Tourism and recreation field

None of the national economy fields gives so many possibilities to build a private business, like tourism does. It promotes population welfare growth and additional working places creation, opening new possibilities for entrepreneurship and private initiative.

Tourism development is very important and actual just because with its help a new quality of economic growth, business contacts establishment, receipts in the city’s budget increasing, profits getting can be guaranteed, which could be applied in tourist field of Mykolayiv and Mukolayiv region development, and also attractive investment climate creation and investments attraction in the city and region as a whole.

For these objectives realization the City Council provides for the CE “Mykolayiv Tourism” creation.

The City Council constantly works on creation and filling the small and medium business enterprises data base, which render the population tourist services.

The City Executive Committee supports the funds activity that assist in recreation organizing and children’s recovery, their cultural and physical education (more detailed information you can find on the Mykolayiv City Council web-site www.gorsovet.mk.ua). Thus by the funds “Indiana”, “Mykolayiv union of scouts”, the club of martial arts “Rys”, Mykolayiv enterprise “Han-Tengri”, the fund “Mykolayiv travellers’ club” there have been recovered more than 2000 children and teenagers in the sanitary and cultural and educational tent camps during this summer.

With the purpose of tourist and ecological city possibilities popularization the tourist enterprise “Han-Tengri” has taken part in the assembly of the tourist cluster participants “Southern tourist ring”, and the fund “Mykolayiv travellers’ club” has edited booklets with ecological routes of Mykolayiv region “Kinburn peninsula” and “Trikratskie nooks”.

There has been worked out the development and reconstruction plan of the Leninskiy comsomol park for 2005 – 2009 which provides for the building of summer pavilion for summer rest, cinema amateurs’ club, sheltered ice skating rink, fitness-club, sport rest zone, children’s café, dance pavilion reconstruction, side-shows and other recreation objects.

The work on Mykolayiv beaches condition improvement is being carried out. There has been done their certification, organized life and medical posts activity, foreseen beaches accomplishment and renovation, areas of water clearing, informational and warning shields placing and etc.

Natural and climatic conditions and substantial resources of the region promote the sanatorium-and-spa branch development.

The main natural and recreational resources are the sea sand beaches with the length more than 70 km., picturesque landscapes of the Southern Bug and Ingul banks and numerous reservoirs, mineral water sources, medicinal mud storages, in particular, of the Tilihulskiy and Beykushskiy estuaries.

Forest tracts are used as a recreational source, including green zones around the city.

The main places of recreation and treatment are situated in the resort zone of Nikolaev, Koblevo, Rybakovka and Ochakov on the Black Sea coast and its estuaries.

It is counted more than 120 areas and natural and reserved fund objects in the region, including regional landscape parks which are the part of the Black Sea biospheric reserve, numerous reserves, natural monuments and parks, including Mykolayiv Zoo, which is one of the best in Ukraine.

Kinburn Peninsula

Herodotus, the father of history, visited this area in the fifth century B.C., has left a record that became the basis of the legend about Hileas. “If one crosses the Borysthenes,” he wrote in his parchment scrolls, the first country one comes to from the sea is that of Hileas inhabited by Scythian farmers, whom the Hellenes living by the banks of the River Hypanis call the Borysthenians, and they themselves the Olbiopolitans.” Hileas in Ancient Greek meant a land covered with rich woods.

The first researchers of the Kinburn Peninsula have not found here anything that would recall the earthly paradise described by Herodotus. Their discoveries give a sad monoto¬nous picture; sand, saline soil, and an absence of people. It was a land of sandy hills (here called kuchuhury), reeds in the shallows and salt marshes, disease-infested swamps, ruth¬less heat, and grass.

And suddenly, miraculously, tree limbs close over one’s head, casting everything in the aura of twilight on even the sunniest daylight. Ancient and prehistoric uprooted willows stoop over the lake. A continuous wall of pliable water willows, buckthorns, brambles, blackberry bushes form an impassable thicket. No one knows who has left their footprints in the meter and a half of grass on the footpath to the forest’s patriarch, the mighty oak, serenaded by an endless symphony of birdsongs.

