Description and history of the island of Khortitsa. Sights of Zaporozhye. Khortytsia Island and Zaporizhian Sich Incident on Khortytsia during the war

The famous island of Khortytsia lies on one of the main trade routes passing through Ukraine. Here in ancient times trade between the Slavs and the Greeks took place. There was a pagan sanctuary here, and the same sacred oak tree that Constantine Porphyrogenitus writes about stood right up to 1871 and dried up from old age - it was about two thousand years old! And somewhere here, on Khortitsa, surrounded by Pechenegs on the Black Rock, the legendary Prince Svyatoslav fell in battle...

The island is located in the place where the Dnieper is divided into a zone of rapids and a zone of floodplains. Therefore, from ancient times it was a natural resting place for traders, warriors, and travelers who had overcome the dangerous zone of the Dnieper rapids. It often served as a refuge for princely squads.

For example, the chronicle says that in 1103, princes David Vseslavich, Mstislav Igorevich, Vyacheslav Yaropolchich and Yaropolk Vladimirovich “went on horseback and in boats, and came below the threshold and stash in Protolchekh and Khortychy Island.” Chronicle news is confirmed by archaeological finds.

In the 10th–14th centuries there was a small Russian fortress on the island, known from chronicles under the name Protolche. Archaeologists find at the site of the settlement the remains of spacious “squad” dwellings, dugouts, and many different objects from the 10th–12th and 13th–14th centuries. The length of the island of Khortytsia is about 12 kilometers, the width, on average, is 2.5 kilometers. The height of the coastal cliffs in some places reaches 30 meters. These rocks are cut with caves, there are a large number of them here. The most famous is the Serpent Cave. According to ancient legend, a “serpent” with twelve heads lived in it.

Khortitsa Island is literally stuffed with History. Evidence of it is found both under water and underground. In 1995, not far from the Generalka ravine, at a depth of 9.5 meters, the skeleton of a large oak dugout ship was discovered. According to archaeologists, these are the remains of a boat from the times of Kievan Rus. And on the northeastern coast of the island, several dugouts of the same era were discovered. Amphoras, ceramic fragments, arrowheads and much more were found. Cossack homeland

But the most important legend of Khortytsia is the Zaporizhian Sich and the treasures of the Zaporizhian Cossacks. It is assumed that the Sich originated here in 1552–1557, when Dmitry Vishnevetsky founded the first fortified town on Khortitsa. Later, Cossack towns spread to the right bank of the Dnieper and to the southern half of the island. In 1577–1578, the leader of the Cossack detachment, Yakov Shah, set up his camp here. From here he raided the Turks and Tatars.

In 1617, Peter Konashevich-Sagaidachny built new fortifications here. Back in the 19th century, traces of ramparts, kurens and a church could be seen in the western part of the island. Gradually the Sich settled. In addition to Khortitsa, the surrounding small islands on the Dnieper, part of the lands on both sides of the Dnieper, including the Great Meadow, a huge area of ​​steppe adjacent to the Dnieper in the former Alexandrovsky district (until 1921, Zaporozhye was Alexandrovsky) were also developed. Legends and myths about Cossack treasures

A lot of treasures and valuables, weapons and money accumulated in the Zaporozhye Sich. It was mainly booty captured from the Turks and Tatars. And there is plenty of evidence of this. The Cossacks obtained some things in battle themselves, while others fell from the division of the general booty. Part of the wealth went to the formation of the “Military Treasures” - the treasury of the Zaporozhye army. The rest was shared by “companionship.”

Naturally, there were no banks with deposit safes and safe deposit boxes nearby. And when you go on your next hike, you can’t take all your valuables with you. The safest thing to do was to hide them. And they hid it.

In the 1630s–1640s, the French military engineer Boplan, who was in Polish service, stayed in Ukraine. He wrote that “every Cossack has his own secret corner on the islands.” Returning with victory over the Turks, “they divide the spoils in Skarbnitsa and hide everything they receive under water, excluding things damaged by it.”

According to Beauplan, the Cossacks “hid under water not only the cannons they recapture from the Turks, but also money, which they take only when necessary.” If a Cossack returned from another campaign, he took what was hidden back. And if he died in battle, the treasure remained in the ground.

In 1775, the Zaporozhye Sich was liquidated, and the Cossacks were forcibly resettled in the Kuban. Leaving Khortitsa, many Cossacks considered this a temporary phenomenon. Many Cossacks “had the idea that if “Darkness” (that is, Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky) dies, they will return back.”

When leaving, many Cossacks “took nothing with them, but holoved the goods: some to the ground, some to the skeleton, and the Inchi to the Dnieper.” At the same time, according to legend, somewhere on Khortitsa or in its environs the “Military Treasure Box” of the Cossacks was hidden. Although there are versions that she was taken out.

Legends and myths about buried treasures are passed on from mouth to mouth. Oral wills and signs of buried treasures are passed down from generation to generation under great secrecy. Even at the end of the 19th century, numerous witnesses were alive who remembered the signs of Zaporozhye treasures from their parents. Here are some records of the stories of ancient grandfathers.

“On Khortyvsky Island, in Vyscha Golov, there was a stone as tall as a man, covered all the way down. Now it’s either mute or covered with moss - you can’t tell. With that stone there is a Zaporozhye treasure. I cast this stone twenty years ago, like a shepherd.”

“Next to the head of the Khortyvsky Island, above the Old Dnieper, there is the Lazne tract. There, on top of the rock, is a treasure. Prymita is like this: there is a stone, and on it the words: “There are some, whoever is vizme - will be kai.” Thirty years ago the words were written down, but now the stone is covered with moss.”

The Sagaidachnoe tract is well known to treasure hunters. In it, somewhere “pid kaminnyamy”, “additional abyss”, Cossack “pennies” are buried, but “not everyone got a damn.” And here, indeed, gold and silver coins and items were found: both by accident and on purpose.

A massive golden cross with a relief depiction of the crucifixion was accidentally found near Sovutina Rock in the 1900s. They knew about the finds, but kept quiet: as one 69-year-old treasure hunter admitted in his later years, “in my lifetime I found five pieces of gold without telling anyone.” The money and finds were slowly sold to the taverns.

They say that Velikiy Lug was especially rich in Zaporozhye treasures. In the numerous ravines and “graves” of the Great Meadow, “old Midney and Sribni pennies” carried away by the spring waters were almost annually found. One of the rivers of the Great Meadow, flowing into the Dnieper, even bore the name Skarbnaya (that is, “Kladovaya” - from the Ukrainian “skarb” - “treasure, treasure”).

Legend says that near its mouth, “Bil Skarbnaya, de Stara Sich, there is Strilytsya, and in this Strilytsya the entire Cossack treasury is stored.” The fact that the Skarbnaya River was developed by the Cossacks is confirmed by real finds - even in the last century there were two sunken Zaporozhye seagulls were found.

