canyon’s walls

They say that once there was a small brook in Podilia (a historic region in Western Ukraine). The people who inhabited its shores kept a calendar by marking days on sand. But one day a brook spilled by the nearby meadows and fields, and all the marks were wiped. “Who wiped the days?”, - people would ask. “The brook wiped the days!” This is how the river got its name: Dnister (in Ukrainian, ‘dni’ means ‘days’, ‘ster’ means ‘wiped’). But scientists, who prefer facts to legends, believe that the name of the river derives from the Sarmatian Iranian ‘Danastris’ (‘rapid water’).

In Ukraine, the Dnister is the third longest river: 1362 kilometres. Its sources are on the north-eastern slopes of Ukrainian Carpathians. In old times, the river was used as a transportation waterway linking the Carpathian Mounts and Podilia to the Balkan Peninsula, and Near East. Boats, loaded with tableware, fabrics, fur, grain and honey, were trading down the Dnister.

In the 1980’s, the Dnister reservoir was created on a territory in the Chernivtsi, Khmelnytsky and Vinnytsia regions, which swelled the river.

The magnificent landscapes and fantastic curves of the Dnister Canyon are strikingly picturesque throughout its entire path. But there is an area of the canyon especially popular among tourists: from the village of Luka (Ivano-Frankivsk region) to the city of Khotyn (Chernivtsi region). Rafting between the high Dnister ‘walls’ (from 150 to 300 metres high!) is exhilarating. The river’s steep slopes are like the halls of a museum of Nature, silent greetings from the past of the Earth: here you can see rifts from the Jurassic era and the world’s largest rifts from the Silurian era (over 400 million years old).

Here we are, exploring the canyon in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Between the Dnister steep slopes, the Rakovetskiy Castle, built almost four centuries ago, stretches its high tower into the sky. And now we are already in the Ternopil area: the raft passes by the Red Mountain. This area, also known as Warm Podilia, is the warmest place on the Dnister: its climate is comparable to Crimea.

We continue in the Ternopil region and arrive to one its most impressive towns, Zalishchyky. The Dnister dances such curves around the town that it seems the river is clutching Zalishchyky to its bosom. From a 170-metres-high bank of the Dnister, a village named Khreshchatyk (just like Kyiv’s main street) is ‘watching’ the breathtaking panorama of Zalishchyky. Khreshchatyk, which is in the Chernivtsi region, hosts the St. John the Divine monastery dating back to the 17th century. According to a legend, one misty morning the horse carriage of a local magnate ran towards a precipice. A few centimetres from the abyss, a monk who lived in a cave near a source, stopped the frightened horses. The magnate, whose life was saved by the monk, gave money to build a chapel near the cave. Today, lots of people come to the monastery: here the soul rests, the local water is clear and tasty, and the views are simply gorgeous.

Further, the canyon brings us to the pride of the Chernivtsi region, the magnificent 13th -17th centuries Khotyn Fortress hanging over the Dnister. In 1621, the historic battle of Khotyn was fought by the walls of this stronghold. A mere 57 thousand Polish soldiers and 40 thousand Ukrainian Cossacks defeated the 400 thousand warriors of Osman II. The victory of Cossacks in this brutal fight, which lasted five weeks, saved Europe from a Turkish invasion. Today, the Khotyn stronghold attracts both history and cinema lovers: over 50 films were shot here, among which were old favourites such as The Three Musketeers, The Arrows of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe and, last year, Gogol’s Taras Bulba. Mighty 60-meters-high stone walls, five towers overlooking the fantastic landscapes of the Dnister canyon… such sceneries cannot be built in a studio!

