Where is Vilkovo located? Vilkovo

12.11.2019

Another of our trips from last summer was a trip to the town of Vilkovo, which is located in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta. We did not plan this trip; we were told about this town already at sea, warning that the “Ukrainian Venice” differs quite strongly from the original one. This is true. Looking ahead, I will say that Venice is a city on the water, and Vilkovo is still a village on the water, which explains everything (all photos are clickable).

Buses run regularly from Odessa to Vilkovo, but the journey is delayed because they have to go around the Dniester estuary and at one point cross the border with Moldova.

We drive our Mitsubishi from the coast to the north, to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, and then turn left, towards Izmail - the city of Russian military glory.

In these places, there used to be constant wars, in particular with Turkey, and this entire area once belonged to Romania. Slavic names of cities here alternate with Turkic ones: Monashi, Reni, Spasskoye, Tatarbunary...

We reach the town of Spasskoye and, near an inconspicuous sign, turn left 90 degrees.

Historical reference:

City in the Danube Delta, " Ukrainian Venice" Founded in 1746 by Old Believers fleeing persecution from the Orthodox Church (a monument to the founder is installed on the pier). It is located on numerous artificial canals and channels that form water streets (eriki). The main type of transport is boats. Is the center of the Danube biosphere reserve. From the pier, excursions are organized around the eriks of the old city, to the Danube flood plains, to the “zero kilometer” (the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea), to the islands of the Old Believers. The Old Believer Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1850) has been preserved.

Later, harsh fugitive Cossacks - Don and Zaporozhye - moved to this secluded region, which consisted of 15 large and more than 150 small islands. The flight of the Don Cossacks to the Danube, whose troops were led by Ignat Nekrasov, lasted for a decade. The flow waxed and waned. Particularly significant movements were observed after the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1791. That’s when Vilkovo turned out to be one of those settlements in which Nekrasov Old Believers settled especially densely.

At the same time, the Zaporozhye Cossacks were settling this territory. The dispersal of the Zaporozhye Sich in 1775 was perceived by the Ukrainian people as a national tragedy. Having liquidated the Sich, the tsarist government sent the Cossack elders to Siberia and gave the lands to the landowners. The prospect of becoming serfs forced the Cossacks to flee.

Having settled in the settlement of Lipovanskoye, the Ukrainian Cossacks lived separately, without mixing with the Old Believers. This conventional division in Vilkovo has been preserved to this day - there is the “Lipovan” part of the city, which is the most famous, with eriks and bridges, and there is the Ukrainian one, which stands on solid ground and currently finds itself in the center of the city.

Actually, the name appeared because the Danube here forms numerous “forks” - it bifurcates. In general, it seems that the population of Vilkovo is still trying to isolate themselves from the whole world - the last 10 kilometers to the town the asphalt surface is completely destroyed - they had to make their way along it with special precautions so as not to lose the wheels there... Locals said that this happened after some there is a large construction site in this place - heavy trucks have damaged the road. Of course, no one thought of fixing it...

Well, finally...

Actually, there are several things you can see here: the canals themselves that cut through the town, as well as the Danube Biosphere Reserve, where you can see various rare plants, as well as birds. The town itself is divided into 2 parts - land and water.

On the embankment and the main pier there is a monument to the founder of the city, the Old Believers who came to these remote lands. By the way, to this day the descendants of the Old Believers and Cossacks live separately, each going to their own churches and trying not to marry each other.

On the other side of the river is Romania.

At the entrance along the road there are representatives of various excursion companies with whom you can agree on a program: a boat trip, a visit to the zero kilometer, etc. They try to lure clients away from each other. The first ones we turned to turned out to be slow, so we let others lure us away... 🙂 We drove up to the pier, got into the boat and set off for 2-3 hours on the water. Our boatman also served as a tour guide.

For excursions by water, you need to have a passport with you. Coming out along one of the many “arms” to the Danube, somewhere in the reeds, there is a border guard’s booth. Our boatman just shouted to him: “Russians, we have passports,” and we moved on. There may also be checks from the other, Romanian side.

There are trees, reeds and other greenery all around, the whole territory is dissected by narrow channels.

Everything stands here and is adapted for water - houses, gardens, garden plots, etc.

Many different animals live here: herons (white and black), cormorants, pelicans, etc. We couldn’t get too close to them...

We came out to an island completely covered with a thick layer of shells. Small shells are called shells here, and large ones twisted into a spiral are called “rapans”.

There are many water lilies here - a sign of clean water.

After the reserve we sail into the city. Here is a typical house on a river street.

There are no sidewalks in the town, so for walking along the streets, wooden platforms were built, which are called here “masonry” and serve as a sidewalk.

Each house has its own boats, vegetable garden, grapes and even a satellite dish.

We also found a local sports section practicing - kayaks, of course! 🙂

This, of course, is not Venice, but it certainly has its own charm and flavor. If only they could make the road, it would be absolutely beautiful!

It seems that I have never seen such a strange city either before or (so far) after. Small (9 thousand inhabitants) and lost in the floodplains of the Danube Delta just 15 kilometers from the Black Sea, Vilkovo essentially never became a city, remaining a real Old Believer settlement. One of the largest enclaves of the Old Believers civilization, scattered from of Eastern Europe to Transbaikalia, a miraculously surviving corner of the Transdanubian Sich and just a city in the Danube Delta, nicknamed “Ukrainian Venice” in guidebooks for the abundance of canals and boats. And at the same time, it is perhaps the most inaccessible city in Ukraine.

The first thing you need to understand is that Vilkovo is far away. Having left Odessa at 9 am, we arrived here at 3 pm - however, largely due to our mistakes. But the bus to Vilkovo takes about 5 hours, despite the fact that 3 hours is enough to explore the city itself. At the entrance there is a checkpoint with border guards and environmental police, since there is a border and a nature reserve, but they did not inspect us. IN last years Vilkovo has become quite popular tourist destination, and too much here is geared towards tourism to create obstacles for guests.
The bus station is that booth at the foot of the church:

There are three churches in the city, and two of them, including this one, are St. Nicholas, and two of them, not including this one, are Old Believers. St. Nicholas "Ukrainian" (and non-Old Believers here are mostly Ukrainians) church was built in 1867 (that is, when Vilkovo belonged to Romania), the farthest from the center, and differs unfavorably from Old Believers churches due to the abundance of beggars. Of course, it’s also about the bus station and the market - and yet when three people immediately rush at you from the road and start, almost grabbing you by the hand, begging for money - it’s unpleasant, to say the least.