This is no legend and no imagination. It is the Volyzhyn Forest that stretches over the Kinburn Peninsula, a small part of the Black Sea State Preserve, visible proof that the leg¬ends about Hileas had a basis in life.

The Black Sea Preserve, created in 1927, united the remnants of the Kinburn Peninsula forests, southern parts of the Dnipro and Buh estuaries, virgin steppe areas of the north¬west Black Sea littoral, and numerous sandy islands with the water reserve zone in the of Yahorlytska and Tendrivska Bays. Under protection was taken the avian empire of millions of winged residents and rare mammalian species.

Today the Black Sea Biosphere Preserve is unique in Ukraine. This complex of natural oak stands and marshy abundance has international significance. Amid dry steppe, the sandy hills of which are covered in dense brush, prairie grass, and moss, open the tourist’s eye to its groves, abandoned bird nests, and glens. The picture is augmented by lakes, the banks of which have become inundated with cane, and silence broken by the calls of ducks. On the horizon azure tidal pools are adorned by waterfowl, laced with red flora. On the flick¬ering surface of the water, dark clouds seems to float over the preserve islands. This only a first impression, which far from conveys the true medley of the landscape, flora, and fauna of the preserve. Occupying approximately 3000 hectares of dry land in Mykolaiv oblast (plus about 6000 hectares in Kherson oblast) and over 350 square kilo¬meters of water open spaces in the Yahorlytska and Tendrivsky bays, it is unique in terms of the beauty and richness of its flora and fauna. Speaking in the language of impartial statistics, the Black Sea reserve boasts approximately 600 varieties of wild plant, including 24 medicinal ones, along with 280 avian and fifty mammalian species. Located on one of main routes of seasonal bird migration, the reserve provides shelter and food almost three hundred species of our feathery friends, among them those that are quite unique and rare like the blackheaded seagull, which is to be found in a quantity unseen anywhere else in the world, or that relic of the winged world, the white-tailed eagle. Here one can encounter pheasant and deer, hare and fox, wild goal and boar, gray and white heron, pelicans and swans, while one listens to the nightingale and oriole.

In the early 1960s people began the reclamation of the Hilea on the Kinburn Peninsula. Here green rows of young spurge laurel seedlings have grown to form a microclimate rare on the entire northern Black Sea littoral. Sea air impregnated with the scents of pine nee¬dles and steppe grasses constitute the basis of its curative properties. From desert scorched by thousands of years of the sun, the coast of the peninsula is beginning to transform into one of perfect health and beauty.

The Black Sea Biosphere Preserve encompasses only a small portion of the Kinburn Peninsula. For many years this sparsely populated and remote nook of Mykolaiv oblast has remained virtually untouched by today’s civilization. Today it hosts three modest villages - Pokrivka, Vasylivka, and Pokrovske - with a permanent population of about 800. Perhaps it was thanks to the legacy of nature itself that Kinburn has always attracted those drawn to creative callings. It has been favored by artists; here writers collect inspi¬ration; and city folk, weary of the hustle and bustle, regain their strength and health. The local people maintain their traditional lifestyle and unique color, living in union with nature.

This small strip of land, which in clear weather it is quite visible with its high Ochakiv coast, extends from east to west parallel to the mainland, separating the Dnipro-Buh estuary from the Black Sea. The peninsula is long {about 40 kilometers) and narrow, no more than ten kilometers at its widest point, and at its narrowest one can stand with one foot in the estuary and the other in the sea.

The Kinburn Peninsula is perhaps the part of Mykolaiv oblast most enshrined in poetry. Many poets and prose writers have devoted works to this blessed land, works about its vivid history, picturesque nature, and the unique character of its inhabitants. The heroic history of the area was enshrined in the novel, Kinburn, by Ukrainian writer Oleksandr Hlushko, who was born in Pokrovka, and its contemporary life in Ivan Hryhurko’s novel, Black Fish. Artists and writers from, Kyiv, Moscow, Odesa, and else¬where have all dedicated works to Kinburn.

