Once you set foot in Kolomyya, however, the city will quickly disavow you of such a notion. It is a place keenly aware of its history, and the city itself seems to express its own strong opinions. Kolomyya has a rebel heart and a bustling feel of importance. If you have in some way tried to tread on Kolomyya, your misdeeds will be written in stone with no sparing of dramatic flair.
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| Inscription: "Here once stood a monument to Taras Shevchenko, opened May 28th, 1914 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth. It was ruined during the First World War in September, 1914 by Tsarist Russian soldiers." |
The monument to the monument of Taras Shevchenko is one of the first examples that caught my eye and made me think, "Well alright, Kolomyya, you don't mess around." Virtually all Ukrainian towns and cities have monuments to the beloved poet, but Kolomyya is the only one I have seen that acknowledges the ruining of such a monument, and, moreover, explicitly calls out who did it.
via GIPHY
(I really hope somebody understands my Taylor Swift reference...)
Monuments here don't just wait for you to notice them, either. They demand your attention - like this one did as I was meandering my way through a quiet part of town on the way to a coffee shop.
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| Inscription: "Passer-by, stop! Here, in this building, for a decade (1942-1952) there was a prison where your countrymen were tortured and killed. These fighters for the freedom of Ukraine were innocent victims of Nazi-Bolshevik totalitarian regimes." |
In my central Ukrainian city, Cherkasy, we have an entire park dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Out west in Kolomyya, however, the Bolsheviks are grouped alongside the Nazis as villains who wronged the Ukrainian people. Sure, one can find some Soviet nostalgia in dusty corners of the antique shops in town, but as for the parks - the first one I wandered into is devoted to a leader of the Ukrainian Radical Party who founded a movement to form and train "sich societies": groups of ax-bearing Ukrainian firefighters and riflemen who learned the ways of Cossack tradition, created their own Ukrainian songbooks and publications, and gathered annually in the thousands until their societies (named for a form of military-administrative unit from the Cossack times) were banned after World War I by the Polish government.
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| I had never heard of Kyrylo Trylovskyi before coming to Kolomyya, and it took three Google searches to find any English-language articles about him, but this through-and-through Ukrainian nationalist leader is quite the big deal in Kolomyya. |
Kolomyya does have its softer sides - the giant pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg), elegant 19th-century architecture, and shops selling traditional handicrafts. The locals reliably cross themselves whenever they walk by a church, which is quite often given the number of them dotting the city. But with all its small-town charm and devout religiosity, Kolomyya is not to be mistaken for being quaint or humble. This is a proud, cultural powerhouse of a city with deep roots and strong convictions, and it displays them unabashedly at every opportunity.
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| The Pysanka Museum is partially housed inside a giant pysanka! |
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| They were planting flowers out front during my visit. |
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| Kolomyya's central square is named Renaissance Square - something I've never seen anywhere else. I've seen Market Squares, Cathedral Squares, and squares named after various important Ukrainian historical figures - but this is the first Renaissance Square I've come across, and I suspect it is named for Kolomyya's central role in several periods of Ukrainian cultural renaissance. |
There's a lot to this little city, and folks here will make sure you know it. Thanks for the good times and the stern talkin'-to, Kolomyya! Time to move onward into the mountains.
The contents of this blog reflect my personal views alone.
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