Attractions of Transcarpathian region

Vysoky Kamin mountain rises above the villages of Zhdeniievo and Pidpolozzia near the confluence of the mountain rivers Zhdeniivka and Latoritsa.

The height of the mountain is 836 meters above sea level. During the walk, you can see the nature of Transcarpathia in all its diversity. You can admire the wonderful views of the mountains, inhale the unforgettable aroma of spruce trees, and hear the sound of the leaves of beech trees.

The length of the route to the Vysoky Kamin mountain is 2 kilometers on a steep slope.

Popular among tourists is the souvenir market, where mostly vine products are sold.

The village of Iza became famous as a center of wicker weaving in the 19th century. One of its founders was the craftsman Ivan Kashko. He taught this craft to his two sons, and then it gradually became the main occupation of the villagers. They sold their products at the bazaar in Khust and other places.

Now open air along the central street is traded throughout the year. On the bridges near the houses you can see baskets, armchairs, chairs, tables, shelves, cabinets, houses for kittens, boxes, lampshades, dishes, plates, vases, caskets for sale.

The Uzhhorod Orthodox Synagogue is the temple of the Transcarpathian community of Ashkenazi Jews.

The synagogue in Uzhhorod was built in 1904 in the neo-Moorish style according to the project of architects Dyula Papp and Ferents Sabolch.

Currently, the building houses the Transcarpathian Regional Philharmonic.

The Chardonnay wine tasting hall was opened in 2007 in the old center of Uzhhorod by Oleksandr Kovach, a private winemaker from the village of Kontsovo.

A 19th century wine press is installed at the entrance.

The tasting room can accommodate 60 visitors at the same time. At the beginning, visitors are shown a film about Transcarpathian winemaking "The Divine Gift of Bacchus". At the tasting, the best products of the most famous wineries of Transcarpathia are presented: ”Skilur”, ”Kotnar”, ”Bobovyshchansky”, ”Leanka”, ”Zakarpatsky sad”.

Visitors can taste such famous Transcarpathian wines as "Troyanda Zakarpattya" in 1986, "Kahor", Serednyanske”, ”Shardone”, ”Spokusnytsya”, ”Starovynnyy zamok”, as well as "Zakarpatsky" cognac.

Cheeses from Selyska's private cheese factory are offered as snacks.

The ruins of the medieval castle of Kankiv are located on the slope of the hill in the western part of Vynohradiv.

In the 10th century, there was a Slavic settlement of Kanko at this place, which was called Uhocha by the Hungarians. In the 12th century, the Hungarian king Heyzo II made Uhocha the center of a separate county. After the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the stone Ugochan castle was rebuilt, which guarded the Transcarpathian salt route. In 1317, the castle of Kankiv, then belonging to the rebellious feudal lord Beke Barshi, was destroyed by the troops of King Karl I Robert.

Soon the king declared Sevlush a royal city and built a new castle in 1329, which then passed to Baron Peter Pereni. The baron soon moved to the palace, and gave the Ugochan castle to Catholic Franciscan monks, who built a church and turned the fortress into a monastery-hospital. In 1556, the Franciscans were expelled by Protestants, and two years later the castle was destroyed by Austrian troops and has not been restored since then.

Picturesque ruins have been preserved, from which a wonderful panorama of the city opens. The possibility of restoration is being discussed.

The fortified residence of the Transylvanian prince Habor Betlen (Betleni) was built in 1629 on the site of the monastery of the Dominican order, which existed here in 1327-1556.

"County Yard" is something between a palace and a castle. A squat one-story house with a mezzanine is made in the Baroque style. The complex includes farm buildings: carriage house, stable, granary.

The house got its current appearance after the reconstruction in 1857, which was carried out by Count Schonborn, who received the estate as a gift from the Austrian emperor. The oldest part of the building is the basement with a Gothic portico, left over from the time of the monastery.

Currently, the premises are occupied by the Historical and Ethnographic Museum "Berehivshchyna", which exhibits items from the Roman period, relics from the time of Ferents Rakotsi, exhibits from the First World War, and an ethnographic collection.

It is planned to create a museum of viticulture and winemaking in the cellars.

Heated vats with water from a hydrogen sulfide mineral spring began to be used in Lumshory for medical procedures as early as the 17th century.

Patients with musculoskeletal disorders were treated with hydrogen sulfide baths. One of the ancient cast-iron vats is now in Austria, the other was found by a local resident on the banks of the Turichka River near his house. Now it is used again for its intended purpose. The vat is filled with cold mineral water from the spring, river stones are placed at the bottom, then the water is gradually heated over an open fire. When the temperature reaches 30 degrees, you can start taking a bath, alternating immersion in hot water with cooling in a mountain river. An old Austrian vat with a volume of 250 liters holds 2 people. Modern vats can hold up to 12 people.

Now in the village of Lumshory, different owners have 18 vats, cast according to the old technology. Three of them are located on the territory of the local koliba.

The ruins of a powerful quadrangular tower-donjon are the only structure of the Serednyansky castle that has survived.

It was the main defensive node of the fortress, built by the Knights Templar like the ancient Roman border watchtowers on the Rhine and Danube. The thickness of the walls of the tower reached 3 meters. With the help of a chain of similar castles, the Templars controlled the salt route from Transcarpathia to Europe in the 12th-15th centuries.

