The "Image Mapping" route in Kholodnyi Yar (2016)

Maksym Zalizniak – the leader of the “Koliivshchyna” uprising of 1768 against the Rech Pospolyta. He is a folk hero, a worthy son of the Kholodnyi Yar who gathered around himself cossacks-haidamakas and peasantry ready to fight for own freedom, faith and independence. This grey-eyed, brave man is an embodiment of fortitude and unbeatable spirit ready to defend native people and land.

Cherkashchyna has always been a grain producing region that is why the mill craft was the inseparable part of the Ivkivtsi village life. The top of the development of this sphere was in the beginning of the XX-th century when here more than 20 wind-mills were operating. Later as a result of the streamline civilizational progress the wind-mills lose their practical use but leave behind the important historic and cultural sense that has to be preserved by the coming generations.

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The Semydubova mountain – the hugest earthwork around the forests of Kholodnyi Yar. Legends say that the body of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi was reburried here together with Cossacks’ treasures. The mighty tranquility rules the summit and from here a great panorama opens on the cosy village that sprawled around sloping ravines.

The “Jyvun” spring – the pearl of the Atamanskyi park that nourishes the network of ponds. From the immemorial time it is known that the water of the spring possesses the curative power and according to narrations the cossacks and haidamakas venerated it and healed wounds. Take a rest near the freshness of the well and you will feel energy surge for the exploration of the forest.

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In front of you is the Atamanskyi park. The name of this forest comes from the rank of the duke Romodanovskyi that received it in the XVIII-th century. Since then this land has passed several times into ownership of different proprietors and each tried to put it into shape as a really fairy-tale place. Even today you may encounter miracles there, you just have to be heedful…

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In the very heart of the Kholodnyi Yar in the small village of Buda stands the only in Europe and Ukraine church built in honour of the ultimate hetman of Ukraine Petro Kalnyshevskyi (canonised as a Petro Bagatostrazhdalnyi) who was a grand peacemaker and patriotic figure and who finished his years in bitter exile. In the July, 2015 the church was consecrated by the his Holiness the Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Enter the dense forest and you will be welcomed by the “Maksym Zalizniak” oak – the patriarch-tree which age runs above 1100 years and which sits among the ten oldest trees in Europe. The mighty oak is identified with the “Starodub” oak, the mythical tree whose crown shelters old gods. How many events and personalities has seen this grand oak, and how many stories he could have told to us today.

Colliding, falling down and later surging in terraces up and up like giant waves, covering one another stand the chutes of the Kholodnyi Yar in between which flow like rivers the fragrant gullies and dark ravines. The immortal habitants of the forest – giant oaks and ashes silenty spectate turbulent historic events here that shape the Ukrainian national identity along the centuries. And in the capital of the Kholdnoyarska republic Melnyky worthy sons and heroes of this land are born.

Foundation of the Motronynskyi monastery is connected to different legends. Erected in 1036 it bears the name of the wife of the duke’s commander Myroslav. This significant place often gets in the whirlpool of historic events and becomes the core of struggle against oppressors. The huge bell inside for many years alarmed the local people about danger, and its golden crosses, like a rescue beacon have attracted gazes of the burdened populace instilling hope.

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