My world and Me

This was near Slavske village where Carpathians are not that high as in some other regions of their Ukraininan part. And still they were absolutely breathtaking...

Elmtrees are extremely high and absolutely fairy-tale like. The locals call an elm tree “smereka” and it sounds so natural when you look at this wonderful magnificent trees.

Doesn’t it look like a fairytale?

And the reason I went there for few times was not only nature but also music. There was a music festival right in the mountains - Carpathian Alliance Metal Festival and it ws probably one of the best music events I ever saw...

This was love at the first sight whhich will be forever in me.

I’ve to Carpathians after that and I want to return there again and again.

And will you guess where I’m going to spend my next vacation in a month?:)

This place is nowadays called Staroe Selo (Old Village) and is located in Lviv region. Staroe Selo could be the same small village as thousands of other but having once seen it I still cannot (and will not!) forget it.

The past is dying here and you see the naked agony of human hands creation which long ago was a powerful fortress. It survived wars but it cannot survive time and it seems it will soon disappear off the face of earth. It seems the skies always look here like a storm is coming, the wind is here always iercing and the grass is dark green. It seems that even though the time is wearing away the ancient stones here it still stops when you enter the castle yard. The walls are dying but they remember those who lived and died here. The walls know their time will soon be over.

The walls are in fact the only remaining part of the fortress. No wonder - the locals say that while building the castle the owner ordered to add eggs to the mortar to make it stronger. The eggs were brought from all the neighboring villages. A nobleman, who was sentenced to death, was given a chance to live, but on condition that he would bring a cart of eggs without breaking any. He succeeded in this and brought a cart of boiled eggs. However he didn’t escape execution.

The first wooden fortifications appeared here in thirteenth century. In 1584-1589 Polish princes from Ostrogski family decided to build a stone castle here. Since then it was it was seized, destroyed and rebuilt. One of the longest sieges was held by Bohdan Khmelnitsky’s cossacks in 1648, at that time there were 8 guns, 13 mortars, lots of guns and bladed weapons in the castle.

The castle belonged then to Vladislav Dominic, Ostrogski and Zaslavsky prince. In the 1649-1654 he  strengthened the fortress so well so much that in twenty years Staroselsky castle stood a long siege of the Turks. The fortress had a pentagonal shape and was protected by six defensive towers. In the castle courtyard there was a chapel, along the eastern wall there stood  a two-stored house of the commandant.

As time went on, Staroselskiy Castle lost its purpose as a fortification and its Polish owners were not very interested in a huge fortress, which began passing from one owner to another. Since 1939, the castle was in possession of Alfred Potocki, who placed there distillery, brewery and warehouses for vegetables, which led to the destruction of the castle. Nowadays festivals for historical reconstruction take place here from time to time and sometimes tourists come to see the ruins. What one can see here most often are local children playing in the yard and cows and horses feeding under the walls.

That's the story of this place ... It could seem that there’s nothing special about an abandoned and ruined fortress, of which remains almost nothing but the walls and three towers enclosing vast territory. But there’s a point which makes Staroselski castle rare and even unique - its territory takes approximately 2 hectares - and it’s too much for a building of this type. Even now its walls (which are up to 2 m thick and up to 15 m high) tower above the gardens and houses.

Sitting on the walls and listening to the silence of this powerful place which was once a powerful stronghold and stopped lots of enemies and where people lived and died many centuries ago you can’t but dive into its atmosphere. Strange, but the castle seems very calm and peaceful as if time has washed away its pain and let it end its days quietly. 

This was one of the most atmospheric and energetic places I’ve ever seen and if one day you happen to be in Lviv, take a ride to Staroe Selo and see this giant castle, still beautiful while it’s still frozen in time.