There are also legends about the nearby islands and islets. So, there is a popular “balachka” that on Streletsky Island, shortly before the liquidation of the Sich, “pennies” were buried - gold, silver and weapons. A few decades later, some “did” appeared here on the island, who knew the signs of the treasure: “There was an oak tree standing opposite the island; On the oak tree there was a tovsta gilka, a kotra pointed to an island, where the treasure was located.”

There is a legend about hidden treasures on Kantsersky Island: “At the mouth of Khortitsa, which flows into the Dnieper, there is Kantsersky Island, and on it there is a fortress. This is against the large island of Khortitsa. On that island, they say, there is a cave, and three barrels of gold are hidden in it. The entrance is closed with doors and blocked with stones and earth. There is a wooden cross in front of the entrance.” In 1846, some “did” from the Kherson region tried to find this treasure, but on the third day of the search he suddenly died. Either he was old, or... Since then, no one has tried to find the entrance to the mysterious cave.

One must think that these “dids”, who appeared on Khortytsia literally a few decades after the liquidation of the Sich, were Zaporozhye Cossacks who “stolen” their property or knew about the treasures hidden by their comrades. Each such appearance of treasure hunters on Khortitsa spurred interest in treasures and gave birth to something like a “gold rush”.

In 1789, a colony of German Mennonites was founded on the island, and the deserted Zaporozhye lands began to be populated by peasants. But the legends are not dead. And the more vague the descriptions and hints were, the more intense the interest became. Numerous legends about mysterious Zaporozhye treasures are still alive and circulating among the local population.

“At the head of the island of Khortytsia, near Kichkas, there is a small grave, all surrounded by fireplaces,” says one of the legends. - About thirty years ago, there, on a dark night, a treasure often appeared: a Cossack with a sword jumped out onto the grave, and it was covered with fire! The Cossack is golden, and throw some mushrooms at it! That, it seems, is gold and pennies. The pennies are either taken or shown, but not to everyone.”

In Khortytsia and in general on the lands of the Zaporozhye Sich, they say, treasures “ask for themselves.” The entire land of the island is stuffed with antiques. In addition to skulls and bones, pistols, daggers, knives, sabers, guns, cannons, cannonballs, bullets, jugs, cauldrons, decanters, cast iron, bottles, damasks, rings, rings, buckles, monistas, coins, pipes were found at the site of the former Zaporozhye Sich .

One of the treasure hunters recalls: “Once I found a crooked dagger, a long gun and steel chain mail in the Bolshaya Verbovaya gully; everything was covered with rust... One day I found several coins in the Kutsoy beam; one of them was as heavy as 6 silver rubles together, others were like fish shells (scales), and others were the same as snouts now. It happened that other types of coins were found... Why, they just didn’t find them on Khortytsia! Previously, on Khortitsa you could find all sorts of things... Now a lot has been picked up by people, and a lot has been carried away by water.”

Khortytsia and the Dnieper keep many secrets. In the last century, seventeen canoes and two large ships (apparently Cossack “seagulls”) were found near the island. On one of them there was a surviving cannon, and in the remains of another they found a saber with a silver-plated hilt.

Much has been washed away by the river over the past centuries. Under the influence of flood waters, the coastline of Khortitsa partially changed, and the small island of Dubovy was completely washed away.

In the vicinity of the Sich, along the banks of the Dnieper, many ancient Zaporozhye cemeteries were scattered. Many of them were gradually plowed open, occupied as vegetable gardens or used for other economic needs, and it often happened that in the middle of a vegetable garden or a peasant’s yard stood an ancient stone cross or tombstone.

Several such graves of the Cossacks were located in the village of Kapulivka on the Chertomlyk River. The famous Koshevoy ataman of the Zaporozhye army I. D. Sirko (died in 1680) was buried in one of them. After the death of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, Ivan Sirko was the Koshevoy ataman of the Cossacks for twenty years. It was he who signed the famous “Response to the Turkish Sultan.”

Archaeological research on Khortitsa is still underway. The bottom of the Dnieper in the vicinity of the island is also being studied. In 1995, during underwater archaeological work off Kantserovsky Island, a saber from the 16th – early 17th centuries, made in the Caucasus or Western Asia (possibly in Iran), was found. However, most of Khortitsa still remains unexplored. There will be enough work here for many more generations.

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The Dnieper water area in the area of ​​the island is a small, preserved section of the rapids part of the river that existed before the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station dam upstream. Before Fr. The Khortytsia rapids ended. The remaining small islands remind of the extremely difficult conditions of navigation on the Dnieper.

The bed of the left branch of the Dnieper sometimes became so shallow that spits were picked up from the eastern side of the island, along which it was possible to cross to the island. There were low water periods, for example: 1575, 1708 and 1921, when the bed of the left branch of the Dnieper was almost dry.

In the northern and northwestern parts of the island, the rocks rise 40-50 meters. To the southeast, the height of the island gradually decreases, turning into a flooded part of the river. Between the rocky and flooded parts, the surface of the island is cut by a large number of picturesque beams.

Khortytsia and the adjacent islands have been declared the Dnieper Rapids geological reserve.

Vegetable world

There are various natural zones on the island: forb-feather grass steppes, oak and coniferous forests, floodplain meadows. Thanks to the special microclimatic conditions that arose due to the abundance of sun, fresh water and dry air, the flora of the island is significantly different from the mainland.

In total, about 960 plant species grow on Khortytsia, 560 of them are representatives of wild flora, 20 are endemic. Endemics are Dnieper groundsel, Savran onion, sleep-grass, irises, Dnieper cornflower. In addition to endemics, there are also relict plants - water fern and chilim.

There are very few virgin lands where grasses grow on Khortytsia. These are the slopes of the beams Shantseva, Bashmachka, Lipova, Gromushina, Naumova, Shiroka, Kostina, Kornetovskaya, Muzychnaya, Sovutina, Molodnyaga and others. In the ravines grow remnants of forests (grazing forests), dominated by Tatar maple, oak, elm, black and silver poplar, and pear. Most of the island is covered with young artificial forest of pine and maple, planted by the Khortytsia forestry. Once upon a time, oak forests grew like a “solid wall” on the island of Khortitsa. By the beginning of the 21st century, the reserve has approximately 10 centuries-old trees and several dozen oaks aged a hundred or a little more years (the oldest of them are 300 years old), and there is also a hundred-year-old wild pear. Mostly such trees grow in ravines and the floodplain part of the island.

By 1888, the oak tree had dried up, leaving behind a stump with a circumference of 6 meters. Perhaps, under this oak tree the Cossacks wrote their famous letter to the Turkish Sultan.

Animal world

Beams, lakes, rocks and adjacent islands of Khortytsia

Khortytsia is dotted with ravines and lakes, it is surrounded by numerous large and small islands and rocks, which are part of the protected area.