Looking for waterfalls? There are plenty of them on the Dnister. The most picturesque, Dzhurynsky waterfall is found some 3-4 kilometres from the river, near the Ustechko and Nahorianka villages in the Ternopil region. It is Ukraine’s highest plain waterfall: 16 metres high. By the way, it is not of natural origin: in the 17th century, the Turks changed the path of the Dzhuryn River during a siege. The Dnister is also a real paradise for ornithologists. Here, you can see white egrets and grey herons, storks, swans, seagulls…

And the number of legends about the Dnister canyon in countless! They say that in the village of Trubchyn (Ternopil region) enemies caught Taras Bulba, who escaped to get his pipe that he forgot on the shore. And people who live along the Dnister are convinced that gems, gold and other precious metals were buried by its shores since the 18th century. Dreaming about treasures? Come along to the Dnister Canyon! If you do not discover Turkish gold, you are sure to find fascinating adventures and experiences, a more enduring treasure.

GETTING THERE

UIA offers daily flights to Kyiv from most of Western Europe’s largest cities. With your Panorama Club Card you can earn miles on all UIA flights and flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines, and TAP Portugal.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com. Call us in Kyiv at +38 044 581 5050.

Panorama Tours offers packages to Ukraine. For details, please visit www.panorama-tours.eu or contact us at reservations@panorama-tours.com.ua.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Rafting on the Dnister Canyon:

“Dyvosvit” tourism agency: Kyiv, tel.: +38 044 496 0630, e-mail sales@dyvosvit.com

“Extreme Tour” company: Kyiv, tel.: +38 044 451 5386; www.extremetour.com.ua

The Dnister Canyon Monuments and Attractions:

Ivano-Frankivsk region: The 17th century Rakovetskiy Castle (Rakovets village, Horodenkivsky district).

Chernivtsi region: The Khotyn Fortress (Khotyn city, tel.: +38 03731 22 932; open daily from 9:00 to 18:00); panoramic views of the town of Zalishchyky; a cave with rock paintings by primitive tribes (Balamutivka village).

Ternopil region: Remains of fortifications and the 17th century Saint Trinity Fortress (Okopy village, Borshchivsky district).

Khmelnytsky region: Zhvanetskiy Castle, 14th - 17th centuries (Zhvanets village, located between the cities of Kamyanets-Podilsky and Khotyn).

Nikolai Gogol was born on March 20^th (old calendar, now April 1^st). Perhaps his zodiac sign, Pisces, defines the nature of the writer: melancholic and cold, mysterious, unstable, unpredictable, yet talented.

When a baby’s cry was heard in their small clay house, the mother and father worried about only one thing: will he survive? Hardly surprising, given the fact that all their previous newborns had died. When Gogol’s mother was pregnant with the future genius, she travelled to neighbouring Dikanka to pray to the icon of St. Nicholas. She named her surviving son after the Saint.

Genius and Eccentricity

The mysteries, prophetic dreams, omens, that so infatuated Gogol, were perhaps inherited from his parents. His father, Vasily, saw his bride-to-be in a dream at thirteen, when she was only a one-year-old child. When returning home from a pilgrimage with his parents, he stopped in a village where there happened to be a neighbours’ daughter. Vasily recognised his bride in this girl, named Maria. He faithfully waited for her and married her when she was fifteen. From his mother, Nikolai Gogol inherited an amazing gift of foreseeing what would happen to him later, as well as an incredibly vivid imagination.

Interestingly, while studying at a college in Poltava and at the school of higher arts in Nizhyn, Gogol was never noted for anything remarkable. His performances at the student theatre, however, were successful. Another one of his special “features” was his attitude towards women: he never married, regarding relationships with the opposite sex as a “sinful passion.” He once proposed to Anna Veligorska, but this lady, who belonged to aristocratic circles, was simply beyond his reach. He was also close to Lermontov’s muse, Aleksandra Smirnova-Rosset, but her femininity discouraged him.

Many books have been written on Gogol’s literary journey. However, what is really striking is that a completely unknown young man who came to St. Petersburg from a remote part of Ukraine very quickly managed to transform himself into one of the idols of the northern capital of the Russian Empire and, a few years later, an acclaimed guest in Moscow. Gogol spent twelve years of his life living abroad, eight of which in Rome. The writer used to enjoy taking his friends to the Coliseum, then only partly unearthed and covered in grass. He would make them lie on their backs looking upwards and say: “Right now you see the sky exactly the way it was seen by the people in ancient times.”