St. Nicholas Church stands in the so-called New Town. Halfway from St. Nicholas Church to Rozhdestvenskaya in the Old Town there is a small Soviet cultural center:

Behind which is a monument to the Fisherman:

When the Old Believer settlement arose in the Danube Delta, now only God knows. The first Old Believers fled here, most likely, back in the 17th century, immediately after the Schism. In these parts, the Old Believers are still called “Lipovans” to this day - either this is a distorted word “Filippovtsy” (one of the non-priest confessions), or a reference to these very floodplains with their linden forests. Be that as it may, by the beginning of the 18th century there were Lipovan villages throughout Moldova. In 1709, after the defeat of the Bulavinsky uprising, the Nekrasovites were added to the Lipovans - Old Believers Cossacks who rebelled and then left under the leadership of Ignat Nekrasov. The Danube Delta was apparently simply the most remote place west of Russia. In 1762, Vilkovo became a city, the capital of Plavni.

In 1775, another wave of those who did not want to live “under Russia” came to the Delta - the Cossacks from the defeated Sich. Here they founded the Transdanubian Sich, which existed until 1828, which, again, the Nekrasovites were not very happy about - not only were the Cossacks not Old Believers, not only were the Don Cossacks always loathe the Cossacks, but there wasn’t enough fishing grounds for everyone . In 1794-1806, a real war broke out in the floodplains between the Nekrasovites and the Zadanubians, which ended with the latter having to go upstream, and many fled back to Russia. However, by that time there was little left of the Nekrasov community: back in 1791, most of the Nekrasovites went south, gradually settling in the depths of Turkey, from where only in 1966, on one ship, the Cossacks returned to the Soviet Union.

However, under Russia, the fate of the Vilkovo Lipovans turned out to be not as difficult as that of their many brothers. The distant periphery, the borderland, which at any moment could fall to other countries - in general, the imperial authorities preferred not to aggravate relations with the Lipovans. And even the Nativity Church was built in 1850, that is, under Nicholas I, when the persecution of Old Believers intensified throughout the empire.

Church of the Nativity opens Old city, its “dry” part - endless huts with tiled roofs along the winding streets. It was a very strong impression - a deserted, non-Russian-looking city, women in headscarves hurrying to church, and the bell ringing over the tiled roofs:

A typical landscape in the “dry” part of Stary Vilkov. And the foreign landscape is combined with a much more Russian spirit than in other Russian cities - the old faith, primordial Rus'... If it were not for the tiles and white clay, in some places Vilkovo would be very reminiscent of the Russian North.

Gradually we came to the main “street” of Vilkov - Belgorod Erik:

Eriks here are the canals that form a network between the two branches of the Danube. As I understand it, the Belgorod erik is natural, and the side ones are mostly dug by hand. The bridge over the main river is the center of city life, and for tourists it is notable for the fact that here you can arrange a boat excursion - officially on one bank (Pelican travel agency), and on the other - directly with the residents:

On average, an hour's sailing on a motor boat through the Old Town and the floodplains costs about 200 hryvnia - and it seems to me that without it the impression of Vilkovo would not be complete. But for now let’s go further overland and admire the erik some more. As you can see, there are really a lot of boats on it, and the traffic is active. Most of the boats are the so-called “gulls”, the main watercraft of the Ukrainian Cossacks - light, spacious and maneuverable:

And this is what the landscapes of that very “Ukrainian Venice”, the inner part of the Old Town on Erik look like:

An ordinary erik looks like this - a narrow and perfectly straight channel, where two boats can barely pass each other. It should be noted that we arrived when the flood had already ended - and during the flood the water rises to the sidewalks:

The sidewalks here are simply called “masonry”. They are usually 2-3 boards wide, and it is no coincidence that the locals joke - “a drunken Vilkovite staggers not left and right, but back and forth”:

Someone parks boats on the side of the rivers:

But often short ditches under the masonry lead directly to the courtyards:

However, in recent decades, “Venice” has suffered greatly - shops have become a more reliable source of food than the river, and in Big city It's easier to get there by bus. Many eriks were no longer looked after, and they quickly became overgrown with silt, turning into ordinary dirty ditches. In addition, the eriks dug for a reason - they formed a real hydraulic system, and therefore the clogging of even one erik affects all the others. They say that Vilkovo is rapidly becoming shallow and silting.

Behind the Belgorod Erik there is another St. Nicholas Church - Old Believer, and (although I did not find the date of construction) probably built in the first Romanian era (1856-78), like the “namesake” in the New Town. Lipovans in Vilkovo make up about 70% of the population, but due to the abundance of tourists, the local Old Believer churches are perhaps the most open in the world. Nobody prevents you from taking photographs (although I haven’t tried it directly in the church), you can calmly go to the service... a service in an Old Believer church leaves an indelible impression - the abundance of ancient icons (and the Old Believers always had more icons than the few churches could accommodate), a different manner singing and a strong feeling as if it were the 16th century. But the main thing is that there are not many places where anyone can see this, and not just those who seemed trustworthy to the Old Believers.

Not far from the church we saw the Danube. I saw it here for the first time:

The Danube turned out to be a huge river. In terms of water flow, it is only a quarter smaller than the Volga, and its width at Vilkovo is almost 800 meters, that is, quite worthy of Siberian rivers. Powerful current, muddy water. Beyond the Danube is Romania. Like Izmail and Kiliya, Vilkovo stands on the Kiliya arm - the largest of the three large branches that form the delta.

Coming to the Danube bank, we realized that we had wandered into a reed factory. Harvesting reeds, which are exported from here to Europe, is Vilkov’s main economic specialization. In the middle of the reed factory there is a hut like this, and behind the hut - try to guess what.