Islands

Three Pillars. Near the northern part of the island of Khortytsia, the following islands rise: Divan or Chair of Catherine (Ekaterinin Khreshchennik), Sredny Pillar and Pohyly, forming the Three Pillars island group.

A folk legend associates the island of Divan Catherine with the name of the Russian Empress Catherine II, who allegedly stayed here during her trip to Crimea in 1787. The rock really looks like a sofa, but the empress never stopped on it.

On the Middle Pillar there is a deep hole (diameter 2 m, depth up to 1.4 m), which is called the “Cossack bowl”. The depression is a natural formation, only partially processed by people. According to folk legends, “on sunny, hot days, the Cossacks cooked dumplings in this bowl and fed each other with one and a half meter spoons through the bowl.” In 1927-1929, archaeologists discovered an Eneolithic settlement of people from the end of the 4th millennium BC on the Middle Pillar. e. - Srednostogov culture (the name was mistakenly given from the neighboring Stogov rocks).

The name of the third Pillar is Pohyly ( rus. inclined), formed from the shape of the rock.

The Polish writer G. Podberezovsky, traveling along the Dnieper in 1860, called the Three Pillars “Pillars of Hercules”, connecting them with Herodotus’ legend about the meeting of Hercules with the snake-legged goddess and the origin of the Scythians. Until the mid-19th century, Three Pillars were connected to Khortitsa by a sand spit overgrown with trees and bushes, which was washed away by a flood.

Two Haystacks. On the left side of the Pillars there are stones - Two Stacks, which look a little like stacks of straw. Now other names are more often used - Two Brothers or Twins.

Oak. On the northern side of Khortytsia, in front of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station, lies Dubovy Island, which is often called Sredny, Poplar or Turtle (based on its shape).

Rocks Bad And Average(Sagaidachny rock) protrude between the Sagaidachny tract, located on the left bank of the Dnieper opposite Khortytsia and Khortytsia. According to folk legends, Cossacks were punished on the Bad Rock. In the summer it got very hot and was so hot that it was impossible to stand on it barefoot. The guilty Cossack was brought to the rock at the hottest time, where he served his punishment. According to the pilots, this name was given to her because she “sat in the middle of the Dnieper inappropriately, in a stupid way.” Other legends say that on the Badnaya rock, the army of Peter I executed the Zaporozhye Cossacks for collaborating with Mazepa and Charles XII (1709) - therefore the rock was nicknamed Kazna, or Durna. According to the plan of retrenchments of the 18th century, there was a plague infirmary on the Bad Rock. The Cossacks called all infectious diseases “bad”, that is, those that cannot be foreseen, unlike injuries and wounds. Therefore, this name was probably assigned to the rock.

On Average on the rock in the 30s of the 19th century one could see the original stone called “Lyulka” ( rus. smoking pipe), similar to a real pipe with a stem and a pierce. “Lizhko” was also located there ( rus. bed) or “Sagaidak’s chair” - probably a processed stone with a hollowed-out recess for a person to recline. In 1883, the stone was blown up by two residents of Aleksandrovsk (the name of Zaporozhye until 1921). On Srednaya Skala, archaeologists found a Neolithic site with remains of pottery shards, retouched flint, fish and animal bones. The Durnaya and Srednyaya rocks were significantly damaged during the construction of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station and the sluice.

Kornetovsky Island. In the bed of the Old Dnieper near the southern part of the island you can see the sandy island of Kornetovsky - a permanent refuge for fishermen. On Khortytsia there is the Kornetovshchina tract (Kornelekht among the Mennonite Germans, a probable place where grain was crushed). The tract includes the Kornetovskaya and Korneychikha gullies.

Rocks Gavunivskaya and Karakaika, located behind the Generalka gully next to the long sandy coast, are named after the Cossacks of Karakay and Gavun, who were engaged in fishing here. There is a tourist beach next to these rocks.

Beams

More than two dozen large and small gullies cut the banks of Khortytsia on the eastern and western sides. Almost all beams have their own names.

From the Sovutina beam, located on the northern tip of the island, the following beams go south along the bed of the Old Dnieper: Chavunova (Sich Gate), Muzychina, Naumova, Gromushina, Karakaika, Generalka, Shirokaya (Olenya), Korneychikha, Kornetovskaya.

On the eastern side, along the bed of the New Dnieper follow the following ravines: Velikaya Molodnyaga, Ushvyvaya, Gannovka, Shantsevaya, Bashmachka, Kostina, Lipovaya, Kapralka (Korneeva).

Balki are unique natural reservations of the island. Their slopes are covered with steppe herbs, and in the depressions you can find the remains of ravine-gully forests.

In the Gromushin gully there is a spring with the purest water.

Story

First settlements on the island

Man appeared on the island back in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic era, but the first significant explored settlements date back to the Bronze Age (III-II millennium BC), from which numerous burials, settlements and religious buildings remain. From the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC. e. the island was inhabited by Scythians. Most of the mounds found on the island, 129 of them, belong to the Scythian civilization. Basically they are tombs. Near the Sovutina beam in the V-III centuries BC. e. there was a whole settlement. In its place a protective rampart, a ditch and residential structures were found.

Below the island along the Dnieper after the rapids there was a waterway from the Varangians to the Greeks.

To get around the rapids, in some places it was necessary to pull boats along the river bank. The empty section of the river from the current city of Dnieper to Zaporozhye stretched for almost 75 km, the water level difference in this section was ~50 m. After a grueling “portage”, travelers (merchants, warriors) rested on the island. The place where the Dnieper hydroelectric dam is now located was the narrowest (~ 175 m) in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, so it was known in Taurida (from the ancient Greek Ταῦρος - the old name of the steppe region of the Dnieper-Molochan interfluve within the modern Zaporozhye and Kherson regions The Taurian steppes through the Sivash isthmus pass into the steppes of Taurida (Crimean Peninsula) crossing the Dnieper - Kichkas, through which one of the branches of the Muravsky Way passed - the path of attack of the Crimean Tatars on the Right Bank of Ukraine and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In addition to the crossing, this place was convenient for. ambushes, since people sailing from the Black Sea were forced to go ashore before the rapids. Scythians, Pechenegs, Polovtsians, and subsequently Crimean Tatars, Turks, and Slavs hunted here.

The first mention of the island of Khortitsa is known from the times of Kievan Rus. Thus, in the treatise “On the Administration of the Empire” by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the “island of St. Gregory” is mentioned below the Dnieper rapids.

Khortytsia during the period of Kievan Rus

The island remembers the Kyiv princes Askold and Dir, Oleg, Igor and Princess Olga. There is an opinion according to which it was on Khortitsa that Prince Svyatoslav, who was returning with his squad from the Bulgarian campaign, died in a battle with the Pechenegs. This happened in the spring of 972, near the Black Rock. During the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station, ancient Russian swords of the 10th century were found on this territory, which is a significant fact in support of this version.

