Treasures Underfoot and Above the Head
Returning once and no more
And only forests stretched all around: pine, sprawling and fragrant. It seemed they surrounded the whole town. The real giant forests, torn apart by tangled webs of ground roads, twisted rivers, and ponds. It was possible to get lost in them and wander into infinity until you’d find some forgotten village or old military unit.
Moreover, they were terrific for me, a kid from an immense steppe industrial city. Never before have I been so close to nature and felt such a powerful unity with it. Not without sports excitement: I could find mushrooms, which became a tasty supper. Age-old pine trees swished and smelled of their wonderful aroma, and even ordinary stones underfoot turned out to be magical emeralds.
This town from my memories is Okhtyrka in Sumy Oblast, a wooded region in northern Ukraine.
Of course, I had to come back sooner or later, although I had forgotten almost everything. And I couldn’t return that feeling of childlike carefree relaxation when you aren’t in a hurry; moreover, what to say about people near you? But here I am, again. Let it not be in the mushroom season, and only for a couple of hours. However, the forest around me is still real, majestically calm and fragrant.
We rarely visited the Vorskla River because it is outside the town. Its banks are wild and clean here.
Chernechchyna village is on the bank against the town. People were preparing for rafting.
A church of Holy Trinity Monastery dominated over the village like a fairy-tale castle.
I hadn’t visited it in my childhood because it had nothing to do. The monastery was founded in 1654 but closed and dismantled during Soviet times. The church was restored only in 2002, and the monastery resumed its work a year later.
Only a bell tower survived from the old times. It stood in stark contrast to the church.
We saw Vorskla from the monastery hill.
Typically, monasteries have their own economies, featuring vegetable gardens and animals.
After that, finally, we reached Okhtyrka, quiet and drowsy in the fleeting warmth of the spring day.
The first unusual monument you can notice is a nodding donkey. Okhtyrka is one of the Ukrainian oil-producing centers. This is the main factor that the town is neat, in contrast to its depressing look in the 90s.
It has a few surviving historical churches. First, we saw St. George’s Church (built in 1908).
The Okhturka River flows through the town center. It is shallow and dirty compared to Vorskla; however, it has a civilized green zone along its banks.
The main street of the city, Nezalezhnosti (Independence), has preserved a large number of buildings that remind us that Okhtyrka is an old city with a rich history.
Torhova Ploshcha (Market Square) and a monument in honor of Taras Shevchenko.
And other buildings on Nezalezhnosti Street I considered interesting:
Transfiguration church (1905):
The town has a pretty modern soccer stadium. Local “Naftovyk” was one of the most successful professional teams from small towns; now it plays in an amateur league. As “Naftovyk” means “Oilman,” one more monument of a nodding donkey looks very logical near it.
Further down the street, there is a poignant monument to the Afghan war veterans and School №4, which is clearly some pre-revolutionary gymnasium.
A crossroad before the stadium is a place of three temples. The most notable is the Intercession Cathedral (1753–68), an excellent example of Cossack Baroque architecture.
For some reason, I remember it from the whole town center, although I had only seen it passing through.
The Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary (1784) was covered with scaffolding and in poor lighting.
One more temple is almost hidden behind the Cathedral. This is the Nativity Church (1825), built in classic style. Furthermore, we moved to the bus station, and our short visit came to an end. But not my memories and impressions.
My childhood was heavily marred by diseases, especially asthma. Living in the large industrial city only worsened the situation. Trips anywhere to the sea or forests helped, but we didn’t have enough money. Pine forests of Okhtyrka became the salvation for me, because my grandmother’s sister lived here. She always warmly welcomed me. Sometimes, I met with my third cousins.
My return, which I’ve described above, took place in 2017 when no soul mate remained in the town. The grandmother’s sister passed away in 2015. Places I visited that day barely intersected with the geography of my childish travels, and this was good. Probably, I’d be disappointed because everything is so giant when you’re a kid and so small when you’re an adult.
Besides forests and ponds, I barely remember some fantastic cliffs we found once. Another evening, we’re returning to the town through a swampy area, almost knee-deep in water, and some fish discontentedly bit our legs. It was like being in a lost, enchanted world, not our own. Damn, that was one of the best evenings of my life.
This first return will probably be the last. The misfortune of Okhtyrka is its proximity (45 km) to the border with Russia. Active warfare took place here in 2022. Some of the historical buildings in the center, which I’ve shown in my photos, are already destroyed.
Our armed forces expelled the occupiers from this area long ago, but I’m afraid to imagine how many mines and unexploded shells are scattered in the surrounding forests. The forests of my childhood became deadly dangerous. Russians poison everything they can reach with their dirty hands and legs.
Although I have so many dreams to visit in the future, I also have places I’d always return again and again. The Carpathians are definitely one of such areas (by ):
And Istanbul is simply too large to be understood in one visit (by ):
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