Lately green tourism in the Carpathians has started to develop by leaps and bounds. More and more people are «cheating» Turkish seas and crowded European resorts with cute Ukrainian villages. Here a traveler can enjoy peace, admire the gentle mountain ranges, indulge in natural products and, having made several excursions around the area, make sure that our attractions are in no way inferior to those abroad.
One of such regional centers of green tourism is a small town of Turka. It has its own history, three coats of arms and is considered the center of Boykivshchina, historical and geographical region, as well as a place of compact residence of the Boyk ethnos. An argument in favor of choosing a holiday in the Carpathians in this area may be the location of the town in the valley of the river Stryi or the honor guard of the peaks of the Upper Beskid — Kichery, Pikuya, Venets, Shimenko and Osovni, as well as the presence of its own sources of mineral waters. Some of them «produce water like «Naftusi», which is the best non-medicinal way to combat problems of excretory and digestive systems, dysfunctions of male reproductive organs and diatheses.
The history of Turki is no less interesting than the chronology of French Reims or Spanish Toledo. The town’s own name is associated with the Turks, whose numerous herds were perfectly at home in the local beech and fir forests that sheltered the local mountains. One of the earliest coats of arms of the town depicted the head of a round-horned auroch, which medieval artists must have still caught alive.
In the XV century the town got a new owner, a new coat of arms and was mentioned in a written source. King Vladislav the Second Jagiello gave this settlement and the surrounding lands to the Wallachian nobleman Vance Valachos. Because the count was a knight and took part in two crusades, the new town coat of arms has completely different symbols. The two Stars of David commemorate the count’s two campaigns to the Promised Land, while the overturned crescent moon represents Wallachos’ advantage in battles with the Muslims.
Being the landed property of the heirs of the Count of Wallachos, the town developed successfully. In 1730 it received the Magdeburg Law, which allowed the community to acquire self-government bodies and relieved the townspeople of feudal duties. Almost simultaneously with such an important event for every town, a Jesuit mission appeared in Turk, which meant the possibility to teach children to read and write and to receive some medical assistance. In the same year, 25 Jewish families moved to the city, which gave rise to a significant Jewish community in Turki.
At the end of the XVII century, the town and the surrounding lands came under the rule of the Kingdom of Poland, as a county town of Peremyshl land. Incidentally, it again acquired a new coat of arms — a lion in a crown behind a stone wall. When in the XVIII century it was given to the Austro-Hungarian crown, all traditional crafts were developed in it, several sawmills, browarns, taverns worked, so the laying of the road from Sambor to Uzhgorod in 1905 attracted here the first «green tourists» — researchers of Lemk culture, poets and artists who willingly painted the picturesque valley of the upper stream of the Stryj.
One of the most terrible moments of the town’s history is considered to be 1942, when all Jews, which was exactly half of the population of Turki, were sent to the Belzec concentration camp or Sambor ghetto.
Having such a rich and complicated history, the city shows its guests the true sights of Ukraine. The oldest of them is considered to be Rynok Square, which is over three hundred years old. Many travelers from Israel and America come to Turku to see the local Sinagoga Tempel, built by the Jewish community in the ХІХ century on Djerelnaya Street, the famous Jewish cemetery, not inferior in importance to the Warsaw cemetery.
The local church of St. Nicholas is considered to be a true architectural gem. It is a typical Boykovo sacral building, trident and three-storied. The church was built in 1739, and survived the «troubled times» thanks to its location on the outskirts of the village, on the road to the village of Vovche. The unique church of the Transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas, erected in 1750, «survived» in the same tone. The wooden Bojkov trizuboe, i.e. three-domed structure was built by the local Didych Jan Kalinovsky on the Christian cemetery, enclosed by a high stone wall. On Rynok Square 26 is the Lemkivshchina Museum, which is dedicated to this ethnic group and is a pilgrimage site for Lemks from Ukraine, Poland, Canada, and Slovakia.
To get to the town of Turka, you will need to use the Lviv-Uzhgorod autobahn or railroad services. From its oblast center Lviv, this ancient town is separated by a distance of 137 km. Recently, the Turks have been actively involved in the movement to develop green tourism in the Carpathians. Therefore, local gentlemen, descendants of Wallachian counts, Jewish merchants and Lemkovo villagers, will provide you with ideal conditions for a useful and pleasant holiday in the Carpathians.