Have you ever reached the resort on an ordinary city tram? In Kiev it is possible. There is such a place in the Obolonsky district of the capital of Ukraine - Pushcha-Voditsa. Photos of this resort are fascinating. Moreover, this area is always beautiful: in snowy winters, and in hot summers, and golden autumn. Even on a rainy and slushy day in Pushcha-Voditsa it becomes comfortable in the soul.
It seems that he left far, far from a noisy metropolis. But Pushcha is located in the city limits of Kiev. Why is she so famous? What should I see in it? What ailments are treated in sanatoriums and dispensaries of a climatic resort? This will tell our article.
History of the area
The etymology of the name is quite simple. Once a small rivulet flowed here. It was called "Voditsa". A thick and impenetrable forest grew along the banks of the river . In a word, Pushcha. “The forest and the great forest” - this is how the annals of the beginning of the 11th century mention it, which clarifies that Prince Vladimir liked to hunt there. In 1571, King Sigismund II Augustus graciously allowed the inhabitants "to enter those forests and voluntarily take firewood." But Peter the Great forbade this fishing and established in 1725 protected forestry. At the end of the 18th century, Pushcha Voditsa was the subject of a dispute between the Bratsk and Mezhigorsk monasteries. The Senate of Kiev in 1793 decided to dispute them in an original way: he decided to transfer the area to the city. Then there was already a farm, which was also called Pushcha Voditsa. And along with it they began to call the whole north-western outskirts of Kiev.
Turning into a resort
The country estates of the rich philistines were already in fashion then. The Kiev Senate did not just “grab” a tidbit of land from two monasteries. He decided to establish in the reserved grove "Forest cottage Pushcha-Voditsa." But the area became a real resort at the end of the 19th century, thanks to two doctors - R. Rubinstein and F. Yanovsky. Having convinced the public of the healthy climate of Pushcha Voditsa for the lungs, they built the first sanatoriums here. Gradually wealthy patients began to build beautiful houses here for permanent residence. At that time in Europe there was a fashionable tendency to create a garden city (in modern terms, cottage villages) among a forest or a landscape design park. And in 1883, the deputy of the City Duma and the merchant headman of Kiev Nikolai Chokolov proposed to organize the infrastructure and development of Pushcha-Voditsa.
"Garden City"
The area between the rivers Gorenka and Koturka was divided into six hundred identical plots with an area of 2700 square meters each. The tenant was obliged during the first two years to build a vast, at least 72 m2, house that would harmonize with neighboring buildings and fit into the landscape. At the same time, the forest (including trees growing on the plots) remained the property of the Kiev City Duma. Pushcha-Voditsa had seven parallel streets that crossed sixteen “lines”. And in 1904, at the same time when the anti-tuberculosis sanatorium was opened, a tram was launched into the garden city, which departed from the center of Kiev, from Podil. During the Soviet Union, the Pushcha was replenished with about four dozen resorts. Many dispensaries, recreation centers and children's camps were built here. Since 1981, the resort received the status of an urban-type village. And in the fall of 2001, it entered the city limits and became part of the Obolonsky district of Kiev.
Rest in Pushcha-Voditsa
Doctors claim that prales - a relict pine forest interspersed with oak and other deciduous trees - has beneficial effects on the respiratory system and nervous system. The air here is saturated with ozone and volatile. There is still a TB sanatorium, a children's pulmonology hospital, and a neuropsychiatric hospital. Numerous pioneer camps did not close, turning into places of active children's recreation. Pushcha Voditsa is a favorite vacation spot for Kiev residents for the weekend.
There is a cascade of clean forest lakes with sandy beaches where you can swim in the summer. The leisure infrastructure here is unpretentious: a station for boats and catamarans, a sports ground for playing volleyball. In Pushcha-Voditsa itself there is no shortage of shops, pharmacies, ATMs and other benefits of civilization. In all seasons, the local park is beautiful, which is so pleasant to walk around. The village has many old wooden cottages, which are now architectural monuments.
How to get to Pushcha-Voditsa?
You will be pleasantly surprised to learn that the tram line, laid back in 1904, works today. True, it is not so long, since the rails were removed from the bridge to them. Paton. But tram route number 12 is still the longest in Kiev. Its length is almost nineteen and a half kilometers.
It begins in Kiev on Kontraktova Square. Most of the way passes through the forest, which is very unusual for a tram. Riding it is a kind of tourist attraction. Particularly interesting will be a trip to the climatic resort on a mobile tram-cafe. The route ends on the 14th line of Pushcha-Voditsa. The resort can also be reached by bus, which will probably be faster, but not so interesting.