In 1103, Prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavovich stayed on the island with his army. There is a record of this in the Ipatiev Chronicle:

And she rode on horses and boats, and rode below the threshold and stash in Protolchekh and on Khortychi Island...”

In 1223, Khortitsa was a gathering place for Russian princes, before the tragic battle with the Mongol-Tatars on the river. Kalke. The gathering place was not chosen by chance. At that time, in the coastal part of the island (on the shore of Osokorov Island) there was a military outpost of the Russian wanderers, who controlled movement through the Protolchy Ford. Archaeological research gives reason to believe that this outpost arose almost in the 5th-7th centuries AD. The Brodnik settlement disappeared during the annexation of the lands to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Zaporozhye Cossacks

Russian-Turkish War of 1735-1739

On Khortytsia, several lines of earthen fortifications from the Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th century, built by troops under the leadership of Field Marshal Minich, have been preserved. The camps of the Russian troops stood in the northwestern part of the Island, in the ravines of Gromushin, Muzykalnaya and U Perevoz, see on the interactive map of the island (undefined) (unavailable link). Archived from the original on July 2, 2011..

In 1736, the Zaporozhye shipyard and fortress were founded on the island of Baida, in which 2 officers', 8 soldiers' dugouts and 31 Cossack kurens were built. A large number of ships that were built in Bryansk in 1736 received significant damage or sank when crossing the Dnieper rapids. Therefore, the command of the Russian army decided to build a ship base beyond the rapids. According to archival reports, at the shipyard in the period 1738-1739. About 400 ships of various types were based. At this time, Khortitsa was visited by the famous naval commander Vice Admiral N.A. Senyavin.

After the end of the war, and also due to the spread of the plague epidemic in the army, Russian troops left the Khortitsky island and the Zaporizhzhya shipyard, see the page about the island of Baida

In Potemkin's possession

After the liquidation of the Sich, Khortitsa, as a gift from Catherine II, went to Prince Gregory Potemkin. By order of Potemkin, a garden was laid out on the island, and an old corporal who lived in a dugout nearby was assigned to guard it. Since then, the area (tract) has been named Kapralovo, and the mounds, which were located at the highest point of Khortitsa, are called Potemkin.

A postal road was built on the island from north to south from Vysokaya Mogila to the crossing near Naumova Balka. They even said that Potemkin decided to connect his palace with bridges across the Dnieper. This is evidenced not only by archival materials, but also by the travel diaries of academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, nature researcher Vasily Fedorovich Zuev, as well as a photocopy of the plan of the famous local historian V. G. Fomenko. The full title is “Plan of the garden on the Khortytsky Island of His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin from testimony on one of different buildings,” which shows on an area rugged with beams a house, a carriage house and stables, a Turkish house, a Chinese temple, a victory temple and even an Egyptian pyramid.

In 1789, Potemkin transferred Khortitsa to the state treasury.

Mennonites

Timber trade was one of the most profitable sources of income for the colonists. They used the forest only for immediate economic needs. From the reports of the former member of the forestry council, Ivan Peters (b. 1796 - d. 1881), submitted to the Trusteeship, we learn about the presence of forest on the island of Khortitsa in 1857. According to his calculations, there were 49,000 age-old trees: oak - 49,000, birch - 4,000, linden - 1,000, pear - 4,500, of which on the elevated surface of the island - 2,000, mixed with other species - 2,500. From this we can conclude that Peters in approximate figures lists the more valuable species of forest, without touching on poplars, willows and willows, which grow here in abundance.

In 1876-1877, the population of Aleksandrovsk and Voznesenka began mass poaching of forests. The guards posted by the provincial government along the banks of the river could not stop them. During these years, forests were cut down along the eastern and western shores of the island. In 1883-1884, there was a new surge in poaching, when another 35 acres of forest were cut down in 3-4 weeks. Unable to protect the island forest, the Mennonites decided to sell it in 1884. In December 1916, the Germans who lived on Khortitsa sold the island to the Alexander City Council for 772 thousand 350 rubles.

Cemeteries

At the end of the 19th century, there were “four cemeteries on the island: one along the Savutina beam on the south-eastern side, the second on the north-western end of the island, along the steep slopes of the gray Dnieper, and the remaining two, the largest, on the western side near the Kutsaya beam and perevoz through the old Dnieper."

Famous people in Khortytsia

Khortytsia was often visited by prominent people.

In the spring of 1880, I. E. Repin visited the island, working on sketches that were used in the film “Cossacks”. On this creative expedition, I. Repin was accompanied by his student, young Valentin Serov. In 1891, Khortitsa was visited by Maxim Gorky, and a little later by Ivan Bunin.

On March 14, 1927, construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station began.

In 1927-1928, technical structures were built on Khortitsa: a water supply system, a water pumping station, and a ferry crossing was organized across the New Dnieper.

In February 1928, construction of bridges began. The main architect of the project was M. Streletsky. Material for masonry of bridges and granite for their cladding were supplied from quarries equipped on the island of Khortitsa. The bridges were put into operation on September 5, 1931.

In 1958, the first title was added to the name of the island - a natural monument of local significance. Since August 1963, by order of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, Khortytsia has been declared a natural monument of republican significance, and since September 1965, also a state historical and cultural reserve.

Khortytsia is part of the Dnieper Rapids geological reserve, founded in October 1974.

On November 9, 2005, by decision No. 5 of the 24th session of the Zaporizhzhya city council, the entire land of Khortytsia and the islands of Baida, Dubovoy, Rozstebny, Three Stacks, the Srednyaya and Bliznetsy rocks, as well as the Vyrva Tract (total 2359.34 hectares) was transferred to permanent use of the Khortitsa National Nature Reserve.

Present tense

There are nine villages on the island, home to almost two thousand people. Of these, only three villages are on the balance sheet of the city - the rest do not legally belong to anyone, dozens of hectares of the island are occupied by illegal developments.

Climbers train in the northern and northwestern parts of the island. Here some rocks reach 40 meter heights.

The island is very littered, and fires often occur here due to the fault of people. Tourists often leave garbage in places where recreation is prohibited: in the coastal zone or in the floodplain, where birds nest, fish spawn, and there are beautiful inland lakes with white water lilies.

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm: large amounts of waste and frequent fires cause serious harm to the island’s ecology. For example, animals and birds leave Khortytsia, and some species disappear altogether. In burnt soil, flora is restored very slowly.

99% of the garbage is left by the so-called “resting savages”. Since 2009, a project for the disposal of solid household waste has been implemented in the Khortitsa National Nature Reserve. By the end of 2012, it is planned to create an infrastructure for separate waste collection on the island.

In 2011, an ancient Russian sword of the Carolingian type, dating back to the mid-10th century, was found in the Dnieper near the island of Khortitsa. There were similar finds before - during the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station at the beginning of the 20th century, five swords of this type were found, but they all disappeared without a trace during the Great Patriotic War.

