Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
http://cbr.nature.org.ua
; Krasne Pleso 77)
Declared a Unesco Biosphere Reserve in 1992, this
protected area is made up of six separate locations, four of which can be found around
Rakhiv. Some 90% of the reserve is made up of virgin forest, home to rare flora and
fauna. About 5km southwest of Rakhiv the main road leads to the
Carpathian Bio-
sphere Reserve headquarters
, which isn't so much of interest for itself as for what's
surrounding it.
Museum of Forest Ecology
MUSEUM
(Krasne Pleso 77; admission 10uah; 8am-5pm)
This old-school museum stands on the hill
behind the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve headquarters building. The exhibition is sur-
prisingly informative, rich and colourful as well as slightly kitsch, so inbetween sniggers
at the odd moth-bitten, taxidermied sheep, you'll learn a bit from the handy Carpathian
Mountains relief map, and the dioramas of forest landscapes and Hutsul festivals.
Geographical
Centre of Europe
MONUMENT
Fifteen kilometres southwest of Rakhiv lies what Ukraine contends is Europe's geo-
graphical centre, just before the village of Dilove. Ukraine is not the only country to de-
clare itself the continent's centre: Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia have all
staked rival claims. Furthermore, Austrian experts, quoted in the
Wall Street Journal
Europe
in 2004, say the pillar erected by Austro-Hungarian geographers in 1887, in what
is now back-country Ukraine, was never intended to mark Europe's middle; its Latin in-
scription of simple longitude and latitude was mistranslated.
None of this has dented official Ukrainian aspirations to the honour, although some
locals are more sceptical. Today a Soviet-era spire has joined the Austro-Hungarian pillar
at the 'geographical centre of Europe', as has a restaurant complex, souvenir stalls and
opportunistic photographers equipped with stuffed bears and deer as props.
Sleeping & Eating
Smerekova Hata
GUESTHOUSE$
( 096 964 7603, 212 92;
www.smerekovahata.com.ua
;
vul Shevchenka 8; r per person from
80uah; )
This superb B&B near the market maintains its position as one of the
Carpathians' most traveller-friendly halts. Rooms in the new building are fragrant with
pinewood and combine traditional Hutsul bedspreads with ultramodern showers. Owners
Vasyl and Anna can organise tours and excursions, and even run Hutsul cookery classes
