Carpathians and Bukhovina
Bukhovina

A brief excursion on Chernovzi

Starting your journey from the train station and the oldest street in Chernovzi - Anri Barbuse Street , you will walk along many cosy streets in our city. You will see the legendary Turkish well, Nikolayevskaya church, the famous house-ship, the Town hall, the monument to Taras Shevchenko.

You will be fascinated by a nicely decorated Theatrical square - the most beautiful one in our town which was being built during four decades, Hebrew National House, Regional Musical Drama Theatre (a small replica of Viennese theatre).

You can have a rest in one of the most beautiful parks in Chernovzi - the Shevchenko park and then walk along O.Kobylianska Street the only pedestrian street in Chernovzi; in one of many cafes you can enjoy a cup of fragrant coffee form Chernovzi at the table in the open air. A climax of the excursion is the visiting of Phedkovich National university (the former residence of Bukovina metropolitans) and Churches of the residence.

The residence of Bukovina metropolitans

You will visit the residence of Bukovina metropolitans. This architectural complex is the pearl of Chernovzi and the masterpiece of well known Check architect and scientist Joseph Glavka.

The residence is a balanced group of three main buildings surrounding the beautiful square. In front of this structure there is a metropolitan s residence with a chapel. On both sides there is a seminary and a house for tourists. The erection of this palace building became a big event for Chernovzi; near the town brick plants and new quarries were built; well-known masters and builders came from Vienna, Prague and other cities of Austria-Hungary.

Among them was Carl Yobst who in the collaboration with Carl Svoboda developed and designed the interior of the ensemble. Nowadays in the building of the former residence there are three departments of Chernovzi National University, but the academic process does not make it difficult for tourists to enjoy the view of the beautiful building which combines the forms of medieval architecture with the forms and traditions of Byzantium and local colour. Today you can also become part of this beauty.

Khotin

Above the Dnistr on its picturesque steep hills there is one of the most ancient towns in the region - Khotin. When visiting this small town of Bukovina you find yourself in the Middle Ages: on the outskirts of the town there is a fortress which is the same age as the poem “The Word about Igor’s regiment” - the witness of the Ukrainian kozaks’ glorious victory.

They sing about Khotin in one of the Ukrainian historical songs: “Oh Khotin, the ancient town, you are known everywhere”. The stone walls of the ancient fortress remember the clash of kozaks’ swords lead by the hetmans Petro Sagaidachny and Bogdan Khmelnizki. The rich history includes the names of Michael Lomonosov and Vasiliy Dokuchaev, David Guramishvili and Alexandr Afanasiev-Chuzhbinski, the French military engineer Giyom-Levasser de Boplan, the figures of Moldova culture Miron Kostin and Alexandr Khidzheu.

Kamenez-Podolski fortress

Kamenez-Podolski fortress was erected in 12-13 th centuries. Successfully resisting Turks and Tatars’ attacks it was famous in Europe as an unapproachable one. We wonder how this reinforcement (175x50m) could resist 60,000 army of E.Khmelnizki, 40,000 horde of Tatars. The fortress fell down when in 1672 it was surrounded by 300,000 Turkish army lead by sultan Mahomed IV and 40,000 army of Tatars and kozaks lead by hetman P.Doroshenko because the town administration arranged things with the aggressors and surrendered the town.

From 1816 to 1914 the fortress stopped being a military object and it was transformed into a jail for debtors, criminals and political prisoners. The activity of the leader of the antifeudal movement in Podolye U.Karmaluke (1787-1835) is connected with the fortress. In 1906 there were 67 political prisoners in it. Archeological excavations and learning of the history of the fortress have been conducted since 1991. Around its perimeter there were underground galleries through which the connection with the outside world was made.

However, in 1821 due to the reconstruction of the fortress and making it a prison from a military object most entrances were immured. How can an old castle be without ghosts? Their existence in Kamenez-Podolski fortress is being investigated and confirmed by science. In the casemates of the fortress there is a cell where prisoners sentenced to death were placed. It was the “cell of condemned men”. A group of explorers lead by S.Muntianu were conducting observation and photographing for two hours (at night of full moon). As a result the explorers were not feeling comfortable and felt one’s eyes skinned on them.

After development the film they could see abnormal luminescent spots& A pearl of Pridnestrovie part of Podolie - the gypseous Crystal cave - is located in the south of Ternopol region. It looks like a real underground kingdom. Its galleries and halls are a separate world balancing between reality and fantasy.

Human’s imagination can be surpassed by the play of patterns and colours of the underground flower bed - the overgrowth of crystals. And huge gypseous blocks remind you of Gulliver’s country of Giants& Though in the world there are other gigantic underground formations such as a chalkstone Mammoth s cave in the USA which is 530km long, not a single one has such twisting and branched ways as the cave in Podolie. It is difficult to imagine that in this geographical area of Ukraine there are about 100 caves.

Most of them were found by cave explorers in Borshcivski region. They are mostly horizontal gypseous caves though there are also vertical ones. Their length also impresses you a lot. For instance, the total length of all the ways of Optimisticheskaya cave is 212km, Ozernaya - 117km, Crystal - 23km, Melnichki - 27km, Verteby - 9km.

In the Crystal cave a tourist guide will tell you the legend about the White cave explorer always guarding the underground labyrinths. If he wants to punish a thankless and impudent guest he will lead you to the place from which you will never get out. But he does not touch kind people who are not going to do any harm to the underground world.

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