The Kinburn Peninsula presents a unique nature complex of the lower Dnipro sands, this mosaic of alluvial steppe, natural groves and thickets, wetlands, and pines planted by man. A large number of plant species are unique to this small ecosystem, while others are rare or endangered and protected (e.g., the Dnipro birch, Dnipro savory, Crimean white pool, and other species found only here). About sixty kinds of animals inhabiting this area are entered in the Red Book of Ukraine {e.g., the sacred scarab, steppe snake, black winged stilt, and sandpiper). The locality is a natural migratory route of many kinds of birds, a place of their concentration, nesting, and wintering. Taking all this into account and in order to preserve the biological and landscape variety, local resort areas, and to sup¬ply the needs of the populace, the Mykolaiv oblast council resolved in 1992 to establish the Kinburn Peninsula Landscape Park of 17,890.2 hectares, including 5,631.3 hectares of wetlands.

Ochakiv

Ochakiv is correctly referred to as a gem of the North Prychornomoria (former North Pontic territory). It is located where the Dniper-Buh estuary (Dnipro-Buh Liman) flows into the Black Sea.

It is a small town with a population of some 20,000, yet every summer the number increases many times with the influx of tourists, sightseers, and vacationers eager to explore the coast where every stone spells ancient history under the hot southern sun. It is a developed resort area with excellent healthbuilding centers made especially attractive by the caressing sea and salty air tinged with heady steppe grass fragrance. Local history numbers thousands of years. Among the archaeological finds are relics from the Bronze age, remains of Scythian and Sarmatian burial mounds and habitats, Olbian and Old Greek coins. Old Slavic settlements…

The fortress of Ochakiv was founded by the Lithuanian duke Vytautas in the 15th centu¬ry. It changed hands repeatedly as the fertile Pontic steppes attracted Turkish sultans and Crimean khans. Actually, the current name, Ochakiv, originates from the Turkish Achi Kale.

Our ancestors fought for this land for three centuries. Russian forces took Ochakiv in 1788, after pitched battles. Military operations led by the celebrated Russian military leader Oleksandr Suvorov at Kinburn and Ochakiv went down into history and are cited in military textbooks. The storming of Ochakiv brought undying glory not only to Russian troops, but also to Zaporozhian Cossacks led by Arkhyp Holovatyi.

Present-day Ochakiv boasts numerous historical sites “from the times when the Crimea was conquered and Ochakov fell.” (There is a line in Alexander Griboedov’s The Misfortune of Being Clever: “Dating from the times when the Crimea was conquered and Ochakov [Russ. spelling] fell.” It has since become idiomatic, used with reference to outdated things, ideas, etc.). The Suvorov Military History Museum stores relics from that period and there is a statue of the noted military leader in front of the museum, erected almost a century ago, in commemoration of the victory at Kinburn and with people’s money. Potemkin, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Ushakov, Holovatyi - many glorious names are associated with the history of Ochakiv. R.H. Sudkovskyi, a talented marinist, Aivazovskyi’s friend, was born, lived, and worked here. His colorful works are stored at the Marine Art Museum of Ochakiv, named for the artist.

Ochakiv district is inhabited by fishermen, grain farmers, and wine-growers. Agricultural enterprises, such as the joint stock company Olviia [Olbia] and Ochakiv Fish Cannery are known all over Ukraine. And the same is true of local wines like Riesling Ochakivskyi, Perlyna Stepu [Gem of the Steppe], Oksamyt Ukrainy [Ukrainian Velvet], etc. Ochakiv has great prospects as a resort center. Beaches of local health resorts, tourist lodges and “tent cities” stretch for several kilometers along the steep shore. Archaeological studies show that the place was also a kind of resort at the times of Olbia, scene of ath¬letic competitions favored by vacationing Olbiopolitans. Balneologists discovered a three-meter layer of curative mud in the outskirts of the village of Chornomorka. It matches the famous Kuialnyk muds at Odesa. Mineral springs were also found there, proving especial¬ly good for people having problems with nutrition and lever. And the climate is also very special. The sun is not scorching in summer and nor are there any sudden cold spells. The winter is mild. The shallow sea bay is kept warm by the sun at all times, the beaches are protected from steppe winds by the steep shore. In a word, the place is salutary.