This is a completely rusted barge - we saw about five of these in the city, off the banks of the Danube and the main river. Industrial fishing was probably once carried out in the delta:

Now fishing nets are dried here on fishing boats:

From the board there is a beautiful view of the reed harvesting:

This whole walk took us less than an hour, and overall it left us with an ambivalent feeling. On the one hand, I was very impressed by the atmosphere of Vilkov, but on the other, there was a feeling of some kind of disappointment: “And that’s all?!” But it is no coincidence that I mentioned just above the boat excursions that are conducted both by the official Pelican company and by ourselves local residents. At the bridge over the main erik, a fisherman-looking guy approached us and offered us a ride on a motor boat around the Old Town and the floodplains for 200 hryvnia. We agreed.

Actually, the entire voyage consisted of two parts - first along the main river through the entire city, and then to the Danube and into the floodplain. And I must say, from the water Vilkovo looks completely different, many things that are invisible from the shore clearly appear:

Embankment - fences, masonry, boats on the water, bridges over the necks of the rivers. Someone's boat is coming out of the erik - now it will start the engine and drive:

Traffic on the canal is really active - oncoming and overtaking boats come across almost continuously. Motor:

Oaring:

And even kayaks - either some kind of club, or a physical education lesson at a local school:

Apparently, there is also an ethics here. So, our helmsman, seeing one of his peers, accelerated his speed and tried to splash them a little, and when he met a boat with women or elderly people, on the contrary, he turned off the engine and passed them by inertia. The main difference between a boat and a car is that it creates waves behind it, which will certainly shake and toss the oncoming boat - therefore, a “polite boatman” will first of all strive not to create a wave on the oncoming boat.

We walked the canal almost from end to end - about 10 minutes after the bridge, deserted floodplains begin, and then the boat goes out into an almost motionless backwater, behind which five-story buildings can be seen:

Here is an abandoned windmill:

Then we returned to the bridge and headed for the Danube:

We go out into the open river, where, I must say, there is a rather strong wave and a piercing wind:

At the mouth of the canal there is a border outpost with a turret resembling a tower, and a couple more rotten barges:

And although Romania is on the other side, the islands opposite Vilkov are quite inhabited. The fact is that here the Kiliya arm forms its own “delta within a delta,” which has turned into the outskirts of Vilkovo. These floodplains are very densely populated:

Half of Vilkovo residents have vegetable gardens here. Many make homemade wine, which they sell to tourists during the season:

Some areas in Lately were replaced by recreation centers - despite the wilderness and inaccessibility, Vilkovo has recently become one of the most tourist cities in Ukraine. From these bases, during the season, excursions are carried out to the “zero kilometer” - the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea, and deep into the floodplains, to look at the birds (and if the Volga delta is famous for its flamingos, then the main bird of the Danube delta is the pelican).

On one of the islands there are two golbets - Old Believers often used such columns with icons instead of crosses. As the helmsman explained to us, here they perform the same function as Orthodox crosses at the entrances to cities:

Well, it’s not yet the season, and the floodplains are mostly empty. A very impressive view - and it is not clear what century it is.

And finally - people. Perhaps the most amazing thing I saw in Vilkovo were its inhabitants. In general, I usually don’t photograph people, primarily because, in general, the people in different parts of the East Slavic world are not so visually different. But here I could not resist. People in Vilkovo look completely folkish - be they pious old women:

Or completely modern women:

For the most part, the residents of Vilkovo are not too different from the inhabitants of the Slavic hinterland in general - and yet there is something infinitely their own, Lipovan, about them. It seems that despite the openness and cordiality, despite the expectation tourist season, despite drunkenness and silted eriki, they still keep some special, ancient times a Russian secret that people from outside cannot understand.

In conclusion of the story about Vilkov, I simply cannot help but provide links to two more of my posts that are related to the topic.

There are many in Ukraine amazing places, both from an architectural and natural point of view. And there is also one where the natural beauty of the Danube estuary miraculously combines with simple human labor in almost inhuman conditions.

In tourist brochures, the town of Vilkovo in the Kiliysky district of the Odessa region is called “Ukrainian Venice.”
In fact, we will see a living illustration of the labor feat of thousands of fugitive Old Believers who managed to settle in the Polesie swamps and Danube floodplains. We have long wanted to see these places with our own eyes, because getting to those places is not easy even with a good crossover. And that's why!

Vilkovo is located in the very corner of our country, in the southwest of the Odessa region near the border with Romania. The E-95 route is known, perhaps, to every motorist - the road to Odessa leads like an arrow from Kyiv. And if anyone goes to Vilkovo from other regions, they will still have to pass through Odessa. It is best to make a pit stop here at the 21st kilometer (+400 m) of the ring road near the village of Usatovskoye at the OKKO gas station. The point is that he was with us Small child, who needed to change his diapers . This was another reason for choosing this gas station, since there is a changing table in the restroom, which my wife found out about on , planning our route in advance.

For the rest of the crew (there were four of us), who were pretty hungry on the way, the main “bonus” was the presence here the already familiar cuisine of the restaurant of the A la minute chain, which we trust, because we have tested it more than once. By the way, a note to parents traveling with children - these restaurants even have dishes on the menu that are recommended for little guests (at the table next to us, the little one eagerly devoured children's pasta). The wife preferred the Caesar salad and Mille-feuille dessert, her sister preferred steamed buckwheat with goulash, and the male half each took borscht and a juicy pork steak. We didn’t have to wait long for our order, but while we were having lunch, we managed to get our car washed at a good discount using the points accumulated on our Fishka card - nice!

After a hearty lunch, I really wanted to take the short road along the sea that was offered google maps. But after Belgorod-Dnestrovsky it became clear that it was simply terrible, driving above 40 km/h without damaging the suspension and riders was difficult, so we turned onto the notorious M-15 road (Odessa-Reni), which partially coincides with the European E- 87.

By the way, if you have time, then along the way you can stop by the fortress in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, this will take an hour and a half. The area there is quite large, there is where to climb and what to see.

While I was driving, my wife was reading the history of “Ukrainian Venice” from her phone. It turns out that Vilkovo was originally the village of Lipovanskoye, which was founded in 1746 (according to other sources in 1762) by the so-called Old Believers or Lipovans. They fled religious persecution after the Nikonian schism of the Russian Orthodox Church. These were the Don Cossacks who first settled in the Danube floodplains in the 40s of the 17th century. It was then that the settlement of Lipovanskoye appeared on Russian military maps.