Gogol is known to the world as one of Russia’s classic writers. However, the settings of most of his novels, written in Russian, are near his dear Poltava in the heart of Ukraine. This alone qualifies him for the honour of being a Ukrainian classic as well. Therefore, we invite you to take a trip to these sites to see with your own eyes where the author drew his inspiration.

Visiting Gogol

We begin our journey with a visit to the town of Mirgorod, which gave its name to a well-known collection of stories by Gogol. It seems that everything around here is permeated with the magic of the writer’s works. Nikolai himself “greats” people arriving to the town’s railway station, from the height of his pedestal. Another tribute is Gogol restaurant (18, Vusyka Str, tel.: +38050 305 5131; www.gogol.com.ua), where you can sample delicious vareniky and zavivantsy made according to old recipes from Gogol’s times.

Even “the famous puddle”, that, a long time ago, provided the setting for the meeting of the characters from The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich, can still be seen, right in the middle of the town. Nowadays, Mirgorod is a health resort with numerous spas. It was founded by doctor Zubkovskiy, who discovered the medicinal properties of the water coming out of the local mineral springs. He also solved the mystery of the famous puddle: it does not dry up in summer nor freezes in winter because it is fed by underground hot springs.

Next, we make our way to the village of Velyki Sorochyntsi, where the literary genius was born 200 years ago. The short story The Fair at Sorochyntsi, published in 1829, made this village world-famous. From the monument honouring the writer at the entrance to the village, we move to the house where he was born, a museum bearing his name. If you wish to see Gogol’s characters “live”, come to Velyki Sorochyntsi in August to attend the Sorochyntsi Fair, famous since the second part of the 17^th century! Nowadays, this is the place where one can not only make good deals, or buy souvenirs, but also take part in theatrical performances based on the writings of Gogol.

After visiting the fair, we head for Gogol’s Dikanka, another village he immortalised with his “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” stories. Surrounded by a forest, Dikanka is nestled comfortably on the bank of the Vorskla River, and is still known for its patriarchal and deferential attitude to old times. St. Nicholas Church, where Gogol’s mother used to pray for the survival of her unborn child, is visible on the southern outskirts of the village. The melodious chimes of its bells can be heard as far away as Poltava!

If you are planning to spend a few unforgettable evenings visiting Gogol’s places, then make your way to the nearby village of Proni, to the historical and cultural centre named “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” (tel.: +38050 305 5216). Here, you can even order a theatrical performance with your favourite Gogol characters! This is also the right place to sample the food described in the story: real borsch with lard and pampushky, vareniky and Cossack potatoes.

While travelling around Gogol’s places, you cannot skip a trip to the region’s capital, Poltava. Poltava took its place in world history because of the battle between the Russian army led by Tsar Peter the First and the Swedish army of Charles XII that took place near the city in 1709. One of the main streets of Poltava is Gogolivska, with a bronze monument to Gogol standing on it. The Poltava regional music and drama theatre, also named after Gogol, is the place where you can see performances based on Gogol’s works.

We leave Poltava and travel further to the village of Gogolevo, where the writer grew up. There is now a park-museum named after him. The rooms of his parents’ house as well as the annex are home to an exhibition that sheds light on Gogol’s times, and tells stories from the life of the great writer. There is also a beautiful garden located on the territory of the park. Follow the paths leading to the crystal-clear water of the pond and walk the alley that Gogol himself once trod. On the hilltop you can see the wooden summerhouse “Dream”, and further away there is a cave. A large stone lying at its entrance is where Gogol often sat, lost in thoughts. You are bound to find this place rather lyrical, perhaps a bit mystical, just like a Gogol story.

Nikolai Gogol: mini-file

April 1^st (March 20^th) 1809: Born in the village of Velyki Sorochyntsi, Mirgorod district, Poltava region.

