Does Ukraine need castles and medieval buildings?

[zhuk]

just returned from Ternopil/ Tarnopil region, from the excursion on a castles of Ternopil region.
The impressions are terrible: most castles are in ruins, turned to a huge rubish-heap.
Mikoulintsi, Chervonogorodka, Yazlovetz, Kozeletz.
The huge and once beatiful places are duying, covered with a several meters of garbage.
The bricks are used by local peaseants for their needs.
The pictures of the 17th and 18th century are covered with a names of tourists fronm the close villages.
The graveyards monolits are overturned and thrown out of the Kostels.
I advise for all the optimistic ukrainian patriots, admiring the local culture from the distance of Kanada or Australia- to visit those places- to receive a true impression on our ukrainian culture.
Not only historical-architectural reservations are covered with garbage. All the main roads in Ukraine (for example Lviv-Kiev, Kiev-Odessa, Kiev-Harkov) they have a stripe of garbage on a road back side, it is usual to throw the garbage through the window of a moving car.
I dare to say it has become a national feature.

All the seen above shows that a civilization in that region was finished by the 1939 border-changing.
after that year a new and quite a barbaric civilization came to dominate on the western lands of todays Ukraine.
Any one who will see those regions with own eyes will agree with me.
Todays historians give much criticism on the 17-19 th century magnats and lords, both polish and russins ones, for their greed and laziness.
Still we should be very obliged to thw schlyachta and magnats of that period, as it were they who implemented all the culture in that region, colonized wild lands, built castles, monasteries and libraries.
All the best places, which were destructed by the lumpen wild cossacks of Chmelnitski and his successors.

[Halina]

Dear Zhuk and Prawda,

I will speak from my own experience of what I managed to see & witness during my short visit to Lviv & Zolkiew. The main 'architectural gems' in Lviv like i.e the Latin Cathedral, or St George's Cathedral (Sw. Jura) have been renovated fairly recently. According to our Ukrainian guide this was largly stimulated by the Pope's visit to the city and she even joked that another such visit would be very welcome since, once the money had started flowing, the whole beauty of Lviv would surely come to the fore. As it stands, 70, maybe 80% of the city seems to be covered with dust and dirt that accumulated over the years of Communist rule.

I do not think the Pope's visit is an unsuitable reason for the renovation work. The Old Town of Sandomierz, for instance, which is one of the most ancient Polish cities, was totally renovated prior to the Pope's visit and it now looks so beautiful that its own inhabiatnts cannot stop talking about its Gothic and Renaissance charm. (They think there is no better place on earth...). Anyway, ancient Lviv is breathtaking, but...

Unfortunately there is a 'but';I also witnessed some incidents which saddened me enormously. When we were leaving the old Jesuits' Park (Ivan Franko Park now), following a boulevard with grand old trees on the one side and rows of run down, yet beautiful lofty houses on the other, a truck came in front of us. Its engine must have been leaking and so the whole alley was marked by a long thick smudge of petrol bristling in the sun rays like some surreal seal. The smell hit our noses and we ran thinking frantically; 'What if someone drops a cigarette???'.

Accidents of course happen, but you do not drive an old truck with leaking engine in one of the most beautiful and historic parts of the city..., or do you?

The police should have stopped the driver.

Another unpleasant memory comes from Zolkiew. The old Polish churches together with Hetman Zolkiewsk's castle and the synagogue are so neglected that your heart breaks and you do not have to be Polish to stop and wonder; 'Why ?'.

I wondered 'why'. I think this is because of the years of the Communist Soviet rule, which had no respect for culture and history, not even religion. This lack of interest and humbleness when confronted by centuries of creation resulted in total neglect, destruction even, in order to erase all traces of the Polish presence in the Ukraine. I do not blame the Ukrainian people. They had hardly any money to make both ends meet (just like the Poles) during communism, so how could they possibly renovate monuments?