Monument to the Old Believer pioneer - the founder of Vilkovo

At the same time, this territory was being populated by Zaporozhye Cossacks, who fled persecution after the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich. To this day, Lipovans represent the majority of the city’s population. They have preserved many of their religious traditions.
There are three churches in the city: Orthodox and two Old Believer Lipovan churches. Since 1812, after the signing of the Peace of Bucharest, Vilkovo has been a district town in the Besarabia province.

The first residents of Vilkovo began to develop the floodplains, but in order to build a house and set up a garden, they first had to build an artificial island. Construction material was taken right there, digging a canal around the island. And today the population of the old city continues to live on these same islands, each of which is surrounded by a canal or “erik”.

Roads from house to house are laid along masonry and bridges. Every family has its own boat, and that's the main thing vehicle residents of Vilkovo Actually, that’s why Vilkovo received the fame of “Ukrainian Venice”. Fortunately, in Vilkovo not only canals act as transport arteries, but there are also ordinary roads. Moreover, mainly in the form of concrete blocks, the asphalt is concentrated at the entrance.

Photo: shutterstock

To the Black Sea. wonderful, mysterious place, where the beauty of nature and the creations of human hands merge together - this is Vilkovo. Ukrainian Venice - this is what residents and guests call this place. The old part of the city is located in the water, so you can only get here by boat, and instead of streets, we have canals. Let's find out how it happened that people founded this town on the river, and what kind of vacation in Vilkovo, judging by the reviews, can await us.

Nikon's church reform. Its consequences

Three centuries ago, Old Believers fled here from church reform. As a result of Russia's victory in the Russian-Turkish war, its position strengthened. They united and became a single center of Rus'. There was a need to create a centralized church, because the Orthodox faith was the single core of the state. It was decided to come to a single prayer, the same forms of worship and rituals. For this purpose, the Nikon reform was carried out, the basis of which was the church practice of Byzantium.

It turned out that in the years that have passed since the baptism of Rus', a lot has changed in the rituals. decided to eradicate this disunity, enlisting the support of the king. But in reality, everything turned out to be more complicated - not everyone accepted the changes with enthusiasm. There were many who disagreed: a significant part of the boyars, merchants, representatives of the clergy and peasants. Thus began the split. The confrontation intensified, there were many casualties, and the Old Believers realized that they had no chance to survive and win. Some considered the solution to the problem to go on the run, others staged self-immolations in protest, and still others went underground. It was these Lipovan Old Believers who fled and came to the swampy banks of the Danube.

The foundation of Vilkovo and the feat of Lipovan

The founders of Vilkovo in 1746 literally rebuilt and took out “the land from under the water,” namely, they extracted silt and laid it at the base of future houses and streets, fencing artificial islands with chopped reeds. The town was literally reclaimed from the river.

During the Russian-Turkish War, the Lipovans made their invaluable contribution to the victory. Their services were highly appreciated and noted in Kutuzov’s reports. Without the help of Lipovan it would have been impossible to achieve one of the most striking victories in history - the capture impregnable fortress Ottoman Empire, city of Izmail. As Suvorov said, personally inspecting one of the most powerful fortifications in Europe before the assault, “this fortress has no weak points.” The Lipovans themselves did not participate in hostilities for religious reasons, but agreed to help Suvorov in organizing the transfer of troops along the Danube. They provided their boats with excellent performance, maneuverability and spaciousness. Still, over the years of living on the river, the settlers took into account all the nuances of navigation. Their long, narrow boats had bows on both sides, which saved time on turns.

The victorious commander, as a reward, gave the Lipovans the right to own the waters of the Danube, which was recorded on paper and sealed with the appropriate seal. In the 20th century, Romania tried to deprive them of this right, but the Hague International Court of Justice retained the right received from Russia for the rulers of the Danube. The act of lipovan is not only a military feat, but also a Christian step of good will. These people have shown that they do not remember old grievances, put the common cause above their own interests and know how to help without hoping for bribes.

Population

The majority of the population of Vilkovo is Russian. There are 70% of them in the town, and most of them still profess the ancient Old Believer faith. 25% are Ukrainians, as well as Romanians, Moldovans, Bulgarians and representatives of other nationalities. The population of the city of Vilkovo, according to the 2001 census, was 9.4 thousand people. Also, according to the same census, Russian is the native language for 84% of the population.

Religion

There are three churches in the city - one Orthodox and two Old Believers. There are also three Baptist churches located here.

Geographical features of the region

The Vilkovo map gives an idea of the location of the town.

The Danube flows into the sea through several divided channels, “sleeves” that resemble a fork, which explains the name of the city. The parts of this fork were connected manually by numerous canals - “eriks”, and now it is a town on 72 islands. Together with river channels, man-made canals created a single water system in Vilkovo. Photo settlement clearly demonstrate channels alternating with small islands. And if you look at a map of the city from the air during the Danube flood, we will see neat rectangular islands of land among the endless water.

Amazing nature of Vilkovo

Ukrainian Venice has every right to be called a piece of paradise. All nature lives here at the junction of sea and river. The region is characterized by rare species plants, birds, animals. There are also lakes nearby. As in Ancient Egypt, silt gives plants strength, being the best fertilizer. Standing in the water, residents take out the silt, lay it out to dry, and then transport it in wheelbarrows to the desired location. The land created with your own hands always turns into a wonderful, neat vegetable garden with beds of vegetables or a garden with fragrant flowers. The small reed houses of the inhabitants are surrounded by fragrant gardens and vineyards. Basically all vegetable gardens are located on the islands. Just imagine - to get to visit your neighbor, you will have to walk across a bridge or sail a boat! Indeed, Vilkovo is the Ukrainian Venice. A photo of an ordinary street, along which traffic is carried out by boat, makes it possible to imagine the ordinary everyday life of Vilkovo residents.

Local business

In addition to farming, local residents also engage in fishing. Moreover, this town is rightly called the capital of the Danube fishermen. Fish farming in the sea and river is the main occupation of the population here. Also recently, reeds have been in good demand for export. Vilkovites sell fish, local strawberries, grapes, homemade wine and other products to tourists.

Attractions

What can you see on vacation in Vilkovo? Ukrainian Venice is the only city in Europe that is located on the territory of the Danube Plavni Biosphere Reserve. This is a state-protected area where natural complexes unique to the area are located and is carried out in conjunction with scientific research. Nature here is full of life, many species of plants, animals, birds, waterfowl and even aquatic invertebrates are listed in the Red Book.

