Where is Vilkovo located? Vilkovo. Old Believers in the Danube Delta. Geographical features of the region
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History of the city of Vilkovo
The city of Vilkovo in the Odessa region, also known as "Ukrainian Venice", was founded in the first half of the 18th century Old Believers who fled religious persecution after the split of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Photo infokava.com
First inhabitants Vilkovo They 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 old town continues to live on the same islands. Roads from house to house are laid along masonry and bridges.
Each family has its own boat - the main means of transport for Vilkovo residents.
Is it possible to go boating in Vilkovo now?
Previously, a boat was a more common way of transportation here than a car. However, recently many channels have become shallow, some are completely filled up, which is why all connecting channels become shallow.
Swim around the city Now you can only in the “old” part of the city.
By the way, they still live here Old Believers who do not recognize any benefits of civilization. You can visit them and find out exactly where they live Old Believers, we recommend it from the locals.
Danube Biosphere Reserve
The Danube Nature Reserve is a unique ecosystem where you can find 563 species of various plants and more than 200 species of birds.
The territory covers the delta islands up and down the Danube, delta lakes and a two-kilometer strip of marine waters along the coast.
The flora of the reserve includes 563 species of various plants. The high biological productivity of vegetation is explained by the large amount of fertile silt that is deposited by the river. Mainly grow: common reed, narrow-leaved cattail.
Along the currents, in strips ranging from 5 m to 200 m wide, there are thickets formed by willows (white, loshka, three-stamen), and in the coastal part - sea buckthorn, bush amorpha, and tamorizum galusia. Among the tall grass there are areas of aquatic vegetation formed by white water lilies, shield-leaved swimmers, as well as rare species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine - floating salvinia and floating nut.
The wildlife of the reserve has specific features. Significant food resources of the floodplains contribute to the concentration of many birds here (more than 200 species). Gray goose, mute swan, tern, coot, various species of ducks, herons, and gulls nest. Rare species include the Dalmatian pelican, the white-tailed eagle, the pink pelican, the red-breasted goose, the spoonbill, the sorrel, and the common curlew. The water area of the reserve is a wintering place for waterfowl (about 120 species), as well as a resting place during migration.
What else to see in Vilkovo
Moreover, having arrived in "Ukrainian Venice" costs take a boat ride along the canals, come visit Old Believers, of course, not empty-handed, you still need to go by boat to "0" kilometers.
Danube- the only river in Europe, the measurement of which is carried out in the opposite direction: not with the flow, but against it.
A memorial sign marks the stream from which the great river in the Black Forest mountains begins, and ends with a memorial sign. According to one of the versions (dominant) "0" sign located on the pier of the Romanian city of Sulina. However, young enthusiasts Danube Biosphere Reserve put up a sign indicating a different version of the place where exactly The Danube flows into the Black Sea: Kilometer Zero, which is in Ukrainian Ankudinov island.
Be sure to try it again Danube fish soup cooked over wood and local wine - “Novak”, and also book a boat or kayak excursion to water lily fields. You will really like it :)
Vilkovo from above
It is curious that 300 years ago, when Vilkovo (formerly Lipovanskoe) was founded by the Cossacks and Lipovans, the city stood near the sea. But over the past centuries, the sea has moved 18 kilometers away.
The Danube is the main local attraction. This is the largest river in Europe, almost 3000 kilometers long. The river is the border of ten states, including Ukraine. Actually, on the opposite bank from Vilkovo there is already Romania. Despite the fact that the amount of fish in the Danube is decreasing, it is still there and fishing is an important source of income for local residents. There are sturgeon and beluga here.
What to do in Vilkovo:
- take a boat ride along the city canals or walk along them
- visit the “zero kilometer”, the place where the Danube flows into the sea
- get acquainted with Lipovan culture and cuisine
- see Old Believer churches
- go fishing
- try local wine
- visit the unique Ermakov Island, see birds and animals
There is a main canal in Vilkovo, just like in Venice. Actually, this is the only “working” channel that is constantly used.
There are also many small eriks.
The system of wooden and stone platforms is interesting; they are found almost everywhere and allow you to avoid dirt.
Hundreds of such platforms - personal berths - have been built along the Danube.
In spring there are a lot of daffodils in the city.
There are several monuments.
Lenin was demolished last year, only one pedestal remains.
The state provides very little support for the tourism industry in Vilkovo, so the tourism infrastructure that exists now was created by local residents. Actually, the state, apparently, generally supports Vilkovo only in words, this can be seen even by the terrible road that leads to the city.
We, as tourists with many years of experience, will list what what needs to be done here first of all to develop the tourism industry. In case those in power read us.
1. The most important thing is to pay attention to Vilkovo. Not only in terms of tourism. Believe me, this needs to be done for various reasons. And if you don’t understand these reasons, then you have no place among those in power.
2. Repair 80 kilometers of the road, this is some kind of shame, not the road.
3. Clear, improve and, most importantly, preserve the remaining small eriks (channels). This is the calling card of Vilkovo, which many tourists now simply call a swamp.
4. Improve tourist water transport and the services they provide. At the moment, there appears to be no special oversight over those offering services.