Granite and steppe beyond the Buh

This place is really amazing. Here the quiet-flowing Buh turns into a turbulent highland river, rushing squeezed by steep rocky banks for almost 40 km, forming a narrow valley looking more like a canyon with tall granite rocks, forbidding rapids, whirlpools, and islands. Buh rapids are a true mecca for tourists fond of the aquatic sports and one of Europe’s best water slalom courses. The steep rocky banks are frequented by mountain-climbers. This scenic “highland” amidst the Ukrainian steppe attracts many hikers who leave with lasting memories. In 1994, the Mykolaiv regional council resolved to establish the Granite Steppe Pobuzhia Landscape Park here to preserve this unique natural complex. Shortly afterward, its territory was considerably expanded, currently registering 5,034 ha, including Pershotravnevyi, Arbuzynskyi, Domanevskyi, and Voznesenskyi districts of Mykolaiv oblast.

The granite-steppe area beyond the Buh (Pobuzhia) has an extremely interesting history. Whole archaeological strata were discovered: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Copper and Iron Age, Cherniakhovska and Trypillia cultures. There is evidence of Cimmerian, Sauromatian, Scythian, Olbiopolitan, Slavic, and Roman habitats. All told, 98 archaeolog¬ical sites were discovered in the South Buh valley, between the villages of Myhia and Oleksandrivka.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks left a most vivid trace in local history. The town of Hard, the administrative center of the Buh and Zaporozhian Cossack Guard, was on the island, on the confluence of the Buh and Tashlyk, as the largest of eight territorial units of the Zaporozhian Sich. The natural boundary of Protekty with the Cossack sanctuary of Protychanska Skelia was also a famous place at the time. The South Buh rapids (still there, locally known as the broiaky) and a multitude if islands and cliffs are mentioned in legends about Zaporozhian Cossacks and Haidamaky rebels. They are living witnesses to the past. Even place names speak of past Cossack glory: Zaporizka Broiaka, Cossack Marnai Island, Turetskyi Stil and Puhach rocks, Haidamatska Balka, etc.

Granite-steppe Pobuzhia is one of the oldest sections of the Eurasian continent. It has not sunk in the depth of the world ocean for the past 60 million years and served as one of the speciation centers of the Pontic territory - or Prychornomoria. Hence the rich plant and wildlife: close to 900 plant varieties, including 26 entered in the Red Book of Ukraine and the Red List of Europe. In addition to typical steppe, meadow, forest, and rock species, the locality boasts quite a few Buh and Prychornomoria endemic varieties and relicts dating from different geological epochs {e.g., the legendary Buh moehringia, little known even to experts; Buh viscaria, Klokov cherry, Buh pink, and Borisova orpine populating the land¬scape park).

The wildlife is also rich. Since the adjoining steppes are mostly plowed up, the South Buh canyon is the last refuge for numerous animal varieties and at least 9,000 inspect species, among them 51 in the Red Book of Ukraine (e.g., stag beetle, oak cerambyx [great capri-corn beetle], and a number of hawk moths and bumblebees. There are some 300 verte¬brates, of which 46 are protected by the state (Dnipro madder, Chalcalburnus chalcoides danubicus Antipa, small hawkeagle, true otter, badger, yellowhammer, etc.) The local for¬est ring snake population is the only survivor in Europe.

Over the past several years, the Granite-Steppe Pobuzhia Landscape Park has attracted not only scientists, but also students using it for “field practice” [workshop seminars].

