Ivano-Frankivsk region
VERKHOVINA- an urban-type settlement, the administrative center of the Verkhovinsky district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region (Ukraine). It is located at an altitude of 618 meters above sea level on the Black Cheremosh River (a tributary of the Cheremosh), 150 km from Ivano-Frankivsk and 31 km from the Vorokhta railway station. Verkhovyna in the Carpathians is called the most elevated areas of the terrain.
The village of Verkhovyna was called Zhabye until 1962. The first mentions of it date back to 1424. Beautiful Carpathian nature, surrounding peaks - Mount Pushkar (812 m), Magurka (1025 m), Sinitsy (1186 m), White Mare (1473 m), steep waves of the Cheremosh, original Hutsul culture, folk traditions attract numerous tourists to Verkhovyna. The village offers a picturesque view of the mountain peaks - the beginning of the Montenegrin ridge. Of great interest to tourists is Mount Pop-Ivan (2020 m) with the old Polish observatory on the top. From Verkhovyna you can get to the start of the hiking route by car.
Verkhovyna: recreation, accommodation, prices
It is not difficult to find accommodation in Verkhovyna, but it is better to book good accommodation in advance. The village is very large, there are recreation centers, boarding houses, hotels, rural (green) tourism is well developed in Verkhovyna. Owners of private estates hospitably open their doors to travelers. The cost of a holiday in Verkhovyna in winter depends on the proximity to the ski lift and the comfort of your stay. And in the summer it’s mainly for comfort.
Holidays in Verkhovyna will be of interest to true connoisseurs of nature, as well as the long-standing traditions of the Hutsul region. Ancient folk customs and rituals, legends and fairy tales have been preserved here. To see this, just visit Verkhovyna at Christmas, Easter and other holidays. Every year, on January 9, the “Hutsul Carol” holiday is organized in Verkhovyna. At the festival you can hear carols, trembita music, and violins.
Winter holidays in Verkhovyna are mainly ski holidays; there are two ski lifts in the area, one of which is located directly in Verkhovyna (the slope of Mount Pushkar), and the second in the village. Iltsi (slope of Mount Zapidki), 5 km from Verkhovyna on the road to Vorokhta. Both ski slopes have a northern exposure, which allows snow cover to remain on them from the beginning of December to the end of March. There are several ski equipment rental shops and a dozen qualified ski guides in the area. Well, if the ski slopes seem too simple to you, then 52 km from Verkhovyna there is the famous ski resort “Bukovel”.
In the spring, one of the most popular types of tourism in Verkhovyna can be considered water tourism (rafting on a mountain river). The Verkhovyna region is interesting due to its complex rapids, mainly Black and partially White Cheremoshev. Water tourists have chosen the banks of these rivers back in the early seventies.
Summer recreation in Verkhovyna is mainly associated with “silent hunting”: picking berries, mushrooms, and medicinal herbs.
Verkhovyna Attractions
In Verkhovyna there is a private museum of Hutsul life and musical instruments of Roman Kumlyk. In a small rural house, there is a collection of violins, national household items, musical instruments and much more. And all this is supported by stories, playing instruments and jokes from the owner of the museum.
Directions
The best way to get to Verkhovyna is from Ivano-Frankivsk - by bus or minibus. Travel time is about three hours. You can get there from Chernivtsi (but transport runs less frequently), with a transfer through Kosiv.
To Ivano-Frankivsk- 135 km
Airport- No
Railway station- No
Bus station- There is
Radio taxi- No
To the ski lift- 2 km
Architectural monuments- There is
Bathing places, beaches:- Cheremosh River
Cafes, bars, restaurants- There is
Mineral water- No
Hiking in the mountains- There is
to Vorokhta – 32 km
to Ivano-Frankivsk – 125 km
Description of the Verkhovyna ski resort
The village of Verkhovyna is a ski resort of the Carpathians, located at an altitude of 620 m above sea level, surrounded by mountains and one of the highest peaks of the Carpathians, Mount Pop Ivan, height 2022 m above sea level, and on two banks of the Black Cheremosh River.
The Verkhovyna ski resort has a well-developed infrastructure and a blue-level piste (for amateurs).
Rest in the village of Verkhovyna is year-round.
Mineral springs, with different compositions of water, make it possible to heal people with various diseases in local sanatoriums. In the highlands you can find rare growing edelweiss. At the tops of the mountains there are coniferous forests, below there are high-mountain meadows, even lower there is a mixed forest, and a deciduous forest in the valley itself. Mushrooms, berries, medicinal plants in alpine meadows and honey plants.
In the river you can fish for trout and catfish.
