CITIES
All-night-long walk in Uzhhorod
Our crazy trip to the western-most Ukrainian city
I’ve been to Uzhhorod just once before this trip, and it didn’t impress me, but the night setting can change everything. How did we get there so late? Well, it was a conscious yet crazy decision. My fiancée and I — both wild about exploring new places — wanted to order wedding rings from a Ukrainian jeweler based in Uzhhorod. So, we booked a ride via BlaBlaCar and departed after midnight from Lviv.
We wanted “a real adventure” and didn’t plan to stay at the hotel. This was our plan: departure from Lviv at 1 a.m.; around four hours to Uzhhorod by car; walking around the city by 5 p.m.; finally, turning back to Lviv for another four hours. We only had a nap in the car, but the adventure was worth this little sacrifice.
We didn’t remember much about the city from our previous visits, so it felt like a totally new experience. The first thing we encountered was the neon-lit Pedestrian Bridge.
By the way, do you know what is one of the key city’s peculiarities? I’ll tell you: little “secret” sculptures.
Some time ago, artist Mykhailo Kolodko began installing bronze miniatures without any authorities’ approval, but soon his art gained fame. Now you can find 30 artworks, including chained Harry Houdini, the Statue of Liberty, a Rubik’s Cube, the steamer “Carpathia” (was the first to help the drowning “Titanic”), a Ukraine-shaped chocolate bar, etc.
The statue of Jon Lord, the keyboardist of “Deep Purple,” matched our mood the best. Jon sits on the river bank and wears headphones. Do you think he is listening to the legendary “Smoke on the Water”?
A few words about Uzhhorod: this 12-century-old city with over 100 thousand inhabitants is Ukraine’s smallest and westernmost regional center. Although early Slavs founded the fortified town, it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Empire for centuries.
Not surprisingly, the city was historically known as Ungvár. In Slavonic languages, “Uzh,” the river name, means “snake,” and “horod/hrad” stands for “city.” Hungarian “var” means “fort” or “castle.”
Uzhhorod was empty and silent. Only the worker of a late-night shop went outside to smoke a cigarette. While crossing the Pedestrian Bridge, we noticed a pair of white-and-yellow towers glowing in the dark. It was the 17th-century Holy Cross Cathedral. Owing to its location on a hill, the cathedral is visible from afar, especially against the black night sky.
By the way, we also walked past the cathedral in the afternoon, and it looked like a run-of-the-mill church. Great that we got the right first impression!
Then we approached the Botanical Garden. Of course, it turned out to be closed, but we managed to peep through the gate and see how a projector illuminated the plants. That was so damn beautiful!
There are seven bridges across the Uzh, and two of them have beautiful neon lighting. We were lucky enough to arrive in calm and mild autumn weather. Street lights were perfectly reflected in the waveless water, and we didn’t freeze walking for several hours. Interesting fact: despite standing on a river, Uzhhorod is the most inland city in this part of Europe — around 700 km from the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas.
Like historical architecture? Then follow my Instagram with architecture photos every day — from 🏰 Gothic to 🏢 Modernism.
Remember bronze miniatures? It wasn’t enough for Uzhhorod citizens, so they invented another quest — 36 iron playing cards welded to street poles, railings, and fences. We weren’t keen to find them all, so we just stared at the sunrise through a grape-shaped hole in the Ten of Clubs.
One more nighttime entertainment in Uzhhorod is… watching street lights. The difference in their tint is fascinating — new poles have cold blue light, and old ones have warm orange light.
Unfortunately, darkness couldn’t stay forever, plus we needed some recharge. So, when the first cafes opened at 8 a.m., we stopped by “Riverside” for a hearty breakfast and cappuccino.
After the meal, the visit to the jewelry workshop, and my semi-successful attempts at business calls, we checked the main touristic attraction — Uzhhorod Castle. It’s a rectangular fort with bastions and a moat similar to Spandau Citadel in Berlin, Wisłoujście Fortress in Gdansk, or, for instance, Fort Manoel on Malta.
Uzhhorod Castle developed between the 13th and 18th centuries and now combines a mixture of architectural styles and footprints of different historical periods. It served military purposes but later was handed over to the Greek Catholic Church and housed a theological academy.
Unfortunately, the castle doesn’t look medieval anymore. It was converted into a fancy palace a century or two ago. Nowadays, walls are plastered, galleries are windowed, and rooms have modern doors.
Anyway, you can spot something interesting in the castle, for instance, chapel frescos or the two-millennia-old Celtic sword. I was surprised to learn that Celts, who typically inhabited modern France, Germany, and the UK, also had settlements in Transcarpathia.
The Celtic sword might impress you by its age, but take a look at this — on a photo below! A massive two-handed sword of a 16th-century German mercenary. The warning “Do not touch” hangs above the exhibit, but I cannot imagine how you are supposed to harm this monster blade.
Lastly, let me be mainstream for a while. Uzhhorod Castle offers amazing Instagram-style photo opportunities. Inner doors in the corridors have colored glasses and work as photo filters. For example, yellow glass adds a vintage tint to all pictures.
We managed to run through all the exhibition halls in just an hour. The castle is not very large and, in our opinion, not more fascinating than the mysterious atmosphere of Uzhhorod streets at night.
We wished we could also see the sunset here, but it was time to go back to Lviv, not to mention we were almost falling asleep.
P. S. Below is the reason why Uzhhorod might not seem a great destination in the daylight. It’s full of makeshift balconies, goofy moldings, and ill-set satellite dish antennas. I don’t know what I hate more: overparked streets or this scrappy architecture…
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