Leisure in Truskavets can be as useful as in famous European resorts — Baden-Baden or Karlovy Vary, but not less interesting than Austrian Bad Hofstein, Ukrainian Morshin, Mirgorod and Arabatskaya Strelka. This town in Lviv region owes its fame as a former «all-union health resort» to its powerful reserves of underground waters — the strongest balneological attraction in Ukraine.
Balneological resources of Truskavets were discovered at the beginning of our era. Warriors of the temporary alliance of Goths and Carps, fighting with Roman legionnaires, successfully cured their wounds with water oozing from the bowels of the earth. Unfortunately, the times of the Galicia-Volhynia and Lithuanian princes’ rule over this region did not leave any outstanding material monuments. But the act of transferring the land and mineral waters of Truskavets by the Polish king to the noble brothers Korytkam gave the present town an official date of birth — 1469. Only 109 years later, the healing qualities of the local «liquid treasure» were described by the royal physician Wojciech Oczek, and in the «Natural History» published by Mr. Rzączynski, the method of treating local peasants with water smelling of oil was mentioned.
The annexation of the local land to the Austro-Hungarian territory in the XVIII century allowed the town to do what it was destined to do — to restore the health of the suffering and gave it the status of an effective balneological resort on a European scale. The mineral waters of Truskavets were easily accessible by railroad, which connected the city not only with nearby Lviv, but also with Krakow, Warsaw and Vienna. The second «star hour» of the settlement fell on the era of the Soviet Union, when more than 50 thousand people from all over Ukraine annually came to Truskavets for vacation.
The mineral waters of Truskavets are located within a limited territory — Central Park Adamovka (popularly Resort Park), the area of which is only 0.6 hectares. They are formed by the interaction of atmospheric precipitation with oil and ozokerite saturated rocks separating aquifers. A special role in the formation of Truskavets mineral waters belongs to anaerobic bacteria, which oxidize hydrocarbons, and the time factor. The result is a mixture of processed petroleum products, mineral salts «taken away» from rocks, silicic acid and a set of trace elements. This balneological attraction of Ukraine got its own name «Naftusya», no less famous than Georgian «Borjomi» or French «Vichy».
On the territory of Truskavets park 25 springs have made their way to the surface of the earth. Only 14 of them are actively used for filling the baths of sanatoriums, inhalations, hydromassage and drinking. The rest are considered to be the reserve fund of the resort. All mineral waters of Truskavets are divided into 10 groups according to the level of mineralization and the content of medicinal raw materials. «Naftusya» is the name of only one of them. There are also «Barbara», «Bronislava», «Yuzya», «Maria» and «Sofia». All of them have become a reliable help for doctors in eliminating most of the problems of digestive and excretory systems of the body. A separate item in the balneological possibilities of Truskavets is a positive influence on metabolism, male reproductive functions and recovery after surgical intervention.
The first among all and the most powerful in the arsenal of mineral waters of Truskavets is Buvet No.1. From it oozes water like «Naftusya», which has a mineralization level of 70 ppm, a characteristic smell of hydrocarbons. If the liquid is consumed with an hour’s delay after it has left the bowels of the Earth, the oil flavor and the gas that saturates the water are weathered out. It was this spring that became the place around which in 1827 the First Bavette was arranged and a water cure center for 8 baths was erected. During the Austro-Hungarian rule, in the Soviet Union, and nowadays, «Büvet No. 1» is the main assistant to the doctor in the treatment of diathesis, liver dysfunction and kidney stone disease. This healing attraction of Ukraine is located in the geographical and administrative center of Truskavets, at a distance of 100 meters from the Central Bus Station, so finding the white stone neoclassical pavilion on Tarasovich Boulevard will not be a problem for a guest of the city.
Rest in Truskavets will have a positive impact on all who go to this wonderful place of Western Ukraine, located in the south of Lviv region, at a distance of 100 km from the regional center. Guests will find a string of sanatoriums and private villas styled after the Habsburg Empire, the Bilasa Museum, which occupies the mansion of former burgomaster Yarosh, lush beech forests and Truskavets’ best mineral waters.