In the village of Verkhovyna you should definitely visit:
- on the top of Mount Pop Ivan, the ancient Polish White Elephant Observatory,
- Museum of Ethnography, Hutsul Life and Musical Instruments of R. Kumlik,
— a local history museum and a house-museum that was filmed in the film “House of Forgotten Ancestors.”
Verkhovyna is called the center of Hutsul culture. This region is rich in legends, natural and architectural attractions - there is something to admire and something to fantasize about! People come here not only for the beautiful landscapes and long walks along the steep path up the two-thousand-meter mountain, but also to hear local legends: about the treasures of Dovbush, hidden somewhere deep in the mountains, about the girl Marichka, who saved the village from enemies, about ancient sanctuaries and the gods who were worshiped there, about existing and forgotten traditions - the Verkhovyna region keeps many legends. Be sure to come and listen!
The large two-story building houses 3 exhibition and 2 exhibition halls: here you will see weaving looms and Hutsul clothing. The museum's collection is also proud of the newlywed couple - dolls in detailed traditional attire were donated to the museum after the Second World War. In the general exhibition hall, visitors can see a fragment of a meteorite from the Bystrets River, church register books for newborns of the 18th-19th centuries, periodicals for 1936, which contain interesting materials written in the Hutsul dialect, and much more.
Historical and local history museum of the Hutsul region, photo Judanec
However, the Museum of the Hutsul region is interesting not only for the exhibits presented: initially it was supposed to become not just a place for storing cultural heritage objects, but a research base for the Hutsul region and the Eastern Carpathians. On the basis of the museum, since its opening in February 1938, scientists have even carried out astronomical research!
Written Stone is a geological natural landmark and simply a beautiful place. It got its name from petroglyphs - images on stone carved by ancestors. At the top of the massif there once existed a pagan temple: 9 round stone recesses have survived to this day.
photo Judanec
There is a marked route from Verkhovyna to the summit. Climbing time: 3-4 hours on foot, although the road allows you to get to the Written Stone by car. You can easily find the route to Pisany Kamen and more.
View from the Written Stone, photo Judanec
This incredibly beautiful alpine lake is located, however, not in Verkhovyna, but much higher than it. To see Maricheyka, you can either do a one-day hike or go up to the lake with an overnight stay. According to legend, the reservoir is the tears of the shepherd Ivan, who, grieving for his dead loved one, cried the whole lake! However, the water in it is fresh, not salty. Around there is a quiet spruce forest and thickets of mountain pine, and the lake itself is often overgrown with sedge. An ideal place to spend the night or relax! The route to Maricheyka from Verkhovyna can be found.
Lake Maricheyka, photoAlexey Medvedev
Stone observatory on the town of Pop Ivan
From Maricheika, by the way, you can climb to Mount Pop Ivan Chernogorsky (2028 m). At the top of this two-thousand-meter mountain there is a huge stone observatory. By the way, this is the highest building on the territory of modern Ukraine, in which people constantly lived and worked.
Construction began back in 1936, but the observatory operated fully for only three years - from 1938 to 1941. The history of its creation is amazing: the builders brought the stone needed for construction to the top of the mountain on horseback, and sometimes on their own backs. The walls, insulated between the stones with a layer of tarred cork, reach 1.5 m in thickness. The five-story building had a huge copper dome, which was delivered to the top in parts, the largest of which weighed 950 kg!
Observatory Pop Ivan, photo Yaroslav Tyurmenko
Of the 43 rooms of the huge observatory, almost none has survived, but thick external walls rise behind them, behind which desperate tourists hide from the hurricane wind, which is not uncommon on the Montenegrin ridge.
Dovbushev's Comoros
On the town of Dovbushanka, not far from Verkhovyna, there is a natural rock corridor - the Hutsuls call it “days”. An old myth tells about mysterious otherworldly gates hidden somewhere here: for the ancient Giant People, one gorge served as an exit to This World, and another, in the depths of the caves, served as a gateway to That World.
Since ancient times, the top of Mount Dovbushanka was sacred to the Hutsuls. This place began to be called “Dovbush’s Comoros” much later: the legend says that the rebel leader Oleksa Dovbush hid his treasures in the local dungeon caves. There were plenty of gold seekers: some simply explored the caves in the hope of finding a cast iron pot with coins, and others, having seen the “sign”, dug deep holes in Dovbushanka. One of these cases ended tragically, so in 1938 the then local government banned these dangerous random studies.
Now the route to Dovbushanka is an excellent option for a weekend walk. Just please don’t go into the caves alone: myths are myths, but safety comes first!
