One great day of water element. Ternopil region, Ukraine (EN)

Here is the second day of autumn on the calendar. I feel that I have not had time to do many things. It was a hard summer, but with glimpses of joy.
The meaning of my life is traveling. I only recently formed a such clear thought in my head. To travel and then share impressions with people. My beautiful country is quite large and often people from one part of it may know almost nothing about another. What can we say about foreign visitors.
I hope that the war will end soon and people from all over the world will come to visit beautiful places of Ukraine.

Chervonogorod. A city that does not exist

And now we dive into... summer.
It was a wonderful and unforgettable two-day trip to Podillia, to a strange land of hills, rivers and forests.
On the first day, we saw mysterious caves, as well as a panorama of the Dniester River. Links to previous posts will be below.
As for the second day, I again had Napoleonic plans, but circumstances forced us to improvise. Firstly, one girl from our company caught a bad cold, and secondly, it had been raining quite heavily since the morning.
Despite this we went to the waterfall, getting a little lost on the way... Oh, these navigator...

Here is our destination! Here it is, a beautiful valley overgrown with forest and wild flowers, decorated with two towers of an ancient castle. I felt great joy, as if meeting an old friend. I've been here twice a long time ago, but I still haven't had enough of this place.
The asphalt road ended, and the dirt road was well washed out, and we unanimously decided to go down to this magical place on foot, so as not to torment the card.
The rain stopped, but we were dressed like cabbages, afraid of the rain and cold. We had to undress on the way, because even behind the gloomy clouds the sun began to burn.

Welcome to Podillia.
This geographical area covers several regions of Ukraine and is characterized by hilly terrain, a large number of rivers, canyons, and caves. Everyone will find something to their liking here.
At first, our gaze was fixed on the distance. You see a dense forest in the photos. And once there was a small, fairly developed city of Chervonogorod (= Redtown). It got its name because of the red color of the local sandstones.
In the best times, up to two thousand people lived here, it had its own castle, church, and shops. The majority of the population were Poles, so they were resettled in Poland after the Second World War. And in 1970, the ghost town finally disappeared from the maps... It's so sad.

Now trees, bushes and a large number of different flowers grow on the site of the ghost town, among which there are probably rare ones.
At first we walked along a road that turned into a swamp. And later, in order to shorten the way, we followed the path across the slope. The smell of flowers. Aromatherapy from nature itself. And incredible strawberries. The sun burned them and the strawberries looked a little dried and because of that they were sweet. Ahah... Our hike has become slower.

Tourists are attracted by two massive round towers with a toothed finish.
This place is very advantageous for defense, because here the Dzhuryn river makes a loop around a small hill.

So, since the times of Ancient Rus', a castle was built here, first wooden, and then stone. After the decline of Rus', the territory belonged alternately to Lithuanians and Poles. The castle was often improved, but this region was dangerous due to the attacks of Tatars and Turks, who destroyed the stronghold.
At the end of the 18th century, the town became the property of the Poninski lords.
At that time, it was popular to build romantic palaces on old ruins, so the magnates used the two towers and foundations of the old building and built a beautiful palace with antique columns. A park and fountains were laid around. Imagine how beautiful it was.
Two world wars destroyed the beauty of architecture...
Two towers remained as witnesses of the past.
Unfortunately, in 2013, half of one tower collapsed. I was here back in 2007 (oh, where are my discs with photos? I have to look for them). So the tower was still intact then. We should preserve this monument! Now there is a war and it is difficult to talk about positive changes in culture. I don't know what I can do in this situation... Except to draw your attention.

Photo from the past

Descending, we admired both the castle and the surrounding nature from a different angle. It was as if we were inside a bowl.
Our main goal was the waterfall, to which a bright red trail leads. We heard a noise from afar... What could be nicer than the sound of a waterfall? The heart beats faster with anticipation of the meeting.

A waterfall that heals the soul

Friends, we are at the Dzhuryn waterfall (the Dzhuryn is a small river, a tributary of the Dniester. Its length is 50 km).
This is the highest plain waterfall in our country, its height is 16 meters and it has three cascades. I finally realized how wonderful it is that the weather is cloudy and a little rainy. On a sunny Sunday, there would be tons of tourists shouting, swimming and taking dozens of selfies. But there were not many people because of the bad weather.
You could sit on the wooden bridge and listen to the elements while sipping tea. I hesitated whether to bathe or not. But I never dared. One guy from our company climbed into the waterfall with his clothes on.

A few more interesting facts. It turns out that this waterfall is of artificial origin.
According to legend, the Turks dug a new riverbed here to divert water away from the walls of the castle they wanted to capture. The legend is not confirmed by historical facts. Although in 1672 the Turks really captured this territory. Another version says that the collapse of part of the plateau happened naturally. And for some time, the old and new river beds existed in parallel.
In the 19th century, the owners of the town built a water mill here, which brought many benefits! And in Soviet times (1950-60s), a hydroelectric power station and a small reservoir were even built here. But later, after the construction of another station, this one fell into disrepair.

And I think it's wonderful that there is no industry here. But there is pure beautiful nature!

The waterfall is a favorite vacation spot for tourists. There are summer shops with souvenirs and snacks. People live in tents. My dream remains unchanged to live here for two or three days.
It was good to sit next to the water, but our journey was not over yet! Goodbye, waterfall!

A short meeting with Ternopil

The next stop was Ternopil, where the journey began.
The clouds gradually parted. We again admired the fabulous scenery. Large fields, forests, villages deep in the valleys... There is new beauty around every turn. Eventually, the clouds began to gather again and looked ominous.

Ternopil greeted us with a strong wind and very gloomy weather.
Part of the company chose to eat deliciously in a cafe, and Olya and I were more hungry for impressions. I can hardly eat anything during my travels:) There is no hunger.
A large lake in the center of the city attracted us like a magnet. It arose artificially, but it is a business card of the regional center! Here we boarded a tour boat to sail to a distant beach and back.

Ternopil Cathedral was built in the second half of the 18th century in the Baroque style.

The monument to King Danylo Halytskyi looks epic under the gloomy sky.

Several views of the palace, which was part of the Ternopil castle in the middle of the 16th century.

Here we are on the ship. Old and new buildings, a park could be seen in the distance... But the storm clouds over the water were the most impressive. It seemed another minute and we would get completely wet! I wanted this trip to last longer... 30 minutes went by quickly.

And we still had some time to walk along the embankment. The wind was raging, but at a certain moment we noticed that the clouds were flying somewhere. Thunderstorm cancels:)
The people near the water looked quite calm and even happy.
Ternopil is still waiting for me. Because I really want to get to know its architecture, look into the old churches and tell you more about this cozy city! But that's another time.