1828: Gogol moves to St. Petersburg.

1829: Gogol’s first book “Hans Kuhelgarten” is published.

1831-1832: The short story collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, is published, making him famous overnight.

1935:Taras Bulba and Viy are published in one volume titled Mirgorod.

1936:The Inspector General is staged by the Alexandrinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg.

1842: The first volume of Dead Souls is published.

1845: Gogol, deeply depressed, burns the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls.

February 21^st, 1852: He dies, or, according to other sources, falls into a lethal stupor. He is buried in Moscow.

FESTIVITIES MARKING THE BICENTENNIAL OF GOGOL

International exhibition-competition of illustrations “The World of Gogol” (April 1^st to May 1^st, 2009): Poltava Art Museum: Poltava, 5, Frunze Str, tel.: +38 053 256 3540.
Theatrical Festival “Visiting Gogol” (March 31^st to April 6^th 2009): Ukraine-wide. Poltava region, Mirgorod: Palace of Culture, 1, Kyivska Str., tel.: +38 053 555 4728.
Sorochyntsi Fair (August 19^th to 23^rd, 2009): theatrical festival featuring Gogol’s characters and folk performers from Ukraine: Poltava region, Velyki Sorochyntsi village, tel.: +38 053 250 8211; www.yarmarok.poltava.ua
Gogolfest’ 2009 Festival (September 5^th to 27^th, 2009):Culture and art museum complex “Artistic Arsenal”: Kyiv, 30, Mazepy Str.; www.gogolfest.org.ua

GETTING THERE

UIA offers direct daily flights to Kiev from Madrid, Barcelona and others largest cities of Western Europe. With your Panorama Club Card you can earn miles on all UIA flights and flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP Portugal.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com.For more information, call us in Kyiv at +38 044 581 5050.

The best way to reach Poltava is from Kyiv (343 km)by daily trains.

In fact, the Stone Graves reserve is not a steppe at all: the monumental Eastern and Western Ridges tower over the plain, with some peaks reaching a height of 100 metres – a considerable height for the plains of Eastern Ukraine. According to geologists, a long time ago, these hills used to be real mountains: 3,000 metres high!

Almost half of the territory of the nature reserve is covered with two billion-years-old granite. A powerful Ukrainian crystalline formation rose to the surface while the sun, wind and water continue to do the work started by magma. For centuries, they have been molding fantastic figures out of the local boulders. When the sun sets over the grassland, and the evening fog spreads its fingers through the nature reserve, these amazing sculptures begin their own mysterious lives.

Each of the local peaks has a name, while some of the cliffs, rocks and boulders have their own story to tell. The old name for Stone Graves is “Besh-tash” (in Turkic it means “Five stones”) named after five mountain peaks: the Knight, the Panorama (yes, our namesake!), the Sharp, the Frog and the Southern. Smaller hills also have names: next to the Frog is the Bear with the Bear Cub, between the Knight and the Panorama, there is the Sun Gate, and the Dinosaur is “crawling” towards the foot of the Sharp.

There is an amazing pink stone at the top of the Sharp, with its western side engraved with mysterious characters and a symmetrical trident as a centrepiece of the composition. The stone awaits extensive research that will decipher its message covered in ancient moss. Romantic researchers believe that this boulder was an altar of Ares, the Scythian god of war.

A 19^th century Ukrainian historian, Y. Novitskiy wrote once that there used to be a Tatar town here that was later destroyed by the Cossacks from Zaporizhia. The locals will show you the remains of the ancient mosques still visible on the ground. Another legend tells the tale of an ancient kingdom, standing amidst the tall mountains a thousand years ago, upon which an evil sorcerer cast an eternal spell. To break the spell, someone just needs to find a fern that blooms at night. But where to find it? All we can do now is preserve this unique part of Ukraine and hope that one day the wind will blow away the spell from the Stone Graves.