At the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea there is a symbolic sign “0 km”. They say that visiting here and walking under it is considered a good omen - it will bring good luck and health. Just think - more than 2.5 thousand kilometers is the path of the Danube, which flows into the sea right here, in the small man-made town of Vilkovo.

Ukrainian Venice. Rest

There are several recreation centers, a hotel and mini-hotels. Judging by the reviews, this perfect place for a holiday as a couple, a large group or a family with children. By the way, in many courtyards there are children's playgrounds with swings and slides. During the day you can take a boat ride along the picturesque river delta, go fishing, or visit the best fish market in the region. From national dishes It is worth trying, as experienced travelers say, real fish soup, the famous Danube herring, smoked bream, Salamur sauce, Lipovan herbal tea and, of course, a glass of local Novak wine. Vilkovo is the Ukrainian Venice, it’s definitely worth a visit!

Vilkovo (option - Vilkovka) is a city in the Kiliya district of Odessa region, located on the islands in the Danube arm, 18 km from the Black Sea. The city of Vilkovo is a unique town on the water, which is the main exit to the Ukrainian Danube Delta. The population of Vilkovo is 10.8 thousand people. The city is called the capital of the Danube fishermen.

Vilkovo was founded as the village of Lipovanskoye in 1746 (according to other sources in 1762) by the so-called Old Believers or Lipovans, who fled religious persecution after the Nikonian schism of the Russian Orthodox Church. These were the Don Cossacks who first settled in the Danube floodplains in the 40s of the 17th century. It was then that the settlement of Lipovanskiye appeared on Russian military maps for the first time – that’s what Vilkovo was called then. At the same time, this territory was being populated by Zaporozhye Cossacks, who fled persecution after the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich. To this day, Lipovans represent the majority of the city’s population. They have preserved many of their religious traditions. There are 3 churches in the city - an Orthodox Orthodox church and two Old Believer Lipovan churches. Since 1812, after the signing of the Peace of Bucharest, Vilkovo has been a district town in the Besarabia province.

The Vilkovsky house has a special design. The frame of the house is made from wood, and then sheaves of reeds are installed into the frame. The inside and outside of the house is coated with Danube silt mixed with chopped reeds or straw, and the last upper layers are coated with sawdust. Such a thermos house retains heat well in winter and cool in summer.

Vilkovo is famous for its fishing and fish processing farms. The city is crossed by numerous canals and ducts that form streets. There are many different bridges, bridges, and passages. Recognized tourist centre: houses are on stilts, there are practically no sidewalks, instead of streets there are canals, personal and public transport– boats and catamarans.

A nature conservation reserve “Danube Plavni” (Danube Biosphere Reserve) has been created in Vilkovo, with an area of 47 thousand hectares. 65% of bird species registered in Ukraine are protected.

The office of the Danube Biosphere Reserve is located in Vilkovo, and its territory surrounds the city and extends into the Kiliya delta all the way to the Black Sea. The Danube Delta is the pearl of the Danube region, the last living delta in Europe, growing and developing, famous for its rich and unique flora and fauna.

The city has the Church of the Nativity (1850). Two roads lead from here - one to Kiliya and Izmail, the other to Spasskoye and Tatarbunary.

You can stay in Vilkovo in a Soviet hotel for 11 UAH. (a bed in a double room, 2004) or in a private boarding house for the “cool” for much more money. You can ride around the Danube Plavni Nature Reserve by negotiating with local fishermen for a certain amount of liquid currency on their motor boats and cutters.

IN Soviet years The Vilkovo area was a border zone, but since 1992 entry here has been free for everyone.

Coming to Vilkovo, you will visit the only city in Ukraine - a unique city on the water, which is located in the Danube Delta, one of the greatest rivers in Europe, and enjoy the pristine nature of the Danube floodplains. An unforgettable experience awaits you here.

On the border of Ukraine and Romania, an old Russian city is lost, where it has its own power and its own truth.

Vilkovo is a city on three waters and seven winds. Waters - Starostambulskoye, Belgorodskoye and Ochakovskoye branches. Winds - Karael, Abasia, Lodos, Buryas, Poludena, Midnight and the main one - Fortune, it is sea, brings fish, which means life.

Vilkovo was founded three centuries ago by Old Believers who fled Nikon's church reform, and to this day it remains quiet and hidden, hidden in the Danube floodplains - reed thickets.

According to local legend, Vilkovites know how to walk on the sea as well as on dry land.

The city is a set of man-made islands, washed out of silt, fenced with cut down reeds. Every year, fishermen on homemade boats repair their islands - Vilkovo goes under water, like Kitezh.

No authorities know how many islands there are, although in fact this city with a population of 10 thousand people is Ukrainian territory. But people here still speak the Russian language of pre-Petrine times and do not know what country they live in: some still think that they are “under Russia”, others – “under Romania”. The city was founded in August. The exact date is not known, although the white-bearded, stocky residents of Vilkovo live for a hundred years, were personally acquainted with their great-great-grandfathers and preserve urban legends.

Local happiness

In Vilkovo they live well, there is even a suspicion that they are happy. Not least because the bosses can't get here. To get to Vilkovo from Kyiv, you need to travel 480 kilometers to Odessa, then another 250 by bus or minibuses in the Odessa region, then by boat, if the locals sense someone in you and agree to give you a ride.

The Old Believers of Vilkovo are naive, like children, and healthy, like the aborigines before the advent of Miklouho-Maclay. They were not affected by the diseases of civilization. Brown beards, bright blue eyes - Russian blood has not dissolved, despite the invasions of the Turks and Romanians: in the city, for centuries, people only marry their own people.

The past is perceived here as existing. Russian shirts are worn untucked, under the belt. Local churches still write in metric and expense books that began 250 years ago. On the bell tower of the main temple, a bell rings with the inscription: “I will plant Vilkovo as a sign of joining the vast, God-protected Russian state.”