Mykolaiv Zoo

2001 marks the Mykolaiv Zoo’s birth centennial. Founded in 1901 as the Aquarium of the then Mayor M.P. Leontovych, it remained on his premises downtown, as a private collec¬tion till the Russian revolution. Even then it was known in Russia and Europe. The collec¬tion boasted some 50 fishes and amphibians placed in 75 aquariums, some having up to 3,000 cu. liters capacity. There were only seven other such collections in Europe at the time.

After the revolution M.P. Leontovych’s collection was nationalized and he was appointed director [manager] of the State Aquarium. In 1925, a zoological division was attached and the whole thing was titled “Aquarium - Zoological Garden.” Bison, yaks, camels, ostrich¬es, deer, and moufflons were brought from Askania Nova. Bears, wolves, foxes, mon¬keys, and other animals were bought specially for the zoo.

In 1976, a new zoo started being built and n 1978 the animals were transferred to the new spacious premises (23 ha). That same year work began on a park. Every year zoo workers plant trees, shrubs, and flowers. Currently the park numbers over 400 varieties of trees and undergrowth.

Each year zoo experts add to the collection. Now they have 370 animal species, more than 2,700 creatures from almost every continent, including 80 species entered in the Red List. This is Ukraine’s largest such collection, as more than 50 animal species cannot be found anywhere else in this country. Mykolaiv Zoo was the first in Ukraine to become a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 1993. It participates in 18 EEP pro¬grams for the development of rare species and is a member of the Eurasian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums and International Animal Accounting System. Mykolaiv zoologists study animal behavior in captivity and the result is obvious: 120 species multiply systematically.

There are fives zoo sections: aqua terrarium, ornithology, primates, wild beats, and hoofed animals.
Mykolaiv Zoo is a favorite place of rest for a lot of residents and is frequented by guests to the city. Over the past 100 years it has been visited by over 10,000,000. The animals have been tended by five generations of personnel and more than 2,000 young residents visit regularly as members of the local nature lovers’ groups.

Olbia Archeological Reserve

It is a place 40 km from Mykolaiv, on the steep hilly bank of the Buh Liman estuary, that has for many decades attracted researchers and people wishing to learn more about past realities. Olbia Archeological Reserve. This year the President of Ukraine signed an edict bestowing the reserve the National status.

More than 2,500 years ago, antique cities and rural habitats were located in the south of what is Ukraine today, Black Sea coast, and the lower reaches of the rivers draining into the sea. Olbia was among the largest cities, the polis city-state embracing all of the Lower Pobuzhia and surviving for about a thousand years.

It was founded by people from the Greek city of Miletus; they must have taken to the hilly terrain by the estuary, isolated from the boundless steppe in the north and west by deep ravines, and by the Gipanisus (ancient name of the river Southern Buh). They called the new polis Olbia, meaning happy. Indeed, it was a happy city-state for some time. Its resi¬dents were grain farmers, cattle-breeders, fishermen, and wine-growers. The crafts included metalworking, pottery, woodworking, stonemasonry, etc. In return for handi¬craft they received goods imported from other Old Greek centers; Olbian merchants received grain, cattle, wool, and slaves from neighboring tribes (Scythians, Sarmatians). They sold slaves at metropolitan markets. Olbia was a slave-holding republic. Owing to its convenient geography, it continued to prosper, expanding trade and territory. This, of course, attracted enemies. On more then one occasion Olbia was besieged by nomadic tribes. In BC 331, it was besieged by one of the military leaders under Alexander the Great. In BC 2-1, Olbia was controlled by the Scythian kingdom and then by Mithridate, king of Pontus. In BC-1, Olbia was devastated by Goths, whereupon the city would never again show its previous splendor. In the first and second centuries AD, a Roman garrison was stationed there. In the fourth century, as the slave-holding system was gripped by a major crisis, Olbia ceased to exist, as did most other antique states in the North Pontic territory, unlike three other venues of antique culture: Tyras (currently Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Odesa oblast), Chersonese (near Sevastopol in the Crimea), and Panticapaeum (currently Kerch, also in the Crimea) where life has never stopped. Olbia did not outlive its epoch. The city, forgotten by man for almost 1,500 years, succumbed to the ravages of time. What was left was taken away by the Turks to build the fortress of Ochakiv not far from the place, and looted by the populace (one of the local villages, Parutyne, is built of Olbian stone).