However, there is, I think, also an element of truth in what Prawda is saying. Centuries of mutual fighting and the general aversion towards the Poles make Ukrainians rather indifferent to the traces of Polisness in Ukraine (and such are not few). I was glad and yet surprised to hear that lots of Polish students (of arts, mostly) from Warsaw & Krakow come to Zolkiew and Lviv to renovate for nothing, just to save the history. That is a good thing, but wouldn't it be simply moving if their Ukrainian friends helped? No, not to show some past Polish 'grandeur'in Ukraine, but just to preserve, to protect and to appreciate for the sheer beauty of art and for the sake of the historical truth.

After all, I do not mind at all that Ukrainians can now make use of all this!

Anna Reid in her book on Ukraine titled 'Borderland' mentions a similar destruction in the case of Kamieniec Podolski(Kamyanets Podilsky).Once a formidable fortress and castle built by the Poles to protect the borderland from the Turks, it is now just a heap of rubble, forgotten and forsaken, left to forgetfulness.

In Terehovye (80 miles from Kiev), where the Polish writer -Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski was born, there is a lovely village school. This was once the Korzeniowskis' house (the drawing room of this 'dwor'turned into the school gymnasium). There are apparently some sepia photographs of Conrad on the school walls, but no one really cares to remember him, or so the locals say. After all he was a Pole..

Generally, I think Ukrainians in Lviv are happy & proud to have some parts of the city renovated. Once asked, our guide also admitted many libraries, palaces, museums and churches were founded by the Polish aristocrats..(the Metropolitans' house opposite St George's Cathedral was a gift of the Polish aristocrat - Katarzyna Kossakowska). But it wasn't an easy confession...

That is why I think both nations need time. I do not mean to criticise the Ukrainians, but I will be honest; the truth about the Polish traces (those good ones, those of beauty, culture and art) must not be denied. That is not the way to cherish good relationship.

While we can and should criticise the Polish politics towards Ukraine for many many reasons, by the same token we should admit the Polish beauty of Lviv, or Zolkiew churches & houses - beauty which is now in the Ukrainian hands to protect and to be proud of.









[Edited by Halina on 30th April 2003 at 01:50]

[Zbyszek]

Greetings Zhuk, you touched really an important issue, so you think according to a golden credo of Terentius: homo sum et nil homini a me alienum puto.
The problem can not be explained by the present misery of the Ukrainian economy. After WWII, when Poland was extremely poor, there was a strong temptation of moving the capital of Poland to another place. Than, a lot of people declared that they would work without money rebuilding the Old Town. Later on, even Royal Castle was rebuilt with much public enthusiasm. I remember that Polish communists earned some social support with this fortunate decision.
It is difficult to expect an outbreak of national enthusiasm but taking care of old history wonders could make us more aware to who we really are.
I am extremely scared when I hear that precious pieces of art were stolen from this or that church in Poland. Churches do not have enough protection against theft because even some years ago it was impossible to imagime of robbing a church.
Zhuk raised a very important question and it must be addressed both at the government and at the basic human level.
Roman colloseum was one of the most magnificent structures ever erected by humanity. It survied four big fires of Rome and two major earthquakes. Its damage is mainly a deplorable result of ...ordinary theft.
I am a strong supporter of rebuiding this structure, together with its famous though mysterious roof made of sail-like materials. I rejoice over a thought that we could once see it in all former glory.
To me, a fortress of Kamieniec Podolski, unforgettable masterpiece of a French engineer Guillaume le Vasseur de Beauplan is really worth attention and I would not regret my own few cents in order to restore its beauty in full shape.
Halinka, I visited Sandomierz two years ago. The town looks really great but the inhabitants are not so optimistic. There is huge unemployment in this traditional agricultural surrounding and a lot of better-off people sell their comfortable houses and look for brighter future in Warsaw. History can not feed them. BTW, you can easily find a guide there and when you place your car near the famous Renaissance market square, you won't wait five minutes until someone approaches and kindly offers you his/her private guide services for unexpectedly modest price. Some of them speak good English. I have never experienced it in other Polish historic towns.

[Edited by Zbyszek on 15th May 2003 at 01:17]