A large number of environmental, socio-cultural, and religious public organizations operate on the island of Khortytsia. Among them, “Spas”, “Russian Orthodox Circle”, “Obereg” should be highlighted.

Historical and cultural complex "Zaporizhian Sich"

Construction work on the construction of the historical and cultural complex “Zaporizhian Sich” began in November 2004 (laying the groundbreaking took place on October 14, 2004). The general sponsor of its construction in 2005 was the Zaporizhstal plant. The cost of the complex was about 13 million hryvnia, while the state did not participate in financing the construction of the Sich.

In 2010, the first stage of the complex was put into operation. Theatrical performances and even all-Ukrainian festivals are held on the territory of the complex; residents of Zaporozhye and guests of the city are invited to excursions.

In the near future, the complex will feature exhibition objects “House of the Kosh Ataman”, “Military Chancellery”, “Kuren” and “Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, where the interior and objects that were characteristic of the times of the Cossacks will be recreated.

Khortytsia is an important tourism site. In 2010, over 250 thousand people visited the reserve's tourist sites.

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The brightest pages of the history of Khortytsia are associated with the Zaporizhian Cossacks. It was on Khortitsa that the Cossacks mastered the art of combat hopak. And women were not allowed onto the island at all; even the empress was met on the water

Khortytsia is a legendary island on the Dnieper near Zaporozhye, the largest river island in the world. He was known even to the Byzantine emperors. Here is what the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (946–953 AD) wrote about the island: “Having passed the Carian transport, the Russes land on the island, which bears the name of St. George. On this island they offer their sacrifices. There is a huge oak tree there... This sacred oak tree, which Konstantin Porphyrogenitus writes about, stood right up to 1871 and dried up from old age - it was about two thousand years old! The long-living oak was partially preserved as a monument

The legendary island of Khortytsia is located on one of the main trade routes of Ukraine. Since ancient times, Slavs and Greeks traded here. There was a pagan sanctuary, and here, on the island, surrounded by Pechenegs on the Black Rock, Grand Duke Svyatoslav died in battle.

The island is located in the place where the Dnieper is divided into a zone of rapids and a zone of floodplains. Therefore, from ancient times it was a natural resting place for traders, warriors, and travelers who had overcome the dangerous zone of the Dnieper rapids. It also served as a haven for princely squads.

For example, according to the chronicle, in 1103, princes David Vseslavich, Mstislav Igorevich, Vyacheslav Yaropolchich and Yaropolk Vladimirovich “went on horseback and in boats, and came below the threshold and stash in Protolchekh and Khortychy Island.” All chronicle news is confirmed by archaeological finds.

In the 10th–14th centuries there was a Russian fortress on Khortitsa, known from chronicles under the name Protolche. Archaeologists find at the site of the settlement the remains of spacious “squad” dwellings, dugouts, and various objects of the 10th–12th and 13th–14th centuries.

Length Khortitsa Islands about 12 kilometers, width - 2.5 kilometers. The height of the coastal cliffs in some places reaches 30 meters. The rocks are cut with caves, there are a lot of them here. The most famous is the Serpent Cave. According to ancient legend, a “serpent” with twelve heads lived in it.

Khortytsia Island literally breathes History. Evidence of it is found both under water and underground. In 1995, not far from the Generalka ravine, at a depth of 9.5 meters, the skeleton of a large oak dugout ship was discovered. The photo shows the operation to raise a Cossack ship and part of the ship at the bottom of the Dnieper

According to archaeologists, these are the remains of a boat from the times of Kievan Rus. And on the northeastern coast of the island, dugouts from the same era were discovered. Amphoras, ceramic fragments, arrowheads and much more were found.

But still, the most important legend of the island is the Zaporozhye Sich and the treasures of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. The Sich originated here in 1552–1557, when Dmitry Vishnevetsky founded the first fortified city on Khortytsia. Then Cossack towns spread to the right bank of the Dnieper and to the southern half of the island. In 1577–1578, the leader of the Cossack detachment, Yakov Shah, set up his camp here. From here he raided the Turks and Tatars

Construction of the Cossack camp

In 1617, Pyotr Konashevich-Sagaidachny built on Khortitsa new fortifications. Back in the 19th century, traces of ramparts, kurens and a church could be seen in the western part of the island. Gradually the Sich settled. In addition to Khortitsa, the surrounding small islands on the Dnieper were also developed, part of the lands on both sides of the Dnieper, including the Great Meadow - a huge section of steppe adjacent to the Dnieper in the former Alexandrovsky district (until 1921, Zaporozhye was Alexandrovsky)

A large amount of treasures, weapons and money accumulated in the Zaporozhye Sich. It was mainly booty captured from the Turks and Tatars. The Cossacks obtained some things in battle themselves, while others fell from the division of the general booty. Part of the wealth went to the formation of the “Military Treasures” - the treasury of the Zaporozhye army. The rest was shared by “companionship.” Naturally, there were no banks with deposit safes and safe deposit boxes nearby. And when you go on your next hike, you can’t take all your valuables with you. The safest thing to do was to hide them. And they hid it.

In the 1630s–1640s, the French military engineer Boplan, who was in Polish service, stayed in Ukraine. He wrote that “every Cossack has his own secret corner on the islands.” Returning with victory over the Turks, “they divide the spoils in Skarbnitsa and hide everything they receive under water, excluding things damaged by it.” According to Beauplan, the Cossacks “hid under water not only the cannons they recapture from the Turks, but also money, which they take only when necessary.” If a Cossack returned from another campaign, he took what was hidden back. And if he died in battle, the treasure remained in the ground.

In 1775, the Zaporozhye Sich was liquidated, and the Cossacks were forcibly resettled in the Kuban. Leaving Khortitsa, many Cossacks considered this a temporary phenomenon. Many Cossacks “had the idea that if “Darkness” (that is, Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky) dies, they will return back.” When leaving, many Cossacks “took nothing with them, but holoved the goods: some to the ground, some to the skeleton, and the Inchi to the Dnieper.” At the same time, according to legend, somewhere on Khortitsa or in its environs the “Military Treasure Box” of the Cossacks was hidden. Although there are versions that she was taken out.

Legends and myths about treasures buried on the island of Khortitsa are passed on from mouth to mouth. Oral wills and signs of buried treasures are passed down from generation to generation under great secrecy. Even at the end of the 19th century, numerous witnesses were alive who remembered the signs of Zaporozhye treasures from their parents. Here are some records of the stories of the ancient grandfathers: “On the Khortyvsky Island, in Vyscha Golov, there was a stone as tall as a man, covered all the way down. Now it’s either mute or covered with moss - you can’t tell. With that stone there is a Zaporozhye treasure. I cast this stone twenty years ago, like a shepherd.”

“Next to the head of the Khortyvsky Island, above the Old Dnieper, there is the Lazne tract. There, on top of the rock, is a treasure. Prymita is like this: there is a stone, and on it the words: “There are some, whoever is vizme - will be kai.” Thirty years ago the words were written down, but now the stone is covered with moss.”