Vilkovo is a mythical city that appeared in the 17th century. The city was called a wandering city - it wandered from island to island. The inhabitants, now handsome and kind-hearted, were Filippovites. It was they who, during the Nikon reform, committed self-immolation and were considered the most fanatical and intolerant. Now they say that fanaticism helped them escape in the Danube floodplains, where it was impossible for an ordinary person to survive. Over the centuries, the name "Philippon" was transformed into "Lipovan". Thus was born the Vilkovo legend that the founders of the city descended from tribes that once hid in the linden forests. The Don Cossacks-Old Believers of Ignat Nekrasov joined the Philippons. Later, the Cossacks fled from the defeated Sich to these same floodplains, which were reputed to be deserted.

Vilkovites took part in the Turkish campaign. Kutuzov highly appreciated their services in his report:“In 1807, the residents of the village of Vilkovo showed their zeal, escorting the ships of our flotilla to the Kiliya armo, transporting provisions and other government needs for the flotilla and ground forces along the Danube River on their boats and with their own support, without any salary from the treasury, leaving even the trades to their servants for food. Such exploits of theirs could not remain without respect, and the commander of our troops, as a reward, granted them the use of fishing and selling wine."

Since then, the residents of Vilkovo have been living with them. True, the sale has turned into an exchange in kind (as they now say, barter). But all city life still depends on the size of the catch. Danube herring is the main and main product of Vilkovo and, so to speak, currency. It is eaten fried, boiled and in all other forms every day. They say that Vilkovo’s longevity comes from it. Centenarian people in Vilkovo are a normal phenomenon. Who caught how much and how they used it - that’s all the topics for conversation, except for the ecclesiastical sublime. And the Vilkovo “novak” grapes, from which wine is made, are completely unique - nowhere else there is a variety that grows on silt and water.

Having become adept at transporting “an army and guns” and other large-sized loads on their boats, they, the economic ones, got cows and take them to the protected land to graze, and return them to the islands to spend the night. On little boats, which even a man would be afraid to sit in and where the rower, like a gondolier, stands in the Venetian style, pushing off with a four-meter oar, cows ride proudly, touching the reeds with their horns. In Vilkovo they are teased as “sea cows”. I can testify that it turned out to be a huge herd.

The area of Vilkov is about 460 hectares. The Danube, on which the city grew, is divided into a network of narrow canals between “residential points”. The canals are called eriks (the Turks helped with their “aryk”). Along them there are wooden ladders. These are streets, in the local dialect - masonry. They stand high above the water - the spring floods flood the islands. As the mayor of Vilkovo, Ivan Timoshenko, says, if drunk people everywhere sway from side to side, here they swing back and forth, so as not to fall off the masonry. If someone is in Erik, it means they are not local.

And the huts in Vilkovo are built using a cunning “three booths” system. The first, the largest, is to show to guests. The second, smaller one, is to sit with relatives. The third, similar to a barn, is for living. Russian stoves with handles and pots are in the yard so they don’t smoke. The true Slavic nature showed itself: it is impossible to live in purity, so at least throw dust in the eyes.

One mayor seems to know that Ukrainian power has been in Vilkovo for 20 years. Residents of the islands close to the central one suspect that Soviet power is over them (why else is Ilyich standing in the center and pointing his finger at the sea?). A common point of view. Vilkovchanka Motrya with distant island sells wine only for rubles. Soviet. I collected 800 thousand - four bags. Capital, he says. She didn’t disappoint - with such a life, she would never know that her bank had collapsed. Other townspeople believe that they are still under the Romanians. “Vilkovo-Romanian contacts” were described to me by centenarian Eremey Kirsanov:

- “The Romanians came into the war of 1918 - they sent red fish and beluga to fish. Then the Russians came - they drove them to the collective farm. but there was no more good fish."

Romania - here it is, just a stone's throw away, just cross the Starostambul arm. But, as the border guards say, not a single smuggler even tries - there are reed floods all around, a disastrous business. And yet Romania is closer to them than the capital Kyiv. The local mayor's office is called the mayor's office, Ivan Timoshenko is the chief mayor. Tymoshenko came to mayor from the police, he himself was a newcomer and lived for a long time, as if at a train station waiting for a transfer: in Vilkovo they do not understand how one can serve in punitive units. Tymoshenko did the most important thing for the city - he caught the only local drug addict who grew and used poppy straw. This was the end of the drug mafia in Vilkovo.

Tymoshenko is not an ordinary person. A direct descendant of the famous marshal, he used to live in his Ukrainian house in the village of Furmanovka. It was like being in a whirlwind in Vilkovo. Now he has a service boat instead of a service Volga. And two honorable duties: paving masonry and painting the newlyweds. “There are 50 kilometers of masonry, every year we look for 100 cubic meters of timber for them,” Tymoshenko complains. And weddings are more and more “water” - from the bride’s house to the groom’s house and the church you can only get by boat. Fortunately, there is no shortage of boats in Vilkovo - 5,000 on the water, at least two boats per family. It's mostly women who row the oars: they say they row quickly.

The ladies in Vilkovo are truly portly - blood with milk and Danube herring. The only thing that no one has yet figured out is where women came from in Vilkovo, if they were neither among the Philippons who reached the floodplains, nor, even more so, among the Cossacks. “Apparently, they stole it somewhere, or made it out of ribs,” say reasonable Vilkovites.

I love you, boatman

The way they speak in Vilkovo is not spoken anywhere else. This is what they said in Rus' three centuries ago.

Their children are “youths”. And bad people are “kayafs” (from Caiaphas, to whom the arrested Christ was brought). Krivlyaki - "lamotics". Their clothes are caftans, jackets, jackets, sarafans, supports and posts. Only sea life made adjustments. About the talkative people they notice that they are poisoning sprat, about the crazy people - the ships burned down. There are surprisingly few such “fire victims” in a city where for centuries people have been marrying only “their own.”

Real ships burned in Vilkovo only once - either someone set the fire out of malice, or by accident. Since the fire, the boatman Ivan, a young but serious man, has become the main man in the city.

Ivan lives at a Venetian address - the Grand Canal, his own house. I came to him, to put it mildly, at the wrong time - Ivan was fairly rested after work, was embarrassed by his drunkenness, and did not respond to sound signals.

You say you came to build a boat? Better come tomorrow, we'll talk.

So I need it quickly.

It doesn’t happen quickly for us, the stomach is not the same.

