The last 8 registered citizens left the ghost village of Burkut long ago.
Half-ruined wooden huts with gaping holes and broken windows, tall grass in which snakes and lizards dart about, ominous howling of the wind … That's all that remains of the previously noisy and populated village of Burkut in Ivano-Frankivsk region - in the very heart of the Carpathians. And although the village is on the maps of Ukraine, no one lives here. Officially, 8 people are registered in the ghost village, but they left a long time ago. Where? Away from these creepy places …
Healing water was supplied to the Kremlin
Since the beginning of the 17th century, when only the village of Burkut became known, mountaineers from all over the Carpathians hurried here for healing water. There is still a functioning spring with mineral water similar in chemical composition to Essentuki and Borjomi. This is what it is called - "Burkut", which in the Hutsul dialect means "seething source". At the beginning of the 19th century, the village was known as the Austro-Hungarian balneological health resort. The entire elite of the empire of that time improved the health of the gastrointestinal system here. In 1901 Lesya Ukrainka was treated with water here for some time. Ivan Franko visited the poetess a couple of times. According to Carpathian old-timers, Kamenyar treated Lesya to trout caught in the Cheremosh River with his own hands.
The resort developed successfully until the outbreak of the First World War. Then it passed into the possession of Poland, which restored its work and arranged the pouring of healing mineral water into glass containers. And after World War II Burkut was in the possession of the USSR. The Soviet government was not interested in mineral water as much as the Hungarians and Poles. But even then bottles with "Burkut" were regularly delivered to the Kremlin. However, the resort itself has changed, now the Carpathian forest was being cut down to restore the Donbass mines.
- They built barracks for lumberjacks, then a bakery, a club, a post office, a canteen appeared in the village, - the head of the Zelensky village council Vladimir Ferkalyak told KP in Ukraine. - Life in the village was in full swing, because apart from visitors from other areas, workers came here and tourists who were in a hurry to the very healing source.
The last resident of Burkut left after flooding in 2008
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Photo: oprishok.io.ua
Barracks were built in the old cemetery
So why did Burkut with such a high-profile history become a ghost village? Carpathian old-timers have their own opinion. They say that the same loggers' barracks were built on the site of an old cemetery. Allegedly, in the early 80s, dilapidated graves were bulldozed to the ground. After that, the glory of Burkut began to fade gradually.
- The then residents of the village said that at night near the barracks scurrying terrible shadows, someone even saw ghosts, - told "KP" in Ukraine, "a resident of the neighboring village Zelenoe Maria. They stopped, things fell. Knocking-squeaks were heard, especially at night. And once a young lumberjack disappeared. Allegedly, he, together with his friends, was returning home from the birthday of a colleague. Of course, the guys drank, sang songs. from a company of friends. And when they started calling him, he didn’t respond. The guys returned for him, but he was not there. And he didn’t come home that evening or the next day. But I will tell you one more thing: there was no church in this village, which is unacceptable for our regions.there was no protection from the Almighty. Gradually, logging began to decline. People drove away from the strange village, where strange things were happening.
The last resident left after the 2008 floods. Then the big water destroyed the roads in Burkut.
Until now, Burkut has an active source with mineral water, chemical composition similar to "Essentuki" and "Borjomi"
Photo: oprishok.io.ua
THE SKEPTIC'S LOOK
According to the head of the neighboring village Zelenoe, the main reason that the village has turned into a ghost is the poor travel.
“There is a road to the village, but it's almost impossible to drive along it,” says Vladimir Ferkalyak. - There is no mysticism in the fact that Burkut has turned into a ghost village. Everything is much more prosaic: the loggers have left, there is no infrastructure, and the roads are in trouble. In addition, our village council has no right to dispose of this land, which belongs to the leshoz. But still, sometimes there are guests in Burkut. These are mainly extreme tourists who want not only to drink healing water, but also to visit the place where nature dominates civilization.
However, even the optimistic mountaineers argue that Burkut has no future. And from mouth to mouth they retell the legend of the destroyed cemetery. In confirmation of the mystical story, they remind that, despite the inaccessibility, even the most remote villages in the Carpathians not only do not die out, but do not even age.