The Sagaidachnoe tract is well known to treasure hunters. In it, somewhere “pid kaminnyamy”, “additional abyss”, Cossack “pennies” are buried, but “not everyone got a damn.” And here, indeed, gold and silver coins and items were found: both by accident and on purpose. A massive golden cross with a relief depiction of the crucifixion was accidentally found near Sovutina Rock in the 1900s. They knew about the finds, but kept quiet: as one 69-year-old treasure hunter admitted in his later years, “in my lifetime I found five gold pieces without telling anyone.” The money and finds were slowly sold to the taverns. They say that I was especially rich in Zaporozhye treasures Great Meadow. In the numerous gullies and “graves” of the Great Meadow, almost every year, “old midneys and sribni pennies” were found carried out by the spring waters. One of the rivers of the Great Meadow, flowing into the Dnieper, even bore the name Skarbnaya (that is, “Kladova” - from). Ukrainian “skarb” - “treasure, treasure”).

Floods of the Great Meadow

Legend says that near its mouth, “Bil Skarbnaya, de Stara Sich, there is Strilytsya, and in this Strilytsya the entire Cossack treasury is stored.” The fact that the Skarbnaya River was developed by the Cossacks is confirmed by real finds - even in the last century there were two sunken Zaporozhye seagulls were found.

There are also legends about the nearby islands and islets. So, there is a popular “balachka” that on Streletsky Island, shortly before the liquidation of the Sich, “pennies” were buried - gold, silver and weapons. A few decades later, some “did” appeared here on the island, who knew the signs of the treasure: “There was an oak tree standing opposite the island; On the oak tree there was a tovsta gilka, a kotra pointed to an island, where the treasure was located.”

There is a legend about hidden treasures on Kantsersky Island: “At the mouth of Khortitsa, which flows into the Dnieper, there is Kantsersky Island, and on it there is a fortress. This is against the large island of Khortitsa. On that island, they say, there is a cave, and three barrels of gold are hidden in it. The entrance is closed with doors and blocked with stones and earth. There is a wooden cross in front of the entrance.” In 1846, some “did” from the Kherson region tried to find this treasure, but on the third day of the search he suddenly died. Either he was old, or... Since then, no one has tried to find the entrance to the mysterious cave. One must think that these “dids”, who appeared on Khortytsia literally a few decades after the liquidation of the Sich, were Zaporozhye Cossacks who “stolen” their property or knew about the treasures hidden by their comrades. Each such appearance of treasure hunters on Khortitsa spurred interest in treasures and gave birth to something like a “gold rush”.

In 1789, a colony of German Mennonites was founded on the island, and the deserted Zaporozhye lands began to be populated by peasants. But the legends are not dead. And the more vague the descriptions and hints were, the more intense the interest became. Numerous legends about mysterious Zaporozhye treasures are still alive and circulating among the local population.

If you like mysterious stories, then visit the selection of legends about landmarks, where you will also find a lot of interesting things.

“At the head of the island of Khortytsia, near Kichkas, there is a small grave, all surrounded by fireplaces,” says one of the legends. - About thirty years ago, there, on a dark night, a treasure often appeared: a Cossack with a sword jumped out onto the grave, and it was covered with fire! The Cossack is golden, and throw some mushrooms at it! That, it seems, is gold and pennies. The pennies are either taken or shown, but not to everyone.”

In Khortytsia and in general on the lands of the Zaporozhye Sich, they say, treasures “ask for themselves.” The entire land of the island is stuffed with antiques. In addition to skulls and bones, pistols, daggers, knives, sabers, guns, cannons, cannonballs, bullets, jugs, cauldrons, decanters, cast iron, bottles, damasks, rings, rings, buckles, monistas, coins, pipes were found at the site of the former Zaporozhye Sich . One of the treasure hunters recalls: “Once I found a crooked dagger, a long gun and steel chain mail in the Bolshaya Verbovaya gully; everything was covered with rust...One day I found several coins in the Kutsoy beam; one of them was as heavy as 6 silver rubles together, others were like fish shells (scales), and others were the same as snouts now. It happened that other types of coins were found... Why, they didn’t find anything on Khortytsia! Previously, on Khortitsa you could find all sorts of things... Now a lot of things have been picked up by people, and a lot of things have been carried away by water.” Khortytsia and the Dnieper keep many secrets. In the last century, seventeen canoes and two large ships (apparently Cossack “seagulls”) were found near the island. On one of them there was a surviving cannon, and in the remains of another they found a saber with a silver-plated hilt. Much has been washed away by the river over the past centuries. Under the influence of flood waters, the coastline of Khortitsa partially changed, and the small island of Dubovy was completely washed away.

In the vicinity of the Sich, along the banks of the Dnieper, many ancient Zaporozhye cemeteries were scattered. Many of them were gradually plowed open, occupied as vegetable gardens or used for other economic needs, and it often happened that in the middle of a vegetable garden or a peasant’s yard stood an ancient stone cross or tombstone.

Several such graves of the Cossacks were located in the village of Kapulivka on the Chertomlyk River. The famous Koshevoy ataman of the Zaporozhye army I. D. Sirko (died in 1680) was buried in one of them. After the death of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, Ivan Sirko was the Koshevoy ataman of the Cossacks for twenty years. It was he who signed the famous “Response to the Turkish Sultan.” More details

The culmination of my trip to Zaporozhye as a historical region was a visit to Zaporozhye as a city. Even before my arrival, I heard that the beauty of Zaporozhye is very underestimated, but I did not expect it to be so much.

It took me a day and a half to explore the city, and I didn’t manage to do everything. The story about Zaporozhye will consist of three parts: Khortitsa Island, Sotsgorod and the Old Town. And we will start, of course, from the island of Khortytsia - one of the most beautiful places in Eastern Ukraine.

Khortytsia is the largest island on the Dnieper. Its length is 12 kilometers, width 2-4 kilometers. The shores of the island are high and rocky, and the approaches to it from above were blocked by a threshold - the last of the nine great Dnieper rapids, the “cascade” of which began near present-day Dnepropetrovsk (hence the name Zaporozhye). To the left and below of Khortitsa there were impassable floodplains, and the narrow and fast Old Dnieper on the right was well covered by fire. Thus, Khortitsa was a natural fortress, and as such it was used by many peoples.

Nowadays, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station, a legend of Soviet industrialization, stands on the threshold. They say that the residents of the villages on the rapids are not happy about its construction, not only because of the flooding, but also because for centuries the most profitable profession here was pilotage.

But the rocks of Khortitsa are still inaccessible. This island entered history primarily thanks to the Zaporozhye Sich - the “capital” of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. The first fortifications here were laid by the Cherkasy and Kanev prince Vishnevetsky (Buyda) in 1553. Initially, the fortifications were located on the small island of Malaya Khortytsia, but then they were moved to the “main” island.
The “golden age” of the Ukrainian Cossacks, which ended in 1775 with the defeat of the Zaporozhye Sich, was associated with Khortytsia.