Ivan is a resident of Vilkovo in the seventh generation. The best master in Vilkovo. It’s not even that it’s not scary to go out to sea in his boats not only on the Danube, but also on the sea. His boats are lucky, always with a catch, not only herring, but, lo and behold, sturgeon too. Ivan walks around with his shirt untucked, his muzzle red, if something doesn’t go his way, he can hit him with an oar. A noble groom will never find a profitable match. Rich, by Vilkovo standards, fabulously rich. He takes $500 worth of fish for each boat. In general, I would not pay.

Only “charon” Vasya, the ferryman from island to island, easily drops by to see the boatman Vanya. Vasya is cheerful and talkative, so much so that he is teased with “Bell” - an offensive nickname, as yard dogs are called. Small bugs chained to the ground are a real find: they bark loudly, but consume little food. You can’t feed wolfhounds here; the only food is fish; in order to grow potatoes, you need to create a separate island for yourself.

In the lost Vilkovo, wealth is measured by the Danube herring (Danube), although any visitor would call the Lipovans millionaires: in every house there are Donikon icons, the price of which is pure gold.

The rector of the local Nativity Church, Father Sergius, says that his temple, the road to which is always open, has never been attempted to be robbed. Although in the village of Primorsky, closest to civilization, the Russian church was surrounded three times - “there was a special order from the nationalists from the UNSO.”

We hold on to ancient primordial Rus'. Those who come to our faith remain in it; to leave it is a betrayal. We, Old Believers, do not have a schism, like the Nikonians. (In Ukraine there are three orthodox churches, churches are being divided, they tried to storm the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. - Y.S.) We are whole, we do not inject ourselves. And the people here are different - they are used to believing everyone, they have retained the old Russian hospitality in the “stingy” Ukraine.

Father holds two four-hour services almost every day. He complains that he can’t tell anyone his age (31 years old), and he doesn’t go to the disco.

Here they say so often that they do not walk under the state, but under God, that you begin to believe. Vilkovchan does not want to go beyond the city limits: “there is no land beyond the sea.” But there are also those who “escaped from Eden.”

105-year-old Joseph Yakov(he, like everyone else in Vilkovo, was named after the calendar) one day left the town at the wrong time - he ended up in the army, in the war. His 14 orders and the medal "For Military Merit" he doesn’t even wear it on May 9: firstly, the shirt doesn’t stick well, and secondly, all the awards in Vilkovo lose their meaning. Yakov even had to shave off his beard, without which a Lipovanin would not be a Lipovanin. After the Patriotic War, he became the captain of a seiner, sailed the sea, caught fish, and was so successful that “the secretary of the city committee personally allowed the icon to be kept in a distant nook at home. We often had searches back then; they tried to confiscate everything belonging to the church. But whoever confiscated it quickly went into the depths ". This old saying gave rise to the main Vilkovo legend - about retribution.

New myths

Myths began to multiply in the city when the Soviet government, which reached Vilkovo, swept away the Old Believer cemetery and built a cheerful kindergarten in its place. Six months later, the island went under water. The remains of children's "climbing paths" and "slides" still stick out among the reeds - this land could not be saved, no matter how much silt was washed onto it.

History repeated itself a year later, when one of the three Vilkovo churches was blown up and a fish warehouse and a public garden for cultural and public recreation in Lipovan were built. The fish in the warehouse was spoiling, the trees and herbs in the garden were drying out and burning. This continued until 1993, until the “whole world” began to rebuild the church.

Historians tell legends: they say that the ancient hero Achilles visited these parts. The place where he put his heel 2000 years ago is now the regional center of Kiliya.

Legends are told by border guards: they say that almost 400 fortune tellers live in Vilkovo. Yes, they are so effective that entire families died out because of them. To this day, when Ivan Ivanovich argues with Ivan Nikiforitch, they run to the “witch doctors” - so that they can damage the enemy.

Fishermen tell legends - how under the Tsar they caught beluga sturgeons from three cows the size, but under the Romanians they could not even lift a bucket of Danube water.

The Vilkovo authorities tell legends about how Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma found out about them and decided to visit his “Venice.” I didn’t get to Vilkovo itself - it was too far away. He arrived at the nearby pier, where a monument to the bent Lipovan, the first to land on this land, was erected for his arrival. When the president was taken off the boat and stood next to the monument, the mayor crossed himself - the concrete Old Believer looked just like the president, just with a beard. This was also noticed by the guards, who secretly hid in black suits in the surrounding floodplains at meter intervals. Then it turned out that the monument was cast by sculptors from intricate Odessa for Kuchmin’s visit.

Unknown to the authorities, Vilkovo decided to visit the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Yevgeny Marchuk. So that he could get to the border of Vilkovo in winter, asphalt was laid directly on the ice. He, however, came down with the snow. And Lipovans received a new legend - about special asphalt with cooling that does not stain the tires.

But the most notable myth was brought to the Old Believers by a simple family. They, who called all strangers Germans, suddenly saw that Germans exist in nature: a foreigner moved to live with them in the city, and even married a Vilkovka woman.

Someone else's

The island became a ring for them - no beginning, no end. We fell into it like a quagmire - it sucked in. Jan Becker, vice-mayor of the Dutch city of Heethorn, quit native land and moved into the house of Anna Galitskaya, the head of the local Vilkovo eco-center. Actually, Anna herself came up with her own center and contacted the mayor’s office of the Dutch city, following the example of Vilkov, who lives on the water. It is in Vilkovo that they build huts from silt and reeds, whitewash them and call them “mazurkas”. In Holland, the houses were stone, rich, and the canals were clean. The vice-mayor came to satisfy Anya’s interest in such technical progress, then invited her along with a delegation of Vilkovo residents to his place, and then arrived in Vilkovo and stayed. Now Ian is mastering local life. The Russian-Dutch dictionary became a family reference book. Anna is studying it, she decided that Ian would not understand our cases. Moreover, the Old Russian speech.

Anna says that she left home for nowhere - to Jan. Housing on the outskirts of Vilkovo was offered to her by a sailor friend. Anin’s eco-center also moved there. She, a bacteriologist who studied in St. Petersburg and learned about comfort and theaters, settled in Vilkovo as in the most cholera-prone region: “There is no normal water here, people take it, untreated, from canals, cross themselves and drink. I extinguished cholera outbreaks three times. During the last one, in 1991, 100 people fell ill in such a small town. I have neither day nor night. As soon as someone gets poisoned, they wake me up - is it cholera?