House-museum of the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” and hut-grazhda
First, you need to differentiate something: the house-museum of the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” and the hut-grazhda are not the same thing. Both buildings are located in Verkhovyna, but the first is in the village of Glyfa, and the second is in the village of Zhabevsky Potok. In addition, the local hut-citizen has nothing to do with “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” - this is the house of Ivan Boychuk and Anna Laskuriychuk: the film “Annichka” was filmed here in 1968.
By the way, during the 1950-1960s, the Kiev Film Studio named after. A. Dovzhenko shot three films in the Verkhovyna region: the already mentioned “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” and “Annichka”, as well as “Olexa of Dovbush”.
The House-Museum of “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” was created in the early 2000s in the ancient hut of Maria and Vasily Khimchakov, Hutsuls who participated in the filming. The purpose of the museum is to study the history of the creation of the legendary film and, mainly, the participation of the local population in the filming, since it was the amateur actors who made the film so believable.
Hata-grazhda, photo by anderver
And the Hata-Grazhda, in which Parajanov filmed, is located in the village of Zarechye (village of Krivorivnya) - 8 km from Verkhovyna.
What is interesting about these locations? Without a guided tour, they may seem like a waste of time: in the absence of funding, huts-citizens, for example, look more like rotten storerooms than historical and architectural monuments. But a decent, detailed narrative can give meaning to each dusty exhibit.
The urban-type settlement of Verkhovyna is located at an altitude of about 620 meters above sea level on the Black Cheremosh River and is the center of the Verkhovyna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. This village arose in the 15th century (in 1424 - the first mention), when it was donated by the Lithuanian prince Svidrigail to the Carpathian rich man Vlad Dragosimovich. Then Verkhovyna bore the name Zhabier. According to legend, this name comes from the first local settler, the Christian Zhabka. Although, according to an alternative version, on the site of the village there used to be a swamp with many toads. The renaming to Verkhovyna took place already in 1962.
Today, the village has about 6 thousand residents, many of whom are employed in the tourism infrastructure of Verkhovyna and neighboring resorts.
Verkhovyna is one of the most beautiful Carpathian resorts, surrounded by picturesque mountains and rocky ridges. The village lies in the valley of the Black Cheremosh River, at an altitude of about 600 meters above sea level. The well-known Montenegrin ridge originates near Verkhovyna, and the village itself is surrounded by the mountains Mazurka, Sinitsa, Pushkar and others. Guests come to Verkhovyna from all over Ukraine and neighboring countries. And it’s not just the beautiful views that attract them here.
Verkhovyna healing springs, of which there are about a hundred in these places, are famous for the beneficial effects of their waters on the human body. The cleanest low-mountain climate is also ideal for improving health.
Ski slopes make Verkhovyna popular as a winter resort, and the protected surrounding lands, interspersed with dozens of hiking, horseback riding and cycling routes, ensure an influx of tourists in the summer months.
Sophisticated visitors will certainly be interested in the unique museums of Verkhovyna, such as the Museum of Folk Instruments and the House-Museum of the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.”
The climate in Verkhovyna and the Verkhovyna region is temperate continental and is characterized by high humidity and a fairly high heat reserve. In many ways, the weather conditions in this region are significantly influenced by the topography of a particular area. So in Verkhovyna itself, located in the lowlands, the temperature in the warmest summer month of July reaches a maximum of +16°C, and the coldest in January: -6°C. And in the territory of medium altitudes, on the mountain slopes surrounding Verkhovyna, the air temperature is much lower: up to +12°C in summer, and up to -7°C in winter. In general, winter in the region is mild and snowy, creating ideal conditions for winter recreation: the snow cover covers the ground already in October, and disappears only in late spring. And summer is freed from the heat of the day and filled with a pleasant atmosphere and coolness.
Depending on the altitude, the lands of the Verkhovyna region are divided into three main zones: forest, subalpine and alpine. The largest of them is the forest one. It occupies more than 90% of the entire region. This area is dominated by natural plantings of broad-leaved beech forests; there are also elm, maple, hornbeam, alder, birch and other deciduous tree species.
Higher up (up to 1350 m above sea level), the forest cover changes - spruce-beech and fir-spruce-beech species predominate. The most common shrubs are berries: raspberries, wolfberry, honeysuckle, rose hips and others. There are also patches of snowdrops and buntings at these heights.
In the Chornohory tract you can see unique Carpathian cedars - this is how the locals called the European cedar pine. This is a very rare species of tree, living up to 700 years and found only here and in the Alps.
Also on one of the peaks there you can find the famous Carpathian edelweiss - a rare beautiful mountain flower, sung in the songs and legends of the Hutsuls as a “silk braid”.