Modern Khortytsia is a very beautiful place. Unusual nature, seemingly virgin (and in the protected floodplains it is), amazing views of Zaporozhye with its factories, a wild combination of industry and nature and numerous extremely spectacular “reconstructions” form a unique picture here.

We entered the island via the north bridge and headed south along the coast. Almost everything interesting in Khortytsia is located off the banks of the Dnieper; the interior areas are occupied by forests of amazing fantasy appearance. And from the banks, in addition, very interesting views open up.

DneproGES is one of the most striking elements of the landscape of Khortytsia. Once in its place there was a threshold the entire width of the Dnieper, reliably protecting the island from the north. In 1932, the threshold was blocked by a hydroelectric power station - it was the first hydroelectric power station of this scale in the USSR, and in some way, all three great Soviet cascades - the Dnieper, the Volga-Kama and the Angaro-Yenisei - are its “descendants”.

The length of the DneproGES is more than 700 meters, the height is more than 60 meters, and the water drop is approximately the same. Its smooth curve is very beautiful... During the war, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station was blown up during the retreat, and after the war it was rebuilt.

In front of the dam there are characteristic rocks, on which many ships must have crashed over the course of 1500 years...
The highest part of Khortytsia, the so-called Black Rock, faces the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station. According to legend, it was at this place that Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich, the father of Vladimir the Red Sun and one of the greatest Russian rulers of the pagan period, who was feared by the Byzantines and Bulgarians, died in 972 in a battle with the Pechenegs.

According to legend (possibly modern), this menhir stands in the same place:

The water from here is 50-70 meters away, which means an excellent overview. The Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station and the center of Zaporozhye, hidden by greenery, are in full view, behind which the giant chimneys of the industrial zone rise.

The industrial zone is a real landmark of Zaporozhye. I came across the statement that this is the largest industrial zone of the former USSR in terms of area - approximately 5x5 kilometers. But I’ll talk about the industrial zone another time, in the part dedicated to the Social City, which is visible at its foot.

The last frames were taken not even from the Black Rock itself, but from this either a hill or a mound.

The title frame was also taken from it - the recreated Zaporozhye Sich is clearly visible. At the foot of the mound is the grave of Peter Kalnishevsky. At least this is what is written on the memorial stone:

However, again, I have doubts about the reliability. Pyotr Kalnishevsky is the last chieftain of the Cossacks. He was born in 1691, became a chieftain only in 1765, successfully fought against the Turks, and after the defeat of the Zaporozhye Sich he was exiled to Solovki, where he spent 15 years in prison, going out into the air only 3 times a year. Kalnishevsky was released by order of Alexander the First, but he was no longer able to leave Solovki and died there at the age of 112. In general, it’s hard to believe in this: to be born before the accession of Peter the Great, and to die during the era of Napoleon... And it is even more incomprehensible how the grave of the last chieftain can be here when he died not far from the Arctic Circle.

In general, Khortytsia is a special place. There are a lot of reconstructions here, but the reconstructions are so convincing that you want to believe in legends, but checking information and presenting facts in a boring way is not very good... Khortytsia is an island of legends, not history.

And here is another view of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station from the very banks of the Dnieper:

At night, the DneproGES is illuminated very beautifully - but I no longer had the strength to wait for darkness. However, Zaporozhye at night is a separate topic, and it’s worth returning here for some sights that are impossible during the day. But more on that separately

A couple more views across the Dnieper. For example, the Soviet Palace of Pioneers:

Or a residential complex, nicknamed the Drunken House due to its shape.

And we come to the Zaporozhye Sich, or rather, its reconstruction.

Here we need to say a little about the Zaporozhye Cossacks. The ancestors of the Cossacks were “free people”, who for centuries fled from under state oppression to the Wild Field: fugitive peasants, rebels, criminals... In Russian chronicles, the first mention of the Cossacks dates back to 1444, in Polish chronicles - to 1493, when the governor Bogdan Glinsky nicknamed Mamai, captured the Turkish fortress of Ochakov. At that time, when the Ottoman Empire was in its heyday, this was an unheard-of feat. Cossack Mamai is considered the “starting point” of the Cossacks.

In the 16th century, almost simultaneously, the first Cossack “troops” were formed on the Dnieper, Don and Yaik. In essence, these “troops” were military states. The possessions of the Cossacks (aka Ponizovtsy) were called “kosh” (that is, “nomadic camp”), and the cities were called “sech”, that is, the most correct translation, “prison”. The Zaporozhye Sich was one of several sections in the Cossack kosh.
In general, the historical structure of the Zaporozhye Army is a very interesting topic, and it cannot be crammed into one post. It would be easier to provide a link to Wikipedia.

In 1775, the Zaporozhye Sich was destroyed by Potemkin. There were many reasons for this: the fact that, finding themselves in the rear after the fall of Crimea, the Cossacks began to quickly turn into robbers, and the personal ambitions of Potemkin, who strived for undivided power over Novorossiya... One way or another, in 1775, the Zaporozhye Cossacks were expelled beyond the Danube , where they founded the Transdanubian Sich, and in 1792 the Cossacks returned to Russia, and are still known as the Kuban Cossacks.

The current Sich is a reconstruction built several years ago. I don’t know how reliable it is - but extremely convincing! As already mentioned, Khortytsia is an island of legends, and I don’t want to think about the fact that all this is not real.

Extremely atmospheric!

Even the Intercession Cathedral has been recreated - the first church of the Zaporozhye Sich, built in 1576 and standing for 200 years. The Cossacks were exceptionally religious and did not allow any people of other faiths into the Sich. And although their cathedral was burned in 1775, and in 1792, when Golovaty founded the first Kuban village, a new church was also built there - also Pokrovskaya.

The reconstruction of the Zaporozhye Sich seems to me the most successful example of the reconstruction of a wooden fortress that I have ever seen. Someone thought of avoiding even the most common mistake - calibrated logs! And it was necessary to recreate something similar.

Three masts - supports for power lines across the Dnieper. Their size is prohibitive - compare with the trees at the foot!
We often went down into the forest, which here has a very beautiful, completely fantasy appearance:

Somewhere in this forest there is a reconstruction of a temple, but we came across, almost by accident, a recreated Bronze Age sanctuary in a secret clearing - reminiscent of the Karelian “Babylons”:

Then we went down to the bank of the Dnieper, and there I rested and soaked my feet in the water: after all, before arriving in Zaporozhye, I managed to get around Dneprodzerzhinsk and Petrikovka. The nature here, despite all the pollution, is very rich in life - we constantly saw some kind of toads, snakes, birds in the water and on the coastal rocks.