Ian has settled down here, he feels good with me,” says the completely Europeanized Anna, who mastered cycling for her athlete husband. “The city seemed to accept our couple, but Ian is like a child - he approaches the residents of Vilkovo, smiles, and speaks. They take him for a quiet madman." And they honestly cannot understand how, for the sake of a skeletal foreigner, a Vilkovka woman could leave her dear, portly husband.

In the house, Anna is the mother-nurse. But the abundance of Vilkovo herring is not given to Yan. “Under normal conditions, he would live another 30 years, but in such conditions it’s good if 15. I’m a doctor and I understand this. But he doesn’t want to leave. And there’s nowhere - in Holland his wife received all his property. They thought - to my mother in Russia, but Ukraine won’t let him go there. He’s here on a visa. Europe is so small, it’s so easy to cross, but our country is complicated. The visa expires in a couple of weeks,” Anna says this and drops her cup on the floor. “Yana, most likely "They will send us home. We are torn apart by two states."

So Vilkovo has its own power, no central one will reach it.

But you can’t explain this to the Dutchman; he is used to following the laws.

In the meantime, Yan was given a job as an adviser to the mayor on tourism.
Like, the Dutchman will bring his fellow countrymen and show them the floodplains. Foreigners will not be allowed inside the city: Vilkovo is a closed territory, reed silence, zero kilometer, its own starting point.

Yanina SOKOLOVSKAYA

Vilkovo - "Ukrainian Venice"

Vilkovo- this is the confluence of the waters of the Danube and the Black Sea, the pearl of the Danube lower reaches, the “Ukrainian Venice”, located right by the sea on the border with Romania. The unusual thing about the city is that the old part of the city is located on the water. Instead of streets, there are canals along which people travel mainly on peculiar Ukrainian “gondolas” (made here) and motor boats. In the city, people swim through the canals standing on the stern of the boat and pushing off with a pole.

How about, for example, the address: Belgorodsky Canal, 24. This is something like a central avenue for them. You float, and all around you are whitewashed clean houses, small vegetable gardens fertilized with silt, wooden masonry on the sides of canals 1-2 meters wide. The channels are called eriks. There are simple wooden bridges across the eriki. The top of the walkway is not secured. If the boat is carrying oversized cargo, then the top of the bridge is removed, and when the boat passes, it is put back in place. It turns out that the bridges are drawable.

The area of Vilkov is about 460 hectares. No authorities know how many islands there are, although in fact this city with a population of 10 thousand people is Ukrainian territory. But people here still speak the Russian language of pre-Petrine times and do not know what country they live in: some still think that they are “under Russia”, others – “under Romania”. But Vilkovo still remains quiet and hidden, hidden in the Danube floodplains - reed thickets. The town is small, it’s difficult to get lost here, and there are very friendly and welcoming people around.

Getting acquainted with this amazing region, we cannot help but talk about the history of its origin. In the mid-17th century, fugitive Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, persecuted for religious and political reasons, settled in the lower Danube Delta. The location was chosen on the mainland on low sedimentary banks, which, when strong winds and floods were flooded with water. There was a need to strengthen areas for housing, outbuildings and vegetable gardens. The soil was taken here, digging canals and eriks around the captured areas. They served as the border between land plots owners and good passages and shelter for boats.

Together with the natural channels of the delta, man-made canals formed a single water system of canals and eriks in the city of Vilkovo. It occupies up to 45% of the city’s territory and you can get to any part of it via canals by boat.

Vilkovo is an original and colorful region: Lipovan settlements, amazing dialects, a city of fishermen and winemakers. The city is located on water, so all the land here is alluvial. Most of vegetable gardens are located on the islands, where they go by boat. Standing in the water, they take out the silt here, then lay it on the shore, and the dried silt is taken to the right place by wheelbarrows or stretchers. Fertilizers are almost never used. Il, as in ancient Egypt, gives strength to any plant. Perhaps that’s why there are strawberries here almost all year round, but in addition to strawberries, Novak grapes are grown here, which is completely unique - nowhere else is there a variety that grows on silt and water. The grapes are used to make wonderful red wine and sell it, as indicated by chalk signs next to the gates. Wine costs 5-6 hryvnia 1.5 liters. There is a joke here: a Vilkov resident who wet his throat with Novak wine can be easily recognized. It only wobbles back and forth and in no case left or right. In Vilkovo this is impossible, because you will immediately fall into the water - there are such narrow masonry walls along the houses. Also here you can drink wonderful herbal teas from a wood-burning samovar, which are comparable only to those from the Carpathians.

According to local legend, the people of Vilkovo can walk on the sea as if on land. In Vilkovo, almost every family has fishermen, so there is plenty of fresh fish here. Men go fishing on the Danube or on the islands. Lovers fishing You will appreciate the quiet banks of the Danube and its channels, overgrown with willows and reeds bending towards the water. You will see many exotic birds that live in abundance in the floodplains: pink pelicans, geese, striped hawks, and the famous white-tailed eagles.

You can go on a tour of the Danube on a boat, where they will show you the “0” kilometer - the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea, the nature of the Danube Biosphere Reserve, feed you fish soup and drink wine, and in the evening you will be brought back to the pier. You can spend the night in a city hotel or rent a room by making arrangements with the grandmothers at the bus station.

So, for those who have not yet saved up money for Italy, we offer you to admire our “Ukrainian Venice” for now. Believe me, if you visit the Ukrainian Danube region at least once, you will forever remain in love with this region. It is here that nature and people live very close together, and in the evening you can take a bottle of wine, sit on the banks of the Danube and just relax. Well, by God, the feeling is simply incomparable when, sitting near a house in a small green garden and drinking delicious homemade wine, you hear the noise of a passing motor boat behind the fence, and not a motorcycle or a car. And what seems absolutely funny for a city person is to see how cows are taken on boats to graze on protected land, and returned to the islands to spend the night. On little boats, which even a man would be afraid to sit in and where the rower, like a gondolier, stands in the Venetian style, pushing off with a four-meter oar, cows ride proudly, touching the reeds with their horns.

In Vilkovo they are teased as “sea cows”. This is exotic!

You need to get to Vilkovo from Odessa. The bus station is located next to the station on Privoz. Departure to Vilkovo at 6.20 and around 10 am you will already be there.