Fall in Pushcha-Vodytsia. Part 2

Let's continue our walk around Pushcha-Vodytsia. This settlement with a name that is difficult to pronounce is a historical site and a climatic resort northwest of Kyiv. Here is Part 1 of this story.

You can get here by tram or car, and your way will take you through a picturesque forest. It was in this forest that my husband and other volunteer guys who had never held a weapon before were part of the second line of defence of Kyiv in February-March 2022. I think we passed the place where their open-air trenches were.

The name of this resort is made up of two words. The first means an impenetrable dense forest, and the second is the name of the river that once flowed here. This name translates to water. Such a simple name of the river that disappeared. But the picturesque lakes remained here. The richest Kyiv residents used to come here.

In the 16-18th centuries, these lands were owned by Kyiv bourgeoisie. Thanks to well-known Kyiv doctors, the first sanatoriums were built in Pushcha in the late 19th century, and patients began to rent summer cottages. In 1893, a real resort village was formed here. It had 7 parallel streets crossed by 16 ‘lines’. This structure has been preserved to this day.

The first site is a wooden house built in 1910 on Yunkerova Str. 47.

You can see it only through the fence and thickets of trees and bushes. We did not dare to break the rules and break in. During martial law, this is dangerous because you never know what might be waiting for you in a closed area. It is a one-storey wooden house on a high brick plinth. Sources say that the interior of the house has not been preserved.

The wooden ornamentation that adorns the buildings is a kind of calling card of Pushcha-Vodytsia.

During the Soviet era, there was a children's health camp here.

The only living thing on the estate was a black cat. I think he considers himself the master of the place.

The next location is a dacha at Dacha na Yunkerova, 50-B. We were more fortunate here. We were able to enter the territory without breaking anything.

In 2014, this building was listed as an architectural monument.

The veranda is the central element of the estate. It seems that nowadays building materials are stacked there. Major repairs were carried out in 1984, but it is obvious that the estate needs them again. I hope it will be preserved, because it is very beautiful.

After the nationalisation of this summer house, it was a sanatorium, then a hostel.

And here is the backyard. Some windows are covered with plywood. Someone is trying to save it from destruction.

It looks like a car graveyard. Let's take a closer look.

The number plates are strange. They don't look like modern or previous ones. Maybe there were Russian occupants here? My husband said it was unlikely that they came here.

He suggested that these holes could have been caused by artillery shrapnel.

I asked where did this container with the Russian railway marking come from? The man suggested that it could have been a trophy.

But the appearance of this fence shows that the occupiers were here. What a blessing that the building did not burn down.

This is how it looks from the street. It is almost invisible because of the overgrowth.

Our next find was much less fortunate. Our next find was much less fortunate. This is an old dacha on Yunkerova Street 37-a. It is on the right, and on the left, some "modern construction" of an apartment building.

The most beautiful of its kind, this old cottage can now only be seen in photographs.

In 2020, an arson attempt was made by unknown persons. The building is privately owned, but the owner did not care about its fate. The monument with more than a century of history miraculously survived the whirlwind of events of the 20th century. It also managed to survive the fighting in the Kyiv suburbs in February-March 2022. But on 29 March 2023, a fire broke out here again.