From here it’s not far to the Preobrazhensky Bridge:

Two bridges across the branches of the Dnieper were built by engineer Preobrazhensky in the 1950s, and are distinguished by their unique design and architecture. These bridges are considered the highest in Ukraine - 53 meters above the water, and also two-tiered. Along them, roads and railways cross Khortitsa from west to east.

Over this bridge, already at dusk, we went to the city.

The second time I stopped by Khortitsa in the evening of the second day, taking a taxi. Indeed, in addition to the northern, rocky part, there is also a southern, flatter part, with fields and floodplains. It also has several reconstructions - the Scythian camp, the Equestrian Theater (an arena for folklore performances), the museum of Cossack ships... The latter were very far away, we didn’t have time to get there, and it’s not close to the Scythian camp - 4 kilometers, and not everyone knows the road taxi driver (although it’s easy to find by following the signs).

This is not a monument to the Ivano-Frankivsk “egg throwers” ​​at all, but to a Ukrainian pysanka, that is, an Easter egg. A little further there is a checkpoint and a toll entrance.

The Scythian camp is only a partial reconstruction: once upon a time there was a large Scythian settlement on Khortitsa, and some of the mounds and megaliths here are genuine. The other part is reconstructions, and distinguishing one from the other is not so easy.

On the edge of the Scythian camp there was a Lapidarium, that is, a museum of megaliths:

In addition to Scythian women, old millstones and troughs, Cossack crosses from the 16th and 17th centuries are also interesting here, for which the director of Khortitsa at one time almost ended up in court, as he took them out of the cemeteries of the Zaporozhye region without permission. And behind the lapidarium, a secluded path leads to Polovchanka - a very charming “stone woman” of an unusual appearance.

A strange design and a charming smile distinguish this Polovtsian woman from other “stone women”. Polovchanka seemed to me nothing less than the soul of Zaporozhye.

In the far part of the Scythian camp there was a vezha - that is, a Cossack watchtower.

The only way to climb it is along a vertical ladder, and this is quite scary, since there are no safety features at all. However, as they told me, in the end it helps - drunk people are afraid to climb these stairs, but sober people climb there only if they know how.

From the tower you can clearly see the Scythian camp:

Khortytsia is truly an island of legends. Its landscape is too surreal, its reconstructions are too spectacular. The words “reliability”, “authenticity”, “and historical value” sound strange here. But Khortytsia cannot be called “Disneyland”. Something unlike anything else, a place of immersion not even in History, but in Legend.

Beyond the Dnieper is Zaporozhye itself, an industrial giant with a population of 800 thousand people, but at the same time a very beautiful and unusual city.

Directly about Zaporozhye, I will have two parts dedicated to its two historical centers.

Address: Ukraine, Zaporozhye, r. Dnieper
Coordinates: 47°49"12.6"N 35°05"45.8"E

Khortytsia is an unusually beautiful picturesque island, which is surrounded on both sides by the wide and mighty Dnieper River. Its amazing views and rich history attract the attention of travelers from different parts of the world.

View of the island of Khortitsa

The island has been repeatedly glorified by local historians, poets, historians and artists who have visited it. Among them are composer Lysenko, Repin, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Bunin and others.

History of the island

The history of the island is very rich and it begins, according to archaeological data, from the Paleolithic era. There are also early Slavic monuments here: the remains of settlements of various tribes. In the period between the 15th and 16th centuries, the island became the center of formation of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, and then a springboard for the Sich, who defended the southern borders from Turkish-Tatar aggression. During the Russian-Turkish War, N.A. Senyavin, a famous naval commander, arrived on the island, under whose leadership the shipyard was built. In June 1789, after the defeat of the Sich, the island was donated to Prince Potemkin by Catherine II, after which it came into the possession of the Mennonite Germans. The island was sold to the Aleksandrovsk city government in 1916 for more than 700 thousand rubles.

Historical and cultural complex “Zaporizhian Sich” on the island of Khortytsia

Since 1927, after the start of construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station, thousands of people begin to come to the island to become participants and witnesses of this significant historical event. In 1965, a State Historical and Cultural Reserve was created on the island, which currently represents a large museum complex.

Nature and attractions of the island

Khortytsia is a large island located on the Dnieper. The island has amazing landscape diversity. There is a steppe, steep coastal cliffs, floodplain meadows, ravines, lakes, oak and coniferous forests. That is why the flora and fauna of the island is very rich. The island's flora of higher plants currently numbers more than 1,000 species, of which about fifteen percent are endemic plants.

View of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant from Khortytsia Island

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the forests on the island were gradually destroyed. Cities, fortresses, and fortifications were built, as a result of which the forest was cut down. Even before 1884, the once glorious forest of the island of Khortitsa was almost completely cut down. The Museum of the History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks is the main attraction of the island. Here you can explore the permanent exhibition and visit various exhibitions.

The museum displays various archaeological finds from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. These are both tools and utensils of people living on Khortytsia in ancient times. You can also see various weapons and women's jewelry found in the burial mounds of the nomadic Scythian tribes. Of course, the main theme of the museum exhibits concerns the history of the emergence and formation of the Ukrainian Cossacks. The exhibitions tell about the military campaigns of the Cossacks, about the culture of the Zaporozhye Sich and its economic activities.

One of the beaches on the island

In 2004, on the coast of the island, construction began on the historical architectural complex “Zaporizhian Sich”, which will look like a fortified Cossack settlement with a church, a house of the chieftain, a Sich school, and an office. The buildings will be erected in accordance with historical documents and with the participation of historians. On the island there is an equestrian theater called “Cossack Camp”. There are exhibitions on the peculiarities of Cossack life. This is a whole folklore and ethnographic complex.

The theater's performances tell the story of the customs of the Cossacks, the peculiarities of their military, everyday and economic activities. Spectators can enjoy spectacular Cossack games and dances with elements of horse riding and acrobatics. Around the island there are rocks and small islands that are part of the reserve. In the north of the reserve, the “Three Pillars” rise: the Divan rock, the Naklonnaya rock and the Middle Pillar.

Place of death of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Igorevich on the island of Khortitsa

The Divan Rock is considered Catherine's Chair, since according to legend, the Russian Empress Catherine II rested here on this rock while sailing along the Dnieper in 1787. There are several balkas on the island, the most famous of which are Lipovaya Balka and Kostina Balka. Near the island of Khortytsia there is a small island of Rozstebin, the name of which is associated with the Cossack Rozsteba, and another name for the island is Verbka, since its territory is completely covered with sedge and willow. On the territory of the reserve, there is another island, Baida, where the old shipyard was located, namely in the riverbed of the Dnieper. A large number of interesting finds have been discovered on this island, many of them dating back to the Bronze Age, as well as to the period of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Coins of gold, copper, silver, Cossack axes, guns and sabers, as well as arrowheads were found here. Thus, the Khortytsia reserve is a unique place in Ukraine, which is becoming increasingly popular.

One of the sanctuaries on the island of Khortitsa

In 2007, he was declared one of