Though the reserve had been under the protection of the state since 1927, it is about to be turned into a kind of a tourist Mecca: people come for the spectacular mountain scenery, the aroma of herbs, and the view of the pristine grassland full of fossil plants. The Azov Sea is just a stone’s throw away: about 40 kilometres. The nature reserve welcomes visitors from early spring until late fall. The best time to visit is the beginning of May, when the grassland is in bloom. Tens of thousands of tourists come to wander among the boulders every year. For biologists, the reserve is the place where they can study 500 species of plants, eighteen of which are listed as endangered, while archaeologists regard it as a place with a unique mix of various civilisations.

Local burial mounds that witnessed ritual ceremonies became tombs for the contemporary pharaohs and the Scythians, Polovets and warriors who took part in the ten-day battle on Kalka River, in May 1223. Back then, the bodyguards of Prince Mstislav discovered, for the first time, how devastating the Tatar-Mongol Horde could be. One in four warriors found death on this grassland. To honour those long gone, a memorial cross and a chapel were erected here in the year 2000. The last weekend of May is when Ukrainian Cossacks and residents traditionally organise a memorial ceremony in honour of the people who died in the battle, with a Cossack initiation following it. The celebration culminates with a display of military skills by Cossacks and a feast where everyone is welcome to taste traditional Cossack porridge.

Nowhere else, apart from Stone Graves will you be able see wild yarrow; only here can you still stumble upon whole meadows of wild orchids and gladiolas. The stone women that are lining the popular tourist routes, however, do not share the history of the Stone Graves: they were brought here in Soviet times.

The tourists can travel within the reserve only along specially designated paths. Visitors who plan to visit the reserve should remember that it is home to a variety of wild animals such as foxes and hedgehogs, hares and lizards, weasels and ermines. Wild boars and roe deer; steppe grass-snakes, larks, partridges and pheasants also can be seen. This is their home, while we are just their guests.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Address, phone: The Stone Graves nature reserve is located close to Nazarivka village, in the Volodarskiy region of Donetsk.
The Reserve’s managing director’s contact: +38 0621 693 688.
Guided tours: A guide organising tours can always be found at the reserve. Admission fee UAH3. Tours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, from April to October. Reserve two days in advance.
How to get there: From Kyiv to Mariupol or Zaporizhia by train. From Zaporizhia there is a train service to Nazarivka village (get off at Rozivka station, located within 12 km. of the reserve), or take a Mariupol-Kalchinivka bus (busses leave at 6:00, 10:00 and 14:00, from the bus station in Mariupol).

GETTING THERE

UIA offers daily flights to Kiev from Paris, Amsterdam and others largest cities of Western Europe. With your Panorama Club Card you can earn miles on all UIA flights and flights of our partner airlines: Air France (excluding the Kyiv-Paris route), Austrian Airlines, KLM, Swiss International Air Lines, and TAP Portugal.

Buy tickets on line at www.flyUIA.com. For more information, call us in Kyiv at +380 44 581 5050.

Born out of Love

This lake of fascinating beauty could not but give rise to legends about its origin. Everything here is just as one would expect: a sea of love and sharp rocks of suffering. The most popular legend relating the creation of Synevyr goes back to the time when all the mountains used to belong to one Count, the father of a blue-eyed beauty called Syn. One day, the Count went to see how his lumberjacks were working, and Syn asked to accompany him. The girl was wandering in the forest when she heard the sound of a reed pipe that shepherd Vyr was playing. She asked the young man to go on playing and, before leaving, she promised to come back. The more frequent were their secret meetings, the gloomier was the Count. One day, when Vyr was expecting his beloved by the forest, the Count’s servants rolled a huge boulder at him down the mountainside. When she saw what happened, Syn embraced the stone grave and wept bitterly. She cried and cried until her tears flooded the edge of the forest, and Syn herself disappeared in the blue waters. Its water - the colour of Syn’s eyes, while the island in the middle of it - the place where Vyr died. People combined their names - Syn and Vyr - and thus named the lake.