5. Place more emphasis on Lipovan traditions and cuisine. Take an example from the promoted Hutsuls.
There are many other recommendations, these are just the main ones. Why should you pay attention to Vilkovo? Because this is a unique place. Believe us, wherever we have been, we still write that this place is unique, with good potential.
Moreover, Vilkovo is already popular among foreign tourists. Together with us there was a group of Germans, 15 people, embassy employees. Many European tourists come to Vilkovo during cruises on the Danube. This is the last point for them, here they transfer to small boats and go to the zero kilometer, that is, the place where the Danube flows into the Black Sea.
In addition to Vilkovo itself, the Danube Biosphere Reserve, which is located around the city, is of great interest. Wherever you go by boat, your path will go through the reserve. The ecosystem of the Danube Delta is the most interesting in Europe and one of the best in the world. During two days of excursions we saw a huge number of birds and animals.
We took two boat trips. First, up to the symbolic zero kilometer along the Ankudinovy arm. Along the way we looked at alluvial gardens and reed thickets.
At the final point of the route we took a photo with a symbolic sign. Here you can collect various beautiful shells and see rare birds. It’s a pity that our camera doesn’t allow us to photograph them in the distance, but believe me, they are there, even pelicans.
We also visited Ermakov Island. Along the way we passed along Vilkovo.
It is visited by only a few hundred people a year, so it has a unique ecosystem. There is no pier here, disembarkation is directly on the shore. We really wanted to fly here on a copter and show the island from above, but the border guards forbade it (we specifically called them to ask permission).
A long lens is a must here. We saw wild horses, wild cows, hyena, white-tailed eagle, bittern, cormorant, Dalmatian pelican, heron, pheasant, hoopoe. We really wanted to see forest cats and wild boars, but it didn’t work out.
The island is surrounded by a special dam that prevents the growth of tall trees and shrubs. It is very convenient to walk along the dam and, by the way, the path on it is trodden by animals, not people.
Not everyone survives the winter; we saw the bones of several large animals.
Crow Egg
And of course very beautiful landscapes.
Vilkovo is also interesting because Old Believers (Lipovans) live here. We have little interest in religion, so we didn’t even know who they were. In a nutshell: in the 1650s and 1660s, a reform of the church was carried out. Those who did not accept the reform began to be called Old Believers. They are also Orthodox believers, just with small, “cosmetic” differences. You can read in detail on Wikipedia, but for us the main difference was that Old Believers cross themselves with two fingers, not three, and there are separate entrances to the church for men and women.
There are three churches in Vilkovo: two for Old Believers and one modern. We specifically shot them from above for comparison. Purely visually there are no differences. True, you can’t take photographs inside the Old Believers; the local mayor’s office has officially banned it. The reason is conflicts between Old Believers and tourists.
You can read on the Internet that Lipovans are closed and unsociable. We must say that there is such an impression. Although, when we flew in the city with a copter, local residents came up with interest and asked what it was and how it worked. There were no problems in communication :)
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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.
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.”
Old Believers Church
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.
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 were flooded with water during strong winds and floods. 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 a boundary between the owners' land plots 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.
The town is lined up and down with thin lines of canals. Willow trees are planted on the banks of the canals to strengthen the canal. The sidewalk consists of 2 wide and thick boards, which are also slightly slippery from the rain. The village has very well-kept yards. Old Believers prefer white. Bed linen is only white. The houses are freshly whitewashed. Shell rock, 50 cm wide, is poured around the perimeter of the house. When it rains, water falls on the shell and the splashes do not stain the walls.
Every summer, local children swim to the sea and bring back baskets of shells. This is what they call a children's business. As for silt, it is the main fertilizer and building material for the islands. The canals must be cleaned of silt every year to prevent them from becoming smaller.
Each resident was responsible for his own plot. This is usually done in the hottest month, when the water subsides, people go into the canals and scoop out the silt with their hands.
The domina looks like it's made of brick; we looked at the section of the wall - reed, plastered.
The house is light, does not sag, warms up quickly and maintains the temperature. Cane is one of the types of business of the local population. It is cut, dried, packed on machines - it comes out like a mat and sent for export to Holland and Germany. The product is environmentally friendly, like all fruits and vegetables. Berry is a different story. One family collects up to 5 tons of strawberries from their plot on the islands per season. It ripens here early and is said to be the most delicious in Ukraine.
Vilkovo. Embankment
Vilkovo. Old Believers Church
Vilkovo. Three churches were built on the territory of the city - one Orthodox and two Lipovan.
Male and female Old Believers enter the church through separate entrances. Unlike the Orthodox Church, it opens only once or twice a week during services. A cemetery with identical white crosses, which we passed by - Old Believers. A person dies - the cross is brought into the church and left for 40 days, after which it is carried to the cemetery and placed on the grave.
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.
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 the vegetable gardens are located on the islands, where people 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. Silt, 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. Fishing lovers 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.
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.
There are many amazing places in Ukraine, 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 fact is that we had a small child with us who needed to change 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, which Google maps suggested. 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. Each family has its own boat, and this is the main means of transport for Vilkovo residents. 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
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:
A 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. It 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!
