The city preserve has not received a kopiyka of the 15 million hryvnias promised by the State Construction Committee for this year

Perhaps not many people outside Western Ukraine know about Berezhany, a small picturesque city on the banks of the Zolota Lypa River in Ternopil oblast, unless somebody recalls the old song, “Cossacks Traveled from Berezhany to Kodry.” However, today they sing different songs, and Berezhany is well known to the parents of the teenagers doing time in the local reformatory, a former Bernardine monastery. It must be admitted that the prison’s administration, guided by the maxim, “Do no harm,” has demonstrated more wisdom and common sense in terms of preserving the nation’s architectural heritage than many culture officials. Suffice it to look at the Berezhany Castle constructed by Ukrainian szlachta voivode Mykola Seniavsky in 1534- 1554, whose gates until the 1930s bore the signature, “To the glory of God and to protect true Christians.” Today this majestic fortification has become a ruin. It is enough to look at the Armenian Church, the ruins of the Big Synagogue, and the Seniavsky Chapel (incidentally, there are only three such chapels in Europe: Krakow, Lviv, and Berezhany) to understand that if necessary measures are not taken immediately, future generations will inherit only remnants of these formerly beautiful architectural monuments. Incidentally, there are 125 monuments of culture in Berezhany, nine of archeology, and 20 of the monumental arts. No other Ukrainian small city can boast such resources. The city’s center built in the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries is unique not only in Ukraine but for the world. Finally, Berezhany itself, the first written mention of which dates from 1375, is different from any other city, though there are many similar ones in Ternopil oblast (like Zbarazh, Kermenets, Buchach, or Pidhaitsy). In terms of preserving monuments of history and culture, Berezhany is a typical city with its troubles and unsolved problems characteristic of so many others. In spite of the fact that last year Berezhany was granted the status of a State Historical and Cultural Preserve, permanent lack of financing for restoration work (the city has not received a penny of the 15 million hryvnias promised by the State Construction Committee for this year) could result in the complete destruction of the Berezhany monuments.

Many outstanding Ukrainians, like Markiyan Shashkevych and Bohdan Lepky, lived and worked in Berezhany. The local Church of the Trinity preserves relics of St. John the Baptist (part of a bone from the hand with which he baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan), presented to local szlachta Voivode Seniavsky for the castle’s chapel. How can we protect Berezhany’s monuments of history and culture from further decay?

The weekend before last the participants of a scholarly and practical conference made an attempt to answer this question. Not only local historians and community representatives shared their views on this subject at the conference, but also guests from Lviv, Krakow, Kamyanets-Podilsky — specialists from the Ukrainian West Project and Restoration Institute, Lviv and Krakow Polytechnic Universities. Unfortunately, representatives of the State Tourism Administration of Ukraine and State Construction Committee of Ukraine did not come to the Berezhany conference as promised. For some reason Ternopil journalists also ignored the conference, and The Day’s correspondent was the only one to communicate with some of its participants. First to agree to a brief interview was Berezhany Mayor Vasyl Zoryk. When asked why the conference was held exactly in Berezhany, he said, “First, Berezhany is an old historical site, a gem of architecture. As you already know, we have 125 architectural monuments, ten of them of national importance. Besides, a state historical and cultural preserve has been functioning in the city for the last year. The conference’s goal was to foster its work, popularize Berezhany’s architecture, and preserve its historical and cultural heritage. We wanted to involve scholars, historians, other specialists in solving our problems, so that they shared their views on the prospects for the city’s development, preservation of monuments, and their further exploitation. So far we have only theoretical works, but I hope that in the near future we’ll implement them in practice. This also applies to some of the things discussed in the Ukrayina Incognita book published by The Day. I was presented this book a few days ago in Kyiv during the founding conference of the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine uniting 21 cities, mostly from Western Ukraine. So far I have only looked through it, but I’d like to note that our state has a vast historical, architectural, and cultural potential which we need to preserve and revive.

“Today we look with sorrow at the ruins of the Armenian Church; the Berezhany Castle is in a catastrophic condition; we are worried about the fate of the Seniavsky Chapel now threatened with complete destruction. This blacklist could be continued on end. And this year the city budget amounted around 2 million hryvnias. Still, half of this money was channeled to the district budget for the maintenance of schools and hospitals, and the rest is not enough even to secure the city’s normal functioning, not to speak of restoring monuments. Besides, we have to repair roads, conduct major repairs of the city communications, and finally put in order our hotel. Unfortunately, in spite of its name, Europe, all the toilets in the hotel are for common use. To attract tourists to our city, we need to create the necessary infrastructure. In this sense we have nothing to boast about yet...”

We could not possibly miss a chance to talk to Berezhany State Historical and Architectural Preserve Director Bohdan Tykhy. He is not very enthusiastic about what is happening today in Ukraine’s small cities.

“Cities in Ternopil oblast like Zbarazh, Kremenets, Buchach, Pochayiv, and, of course, Berezhany today lack decent support from the state and, in truth, are left to the mercy of fate. There is no alternative but to look for the means to revive these cities ourselves. And the only solution I can see is developing crafts and tourism. It was for this purpose that the Zolote Opillia Association of the Small Cities of Ukraine was created.

“However, I have to state that most of the city’s monument’s are in a stage of ruin and are either deserted or are used contrary to their purposes, like, for instance, the Bernardine monastery. Incidentally, not long ago Berezhany Castle was used as a shooting ground by the local school of the Society to Support the Soviet Army and Navy. In the 1970s restoration work finally began there but was soon canceled. Then they started restoration work that lacked professionalism so much that old stones with fragments of the Renaissance carving were removed to the city’s new buildings. Instead of clearing the debris by hand, they used tractors. Today we have a project for the castle’s restoration worked out by the Ukrainian West Project and Restoration Institute. But, as usual, we lack funding. However, at present we need help not as much from restorers as from city residents. First, we need to repair the roof and make windows and doors, meaning about twenty cubic meters of timber and 200 square meters of zinc tin. We hope that the Berezhany Forest Preserve will help us with the wood and the state with tin. If we don’t do this our descendants will never forgive our indifference.”

Director of the Kamyanets National Historical and Cultural Preserve Vasyl Fentsur, on the contrary, believes that one should not expect support from the state. According to him, the state would be unable to maintain even 1000 of Ukraine’s 25,000 architectural monuments. For instance, not a kopiyka was earmarked this year for Kamyanets-Podilsky, which has been included on UNESCO List of the World Cultural Heritage. Thus, the only way out of Berezhany’s current situation is to seek for both domestic and foreign investors, Fentsur believes. And all negotiations should be held under the condition that after restoring an object it becomes [the investor’s] property. No matter whether the object in question is a cultural or architectural monument, Vasyl Fentsur says; they will not move it outside Ukraine in any case.

No matter what happens in the future, today Berezhany’s 18,000 inhabitants console themselves with the thought that the spirit of centuries spreads above their city. For some reason Bohdan Lepky’s words come to one’s mind, “One should not only die for Ukraine but live for it.”