Weekend routes in Western Ukraine

The mod­ern rhythm of life leaves a per­son very lit­tle time for rest. For a short week­end, it is very dif­fi­cult for us to ful­ly restore strength, as well as get new emo­tions and impres­sions. But with­out them, nei­ther an active life, nor fruit­ful work, much less cre­ative activ­i­ty is pos­si­ble. It has long been proven that out­door activ­i­ties, a change of scenery or a short trip, let’s say a week­end trip, are extreme­ly use­ful and even nec­es­sary in order to be in good shape.

That is why we offer you a selec­tion of the most inter­est­ing routes to his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al sights and sim­ply beau­ti­ful places in Ukraine, which are worth spend­ing a week­end there. All week­end routes are log­i­cal­ly divid­ed into sev­er­al parts. This arti­cle is devot­ed to the most inter­est­ing places in West­ern Ukraine.

Week­end routes in West­ern Ukraine

A tur­bu­lent his­tor­i­cal past, a per­ma­nent bor­der sta­tus, a very diverse nation­al com­po­si­tion and repeat­ed changes in state pow­er — all this great­ly affect­ed the archi­tec­ture of West­ern Ukraine, the life and char­ac­ter of peo­ple. Through the most inter­est­ing places in West­ern Ukraine, we offer you to lay your week­end itin­er­ary.

Week­end routes. Lviv and the cas­tles of the Gold­en Horse­shoe

Going to Lviv for the week­end is not a new idea at all. This is what many peo­ple do on hol­i­days, New Year or Christ­mas. There­fore, we will not describe in detail all the inter­est­ing places and sights, cas­tles and restau­rants, the spe­cial atmos­phere of this ancient city, but we will focus on such sights as the cas­tles of the Gold­en Horse­shoe of Lviv. These include Zolochevsky, Olesko and Pod­gorit­sky cas­tles, which are sur­pris­ing­ly well pre­served and can real­ly be called cas­tles in the truest sense of the word. There are not so many cas­tles in Ukraine in com­par­i­son with the near­est neigh­bor­ing coun­tries (only about a hun­dred), and those that are well pre­served are even few­er. There­fore, these cas­tles are worth your atten­tion. Zolochiv is a small town, while Pod­gort­sy and Olesko are vil­lages with a pop­u­la­tion of sev­er­al thou­sand peo­ple. There­fore, the best option would be to stop in Lviv itself, and get to the cas­tles by train or taxi. Elec­tric trains run from Lviv to Zolochiv, and a fixed-route taxi runs from Lviv and Zolochiv to Pod­gort­sy. And 6 km from Olesko is the sta­tion of sub­ur­ban elec­tric trains “Ozhi­dov-Olesko”, from which you can return to Lviv.

Week­end routes. Kamyanets-Podil­sky — Kho­tyn

Try­ing to explore Kamenetz-Podol­sky and Kho­tyn in 2 days, you doom your­self in advance only to a cur­so­ry acquain­tance with these amaz­ing places. In terms of the num­ber of archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments, Kamenetz-Podol­sky occu­pies an hon­or­able 3rd place in Ukraine, sec­ond only to Kyiv and Lvov. Mix­ing of peo­ples and reli­gions, numer­ous wars were amaz­ing­ly reflect­ed in the archi­tec­ture of Kamyanets-Podil­skyi. Here you can see a Turk­ish minaret with a stat­ue of the Madon­na. You can walk around the Old Fortress and the Old Town for more than one day, but the Kho­tyn Fortress is still wait­ing for us. It is real­ly grandiose and, look­ing at it, it is hard to imag­ine that now is not the 13th or 14th, but the 21st cen­tu­ry and all the bat­tles near its walls have long been behind. Hav­ing exam­ined the Kho­tyn fortress — hur­ry up — it is bet­ter to spend the night back in Kami­anets-Podil­skyi. Here, unlike the small Kho­tyn, there is a good selec­tion of hotels and cozy restau­rants where you can eat deli­cious­ly.

Week­end routes. Uzh­gorod – Mukache­vo

Every­one who has ever vis­it­ed Tran­scarpathia prob­a­bly had a strong feel­ing that these places are not Ukraine at all. The mix­ture of peo­ples, cul­tures and lan­guages, archi­tec­tur­al styles makes Tran­scarpathia a spe­cial place. It is no doubt worth start­ing the week­end sight­see­ing route from the Uzh­gorod cas­tle-fortress, which was built in the 12th cen­tu­ry, and lat­er was repeat­ed­ly com­plet­ed and recon­struct­ed. In addi­tion to the cas­tle in Uzh­gorod, you can vis­it the Holy Cross Cathe­dral near­by, the Goryan­skaya rotun­da in the sub­urbs, stroll through the pic­turesque streets and parks and go to Mukache­vo the next day. Already at the entrances to the city, you will not be able to miss the cas­tle “Palanok” — the main attrac­tion of Mukache­vo. The area of ​​the cas­tle is more than 14,000 m and, in addi­tion to pow­er­ful walls, tow­ers and ter­races, there is some­thing to see here. But do not stop at the cas­tle inspec­tion — be sure to walk through the cen­ter of Mukache­vo. Here you will find the Mukache­vo Monastery, the Catholic Church and the Palace of the Counts of Shen­born, or, as the res­i­dents of the city call it, the “White House”.

Week­end routes. Cher­nivt­si

Even 100 years ago, Cher­nivt­si, locat­ed halfway between Kyiv and Bucharest, Krakow and Odessa, was called the “secret cap­i­tal of Europe.” Indeed, this seem­ing­ly provin­cial town has its own charm and spe­cial charm, an atmos­phere of com­fort and tran­quil­i­ty, unhur­ried­ness and reg­u­lar­i­ty. Explor­ing the city on your own is very easy — you just need to get to the cen­ter. You can start your week­end itin­er­ary from the for­mer Res­i­dence of the Bukovin­ian Met­ro­pol­i­tans, and now Cher­nivt­si Uni­ver­si­ty. Yuri Fed­kovich. Of course, there is also the City Hall in Cher­nivt­si, and many church­es and cathe­drals. And be sure to look at the Opera House (today it is the Music and Dra­ma The­atre), which was built by famous Vien­nese archi­tects, and the famous “House-ship” — “Shi­va”.

Week­end routes. Mlynky Cave

The Ternopil region is very pop­u­lar among spele­ol­o­gists, but the Mlynky cave was dis­cov­ered rel­a­tive­ly recent­ly — in 1960, near the vil­lage of Zalesye, Chortkovsky dis­trict. Before the trip, it is bet­ter to call the local spele­ol­o­gists from the tourist club “Crys­tal” (tel. (03552) 2–17-10) and agree on the con­di­tions of the excur­sion. The cave is very beau­ti­ful and quite pop­u­lar — both begin­ners and pro­fes­sion­als will find their routes here. Pos­i­tive emo­tions and unfor­get­table impres­sions are guar­an­teed even for those who have nev­er thought about caves and spele­ol­o­gy. Under­ground at any time of the year, the tem­per­a­ture is con­stant­ly kept at +11 C, so do not for­get to bring warm clothes with you.

Author: Seli­v­anov Vladimir

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