There is also another legend, also full of love and anguish. One day, wolves attacked one of the Count’s flocks of sheep, which young shepherd Ivan was looking after. The shepherd, knowing that there would be no mercy from the Count, decided to escape punishment by running away. Feeling distraught in a foreign land, the shepherd went to the seashore every night to pour out his sadness. “Oh mighty sea, please, spare a moment of your time to cast a single glance over my Verhovina and bow for me to my native land!” The wild elements heard the shepherd’s prayer, broke through the mountains and drowned both the Count and his servants in its waters. So impressed were the elements with the proud Carpathian Mountains that they decided to remain here as a clear sea eye.

The Gate to Tranquillity

Synevyr, the largest lake of the Carpathians, is known for crystal-clear water, incredibly clean air and its remoteness. Although the distance to the region centre Mizhgirya is only 32 kilometres, in the mountains, those kilometres have a tendency to stretch out. The road meanders through the mountain gorges of the Synevyrskiy Pass. Make a brief stop on its top and take a look around. Over there, in the southeast, you can see Mount Strymba (1719 m) rising into the sky, and, down below, scattered like the pearls of a broken necklace, the white huts of the Synevyr village, together with a tiny thread of the river Tereblya. Its clear waters are home to trout.

The resort “Synevyrske Ozero (Lake)” serves as a kind of gate to the kingdom of tranquillity. There is still a distance of 1.5 kilometres between here and the lake that is worth walking. This is a protected area full of rare animals and plants. A wooden, cosy-looking hotel is located right on the edge of the “sea eye”. Never mind that these mountains have not heard of the Internet yet. A home-like atmosphere holds sway in the hotel, burning logs crackle in the fireplace, the floorboards gently squeak, and the snow on the shore sparkles like diamonds …
Synevyr was formed around ten thousand years ago when, during a powerful shift, rock formations rose like a fast-moving torrent to form a natural dam. The water eventually found a way out: 60 metres off the south-eastern shore, a lonely trickle breaks through the ground. Four other streams and multiple underwater springs feed the blue Carpathian “eye”.

The surface of the lake is about 7 hectares, and the maximum depth is 22 metres. The lake’s water has a rather unusual taste: it does not contain any chlorides. In summer, the surface temperature of the lake reaches 20 °C, while in the deep; it is only 4 to 5 °C. The wooden figures of Syn and Vyr, created by Ukrainian sculptors in 1984, are reflected in the still water.

In 1974, to preserve this natural wonder, the state-sponsored landscape reserve “Synevyrske Lake” was founded here, and 20 years ago - the national natural park “Synevyr” was established. It covers an area of 40,400 hectares. More than 10 000 plants, 43 species of mammals, 91 species of birds, 24 species of fish have found here a protected habitat.

The nearby Ozirna Mountain (1496 metres) offers the best view of the lake. In summer, one can take a twelve-kilometre road to its top. If you are lucky, you can come across deer, hare or badgers. But the main prize is still ahead: the view on the lake. From a high vantage point, you get an impression that a blue eye watches you: an eye-lake with a pupil-island in the middle, surrounded by spruce trees eyelashes. The Sea Eye of love…

USEFUL INFORMATION

The National Natural Park “Synevyr”
http://synevir.karpat.org/; E-mail: synevyr@karpat.org
Where to stay
The tourist resort “Synevyrske Ozero” is located just 1.5 km from the Synevyr Lake.
Address: Transcarpathian region, Mizhgirsky district, Synevyrska Poliana village. Tel./Fax: +38 03146 914 62. Rooms start from UAH150 to 300 per day.
How to get there
From Kyiv or Lviv by daily trains to Uzhgorod, from there to Mizhgirya village or the town of Hust by regular buses, and then in a rented car or a taxi to Synevyr.

GETTING THERE

UIA offers daily flights to Kyiv from most of Western Europe’s largest cities, convenient flights to Lviv from Madrid, Barcelona and Frankfurt