After the liquidation of the Knights Templar, the castle briefly became the property of the monastic order of Saint Paul, and then was gifted by King Charles Robert to the Drugets magnates. In the 16th century, the new owners from the Dobo family, whose representative Ishtvan Dobo distinguished himself during the defense of the Eger fortress from the 120,000-strong Turkish army, took up the expansion and strengthening of the castle.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Serednyansky Castle changed owners several times. It played an important role during the anti-Habsburg movement of the Hungarian nobles under the leadership of Ferents II Rakotsi in 1703-1711, as a result of which it was badly damaged and never recovered.

There is a legend about a complex system of underground passages, some of which were later converted into wine cellars.

The "Zhayvoronok" wine cellar is part of the hotel and restaurant complex of the same name, located on the eastern outskirts of Berehove, next to the complex of buildings of the Berehove Winery (the former Shenborn Castle).

The tasting hall is designed for 50 seats. Visitors are invited to taste the best coastal wines and taste home-made smoked meats.

The program also includes a visit to the 300-year-old wine cellar, which is cut right into the rock. At the end of the 50-meter long tunnel is one of the three springs of the complex with crystal clear water.

A salt lake of anthropogenic origin, an analogue of the Dead Sea in terms of water mineralization.

It was created in Solotvyno in 1902 on the site of a salt mine that was begging. Named after the Hungarian queen Kunigunda, the wife of the Kyiv prince Yaropolk, who, according to legend, stopped here on the way to Kyiv.

Today it is surrounded by many similar lakes. The salinity of the water in them reaches 32-35%, which causes a feeling of weightlessness when diving. The chemical composition is characterized by an increased concentration of bromine ions. During the year, the water temperature does not fall below 17°С, in summer it is kept at the level of 25-27°С. The shore and bottom of the lake are covered with a layer of black healing mud.

The lake is a resort, mud treatment and treatment with salt solution (rapa) are widely used. Muds have a positive effect in the treatment of the cardiovascular system, final phenomena of phlebitis and thrombophlebitis, bone disease, nervous system, urological diseases, psoriasis and pulmonary system.

A unique private collection of models of wooden churches of Transcarpathia and Ukraine is collected in the museum at the "Aratta" hotel complex in Pylypets.

The exposition presents more than 30 churches and bells of Khust district, as well as other regions of the Carpathians and Prykarpattia. Models are carved from wood by folk craftsman Andriy Vorobets. The originals of some of the presented temples no longer exist: they burned down, collapsed or were changed beyond recognition by reconstructions. Their appearance is restored according to descriptions in ancient books.

Other temples have survived to this day and can be seen in their original form or in museums of folk architecture. Among them are the Church of Saint Nicholas of the 17th century in Podobovets, the Assumption Church of the 17th century in Dubivtsi, the Church of Archangel Michael of the 18th century from the village of Shelestovo (now on the territory of the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Uzhhorod), the Ascension (Strukiv) Church of 1824 in Yasinya (listed UNESCO) and others.

The Synevyr Historical and Local History Museum was established at the ecological visit center of the Synevyr National Nature Park.

The exposition presents the life and way of life of Carpathian mountaineers: tools, utensils, clothes, shoes, etc.

A special place is occupied by the exposition of the Museum of forest and rafting, destroyed in 1998 by floods. Here you can get acquainted with the models of buildings and units of mountain dams, with the technology of timber rafting, tools of loggers. 

The exhibition hall introduces rare local "Red book" flora and fauna.

The Hutsul Bryndzya Museum ethno-tourist center in Rakhiv was opened in 2020 on the initiative of representatives of the Association of producers of traditional Carpathian high mountain cheeses.

The exhibition presents a mock-up of a sheepfold - a room for the production of polonynas sheeps cheeses with traditional cheese-making equipment: a cauldron, a putera and a berbenitsa. During the tour, visitors are introduced to the Hutsul bryndza production technology, and the documentary film "Hutsul Sheep Bryndzya" is shown about this traditional product, which received the first registered PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) geographical indication in Ukraine.

The museum premises are decorated in the style of a traditional Hutsul house. All exhibits can be handled, tried on, photographed with them. There is a tasting gazebo in the yard. The program of the visit includes the preparation and tasting of kulesha with bryndza.

The territory of the Hutsul Bryndzya Museum is arranged taking into account the norms of architectural accessibility.

The cultural and touristic route "Hutsul Cheese Plays" starts from the museum.

The "Arpad Line" bunker in Verkhnia Hrabivnytsia is a World War II military defense facility built by the Hungarians under the guidance of the Germans.

Excavated in the thickness of the mountain at a depth of 50 to 100 meters by two battalions of captured Romanians. The bunker has 3 tiers, 4 exits to the surface and an extensive system of pillboxs. The length of the tunnels is about 2 kilometers. There is a source of clean water underground.

During the war, the bunker was used as a hospital, food and ammunition storage, etc.

According to some sources, this is the largest military bunker in Europe that has survived to this day. Presumably, it was supposed to house a tank of the 1st Hungarian Army.

Currently, the bunker attracts tourists, tours are held.

The private cheese factory on the basis of the Baranovo sheep farm is located in the village of Iza.

Cheese production is located in several rooms where cheese-making equipment is installed. The cheese is made from natural products, and a natural rennet component from the stomach of a young calf is used for thickening. The assortment includes several types of cheese: brynza, hard cheese, soft cheese from cow's and sheep's milk.

There are tours with tasting of ten types of cheese with wine or yogurt. You can also buy various types of locally produced cheese and lamb sausage at the Baranovo farm, take a walk around the farm and look at the sheep. Large groups are advised to book in advance.