Scientists believe that the epoch of poleis in the North Pontic territory, lasting almost a mil¬lennium, made a significant impact on local history and culture. The role played by Olbia was also important, giving an impetus to the socioeconomic, political, and cultural devel¬opment of local tribes.

Domestic scientists discovered the ruins of Olbia in the late 18th century when Russia took possession of the territory after the Russo-Turkish Wars. Systematic digging has been underway since the early 20th century. Finds are stored at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (Russia),’numerous Ukrainian, Russian, Western European, and American museums.

Berezan

This small island 12 km from Ochakiv, by the entrance to the Dnipro-Buh Liman, has been visited by countless people over the centuries: Slavs, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Varangians, Genoese, Turks, Britts, French… And the names it has changed! Why? Was it the size (850 meters from north to south, 350 m wide in the north and 200 m in the south)? Convenient location? Probably. Berezan is surrounded by shallows and the shores are hard of access, except the small displacement navigable south-western part. The vegetation is scarce: steppe grass and a handful of anemic trees. No fresh water.

Yet the fact remains. The place has attracted man since time immemorial. Archaeological finds and other scientific evidence point to the first Greek settlement in BC-7, the so-called emporium, otherwise known as a “place of trade of the Borysthenians.” The settlement is older than Olbia and there is also evidence that the aborigines visited Berezan considerably earlier than the Greek colonists. An aboriginal burial mound was unearthed in the western part of the island. In it were found a flint knife and a fragment of a stone ax. Kyiv Rus’ princes Sviatoslav, Ihor, and Oleh must have also visited the island. There are Varangian traces. Zaporozhian Cossack chaika sailboats must have cast anchor. Archaeologists found the remains of a Turkish fortress, a concrete Labirynth of bunkers and cells built in 1907 as training targets for long-range naval artillery.

Archaeologists resume digging every summer and every season brings new discoveries. A bird’s view of the island shows it for something like a ship with two masts; one is the Lieutenant Schmidt statue and the other the finely shaped Berezan Lighthouse. During the holiday season hundreds of vacationers visit the island from the nearby resort areas. Every year Berezan is visited by some 40,000 vacationers. And the influx of tourists has no end. People follow a winding steep footpath to pay tribute to this barren sun-scorched land basking in a long and eventful history.

Kobleve

The Black Sea coast of Mykolaiv oblast, stretching from the legendary Olbia to boundary line of Odesa oblast, could be a continuous resort zone, for the environment is a godsend in terms of rest and recreation. The time will come and it will be just that. As it is, the coast, lined by estuaries, accommodates three resort areas: Ochakiv, Rybakivka, and Koblieve.

Koblieve borders on Odesa oblast. There are many orchards and vineyards. With each year the products of the local joint stock company “Wines of Koblievo” become increasingly popular in Ukraine and far outside. The resort area joins the Tylyhul estuary, teeming with game and known for curative mud. The estuary, with sand spits and steppe {8,195.4 ha) was placed under state protection in 1995. The regional council resolved to establish the Tylyhul Landscape Park .

The coast with its man-made pine groves boasts many kilometers of sand beaches, tourist lodges, and resort hotels. Once enterprises in Mykolaiv oblast and Moldova organized makeshift resorts here. With time this deserted coast succumbed to civilization; wood cab¬ins were replaced by high-rise hotels, numerous retail outlets appeared, along with social and cultural facilities. Over the past several years the local authorities have busied them¬selves with improvements, striving to turn Koblieve, blessed by nature, into a modern resort complex.